Abstract
The relationship between youth offending and family background is still unclear in the literature. This study explored the role of family factors and psychological distress in relation to delinquency and youth offending to try and explicate the relative importance of family structure, family relations, and psychological distress. The study used the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Family Environment Scale, and the Delinquency Scale in a structured interview format to measure psychological distress, family structure and relations, and levels of youth offending, in 219 older children and adolescents aged between 12-17 years living in areas associated with high levels of youth offending in the UK. Analysis involved correlations, hierarchical multiple regression and analysis of variance. Family relations were the best predictors of delinquency and were also correlated with psychological distress. The relationship between delinquency and psychological distress indicated that participants with more psychological distress were less likely to be involved in criminal behaviour. The study supports the conclusion that youth offending and psychological distress are both influenced by a range of factors in the family, but may be unrelated to each other.
Highlights
Young offenders are those law breakers who fall between a minimum age of 10 years old and who are still under 18 years old, and are dealt with by the juvenile justice system in most countries
The current study aims to explore the relationship between factors of family structure, family relations, psychological distress and juvenile delinquency
The study used a quasi-experimental survey design with structured interview and questionnaire data collection techniques to investigate the relationship between family background, family relations, psychological distress and juvenile delinquency in a sample of 219 participants living in areas with high levels of reported crime
Summary
Young offenders are those law breakers who fall between a minimum age of 10 years old and who are still under 18 years old, and are dealt with by the juvenile justice system in most countries. Farrington (2005) in a review of research identifies a long list of psychosocial risk factors for antisocial behaviour including poor parental relationships and parenting, and peer, neighbourhood and school context. He proposes the Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) theory which describes a process of personsituation interaction largely based on a social learning model of antisocial behaviour. In effect the introduction of a genetic argument in the field seems to be a distraction from efforts of identify and intervene in preventing antisocial behaviour Perhaps this “genetic” component can be better explained through social learning as demonstrated in Smith and Farrington’s (2004) intergenerational study. 2) Psychological distress will not be significantly related to juvenile delinquency
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