THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL RISK FACTORS ON VIOLENT CRIMES OF JUVENILES

Abstract

Introduction: The involvement of children in violent crimes as a perpetrator gets the attention of both researchers and society. The purpose of the study is to identify the risk factors that distinguish juveniles in terms of violent crime. The criminal behavior children were examined in two categories in this study. The first category is composed of non-violent crimes against individuals such as larcency, drug use, opposition to the law of meetings and demonstrations. The second category consists of crimes involving intensive violence against individuals such as armed robbery, felonious injury, murder, and sexual assault. Method: Within the scope of the study 940 court files of the juveniles, which are adjudicated between 2015 and 2019 in the Istanbul Courthouse Jurisdiction, were selected randomly. Available information about children in the court file recorded retrospectively. Individual (gender, age at the date of crime, substance use, working in a job, self-harming behavior, run away from home and previous crime history) and social risk factors (duration of education, risky peer, parental education level, working parent, parental crime history, family type, number of siblings, sibling crime history, sibling substance abuse, domestic violence, sharing problems with the family, total monthly income of the family, domestic migration) was compiled using binary coding system. The factors affecting violent crime were determined by logistic regression analysis. Findings: It was found that individual risk factors consist of being male gender, age at the date of crime, substance use, working in a job and run away from home. Whereas the context of social risk factors, it was found that the father's job, father's history of crime and not sharing personal troubles with the family predicted violent crimes. When the researchers put both groups into analysis at the same time, they found that being male gender, age at the date of crime, working in a job, a runaway from home, domestic violence, sharing personal problems with the family have predicted violence. Result: As a result, both individual and social risk factors have been found effective in dragging children to violent crimes.