Belfast's Young Offenders
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CJM CRMSALMHMTHS BELFAST'S YOUNG OFFENDERS Juvenile Delinquency: nor offences, such as truancy, criminal damage and bus fare eva- A Self-report study sion were also fairly widespread, but twenty two different offence With the recent decline in the juvenile types were committed by fewer population in Northern Ireland over the than one tenth of the group (see last 10 years, it has not been surprising to Table). note a decline in juvenile court convic- tions. In 1992 for istance 588 juveniles Only a very few young people (10-17 years), of whom only 42 were reported a wide variety of deviant female, were found guilty in the magis- behaviours, girls and those in full- trates and Crown courts, most commonly time education averaging fewer for theft and handling (42%), burglary than boys and those who had left (27.9%), criminal damage (13.9%) and school. The type of schooling was offences against the person (7.8%). The not significantly associated with existence of police cautioning and some the number of different offences diversion from court schemes, together however. with the low reporting of certain of- Certain offences tended to oc- fences may, however, be concealing the cur together, thus if one had stolen true picture. .a" from school it was most likely one o had also stolen from a shop, and It is well known that much juvenile ~~> then progressively less likely from offending does not reach the notice of o home, work, telephone kiosks and the authorities, and studies of self-re- to a car. Underage drinking was as- ported delinquency and teachers' ratings **- sociated with those involved in reveal a very different scenario to offi- public disorder and also more than cial statistics. While self-reporting is out jointly by the Centre for Independent twelve differnt delinquencies, but half of known to be affected by concealment Research and Analysis of Crime those reporting the use of hard drugs had and forgetting, and sometimes puts the (CIRAC) and the Northern Ireland Of- never used soft drugs. The more serious prevalence of delinquency spuriously fice. This article describes the result of the offence reported the more likely it high because of the trivial infractions this survey. was that an individual admitted a wide admitted, it nevertheless provides a valu- A sample of 310 young people aged range of other offences. able alternative insight into the nature of 14-21 years were selected from the city undetected and unreported youth devi- of Belfast using a modified random walk The earliest age reported for the onset ance. method and interviewed face-to-face in of offending behaviour ranged from 4 Theorists such as Becker (1962) sug- confidence about a range of behaviours years for truancy, spraying graffiti and gest that much secondary deviance occurs from status offences and criminal dam- shoplifting to 13 or 14 years for stealing because minor delinquencies are unnec- age to stealing, drugs and violence. There from work and using drugs. However, in essarily processed judicially, resulting were 161 males and 149 females in the general very little offending began be- in the young person committing further sample distributed fairly evenly over the fore the age of crininal responsibility (10 misdemeanours because he has been la- age range, 60% of whom were still in years), but even at this early age it did belled a delinquent by the police and full-time education (including further include theft and break-ins. Cars were courts. It has been argued therefore that education college and university). reported stolen or driven for the first time by juveniles as young as 10 or 11 minor infringements of the law are in It was found that the vast majority years, but the average age overall for fact very widespread among normal ado- (95%) reported having committed at least first time offenders was 14 years. lescents and that they will grow out of one "offence" at some time in their lives, these tendencies given time. although this figure includes status of- The frequency and recency of the In order to estimate the true nature fences, underage drinking and breaking delinquency presented a different pic- and extent of adolescent offending there- copyright. ture to the overall prevalence rates, as fore, representatives from several Despite the criminal justice system's only 47% of the sample had offended European countries, the United States of dealing with a much greater proportion during the previous year, although aver- America and Canada met under the aus- of males, almost half of the some time aging approximately nine times. The less pices of the Ministry of Justice, Holland, offenders were female. Certain offences serious offences were also the most fre- in 1988 as a first step to construct a however were more predominant among quent, such as breaking copyright, standard instrument for measuring self- males, such as driving without a licence underage drinking, spraying graffiti, tru- reported delinquency. Each country or insurance, public disorder and carry- ancy and bus fare evasion. validated the pilot questionnaire in a ing weapons. Three quarters of the sample Over half of all the most recent of- standardised fashion during 1990, and in had drunk alcohol underage and two Northern Ireland the study was carried thirds had broken copyright. Other mi- Continued over.... 17 CJM CRIMKAL JUSTICE SATTEBS BELFASTS YOUNG OFFENDERS Continued from previous page.. offending was very similar, frequency truancy and running away were excluded, differentiated the sexes. However, no the police had detected only 5% of the fences had occurred either at home or significant relation was found between last offences committed, illustrating how within a ten minute's walk, while two frequency and employment status, liv- much youth crime does not appear in the thirds happened in the company of two ing with parents, educational level or official statistics. other people, roughly a quarter with one hours spent playing sport, although the It was difficult to discover what makes other and only 4% were solo efforts. In latter was statistically significant for those one young person commit deviant be- general 80% of all the different kinds of still in full-time education. haviours and not another. Regression offence were committed with at least one Approximately 8 out of 10 of the analyses were carried out on participa- other person. most recent offences went undetected, tion in offending, entering over 12 The frequency of offending decreased and those young people whose offences possible explanatory variables into the significantly in those who had left full- were discovered were found out mainly analysis. However the predictors of par- time education behind and also as the by their parents, followed by the police. ticipation in nine different offence young person grew older. A greater pro- Police were mostly involved in the de- categories were quite limited and con- portion of boys that girls were recent tection of public disorder, graffiti, sisted variously of age, sex, weekly offenders, thus while participation in running away and driving offences. If income, living with parents and the age the offence was first committed. If you were younger, female and had PER CENT ADMITTING EVER' a smaller weekly income you were less COMMITTED AN OFFENCE likely to truant or commit theft, whereas being young and female meant you were Offence Frequency Per cent Per cent Per cent less likely to be involved in vandalism. of sample of males of females Being young, female and living with Underage drinking 235 75.8 48.5 51.5 parents meant less underage drinking Breaking copyright 210 67.7 46.6 53.4 and living with parents less drug use. Criminal damage 149 48.1 58.4 41.6 The model for copyright breaking pre- Truancy 135 43.5 51.8 48.2 dicted well using the age at which the Bus fare evasion 135 43.5 55.5 44.5 young people first started this offence, Spray graffiti 105 33.9 58.1 41.9 while females were less likely to drive Steal school 72 23.2 52.8 47.2 without a licence or insurance or evade Steal shop 68 21.9 47.1 52.9 transport fares. Finally age and weekly Drive without licence 53 17.1 69.8 30.2* income differentiated between those who Public disorder 47 5.2 68.1 31.9* had or had not committed some kind of Run away home 34 11.0 64.7 35.3 violence against the person, but because Soft drugs 31 10.0 61.3 38.7 the numbers involved were small this Carry weapon 26 8.4 76.9 23.1* effect is probably of dubious validity. Break in house/building 25 8.1 52.0 48.0 Because these were the paticular ex- Obscene/threatening phone calls 25 8.1 56.0 44.0 planatory variables entered into the Train fare evasion 24 7.7 45.8 54.2 analysis this might as such suggest that 22 7.1 50 50 Steal home there is little which those involved in 6.4 Steal work 20 50 50 crime prevention can actually change in Buy stolen goods 20 6.4 50 50 order to reduce the chance of a young Injure outside family 15 4.8 66 33* person committing an offence. Obvi- Hard drugs 14 4.5 50 50 ously this is only true for variables Steal telephone/vending machinei 13 4.2 69.2 30.8 measured and there are a whole range of Sell stolen goods 12 3.9 58.3 41.7 educational, psychological and socio- Take away car 8 2.6 87.5 12.5* logical measures that are widely and Take bike/motorbike 7 2.3 57.1 42.9 successfully used to help reduce adoles- Steal something else 7 2.3 57.1 42.9 cent offending.