Delinquent Subculture Research Articles

Destructive Speech Behavior in the Digital Environment: Factors that Determine the Negative Impact on the User’s Worldview

Today, in the context of universal digitalization and informatization of the society, the Internet environment is becoming a criminogenic communication environment, favorable for the commission of "speech crimes", i.e. speech actions that form the objective element of the corpus delicti. The paper is devoted to the criminological analysis of the factors that determine the negative impact of information threats on users of the digital communication environment (primarily, the Internet environment). Based on monitoring social communication in the Internet and analyzing the patterns of language functioning in conditions of the Internet communication, the authors summarize the main properties of the Internet communication and factors that provide the possibility of abuse of rights (freedom of speech and the right to freely search, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information) in order to have a destructive impact on the ideological safety of Internet users (primarily children and young people). Such factors include simulation, virality, hyperreality, the phenomenon of social disinhibition, etc. Particular attention is paid to the concept of destructiveness of information impact, considered on the basis of an analysis of the phenomena of human destructiveness, aggression and cyber aggression, deviance and delinquency. The authors propose to treat content risks and communication risks as forms of representation of destructive speech behavior in the digital environment as information threats to the ideological security of the Internet communication. The paper provides the authors’ classification of the information risks under consideration based on a generalization of judicial and forensic practice (including cases when materials were included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials by court decisions), the practice of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor), as well as interdisciplinary analysis of scientific publications. The authors suggest that the terms "mortilatrya" and "eridophobia" be introduced in the context of ensuring the worldview security. The authors of the paper analyze the influence on the axiosphere of the Internet user of delinquent subcultures that erode a person’s identity in order to impose a new pseudo-correct- identity.

Субкультуры «лесные хулиганы» и «офники» в культурном пространстве молодежи

<p>В статье анализируется субкультура футбольных фанатов как форма объединения и самоорганизации молодежи. Эмпирической базой выступила серия фокусированных интервью с учащимися средней школы и колледжа г. Москвы в 2019 г. Опрашивались участники субкультуры «лесных хулиганов» и выяснялось их отношение к субкультуре «офников» внутри околофутбольного сообщества.</p><p>Рассматриваются признаки делинквентных субкультур, характерные для сообществ «лесные хулиганы» и «офники»: наличие своей территории, организационной структуры, некоторой степени солидарности, регулярное совершение различных правонарушений, демонстрация субкультурных знаков, обеспечивающих идентификацию членов сообщества, насильственный характер действий, участие в групповых драках, «охрана» территории и др.<strong> </strong>Саморегуляция девиантного поведения внутри субкультуры футбольных фанатов отражает процессы размежевания, отделения так называемых правильных фанатов от офников, организаторов акций «Поясни за шмот».<strong></strong></p>

Contextualizing Informal Labeling Effect on Adolescent Recidivism in South Korea.

Symbolic interactionism argues that the effect of informal labeling by general others, such as family and friends, on behavior depends on the social context under which labeling takes place. Despite abundant research on informal labeling, little effort has been made to contextualize its impact on adolescent reoffending. Also, compared with other theories, only a few studies have been conducted among youths in Asian population. Using three consecutive waves of self-reported survey data from a nationally representative sample of 2,406 Korean adolescents, this study examined an interactional model for the informal labeling effect. Findings suggest that informal labeling, as well as school commitment and delinquent peer association, has an independent effect on delinquency. Also supported is the symbolic interactionist hypothesis that adolescents with greater involvement in delinquent subcultures were less susceptible to informal labeling. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Subculture, Gang Involvement, and Delinquency: A Study of Incarcerated Youth in China

The purpose of this study is to examine youth gang phenomena in China employing a two-step approach. The first step is to apply the delinquent subculture perspective to the explanation of variation in gang involvement; the second is to investigate the relationship between youth gang involvement and self-reported delinquency. The data for the study were collected from face-to-face interviews conducted with adjudicated youth offenders incarcerated in a province-run juvenile prison. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the direct and indirect effects of delinquent subculture exposure and gang involvement on three outcome variables of delinquency. The primary finding is that exposure to a subculture of violence is indeed a significant predictor of gang involvement. Importantly, gang involvement is significantly correlated with both violent offending and drug offending.

Delinquent Subculture and Juvenile Offenders’ Attitudes Toward the Police in China

This study made use of delinquent subculture theories developed in the United States to examine juvenile attitudes toward the police in China. The data were collected from face-to-face interviews conducted with 358 adjudicated youth offenders incarcerated in a province-run juvenile prison in an ethnic minority autonomous region of China. The analysis includes variables derived from delinquent subcultures theories as well as traditional models commonly employed in the U.S. literature. The findings suggest that juvenile offenders in the sample tend to rate the police positively and delinquent subculture theories have their utility in explaining juvenile offenders’ sentiments toward the police. Explanations were provided for findings that are distinctive for this Chinese sample. Study limitations and relevant policy implications were discussed.

The role of leisure and delinquency in frequent cannabis use and dependence trajectories among young adults

BackgroundThe link between leisure and cannabis use has been widely studied, but less so for young adults, and rarely with a focus on frequent cannabis use. Also, little is known about how changes in leisure develop over time and how they are related to transitions in cannabis use and dependence. MethodAs part of a 3-year longitudinal project, in a qualitative study 47 frequent male and female young adult cannabis users with (n=23) and without (n=24) dependence at baseline were interviewed in-depth after 1.5 and 3 years. ResultsFrequent cannabis users (at baseline ≥3 days per week in the past 12 months) are involved in similar leisure activities as the general young adult population and live rather conventional lives, generally away from a delinquent subculture. They mostly regulate their cannabis use to leisure time, to enhance other leisure activities, including socialising and video gaming. While they often give precedence to responsibilities (e.g. work and study), dependent and non-dependent users differed in whether they actively adapted their leisure activities to their cannabis use, or their cannabis use to their leisure time. Both types of and time spent on leisure activities were associated with transitions in use and dependence. ConclusionsWhile our findings generally support the normalisation thesis, it is questionable whether frequent but non-problematic cannabis use is socially accepted in wider society. This study also questions the diagnostic dependence vs. non-dependence dichotomy, and adds finer distinctions to the concept of cannabis dependence. Implications for prevention and treatment include facilitating structured spending of leisure time (e.g. sports), and targeting frequent users who spent much leisure time video gaming at home.

A Life-course Perspective on Adolescents’ Attitudes to Police

Objectives: Describe the developmental trajectory of perceptions of the police by youth as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Method: A longitudinal experiment to evaluate the impact of the D.A.R.E. program ( N = 1,773). Latent variable growth modeling was used. Results: A dramatic decline in the favorable attitudes of youth toward the police begins in about seventh grade. More negative perceptions of police are associated with minority racial status, negative experiences with officers, involvement in the delinquent subculture, and greater expressions of skewed legal norms. There is a long-term positive effect of D.A.R.E. on attitudes toward the police, particularly for African American youth. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of theorizing about perceptions of the police from a life course perspective. Findings raise new policy questions about the long-term impact of school-based programs, such as D.A.R.E., and the role of multiple reference groups in the formation of minorities’ attitudes. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the cognitive and experiential processes involved in attitude formation.

The role of self-control in the link between prior and future victimization:

This article investigated the effect of self-control on the link between individuals’ prior and future victimization, using panel data across nine years from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Results showed that for victims with high self-control, prior theft victimization was related to decreased risk of later theft victimization. However, self-control was not related to repeat violent victimization. Control variables related to opportunity structures and delinquent subcultures played a key role in influencing the effect of self-control on the relationship between prior and later victimization. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Jihadism as a Subcultural Response to Social Strain: Extending Marc Sageman's “Bunch of Guys” Thesis

My aim in this article is to extend Marc Sageman's seminal research on Al Qaeda by re-articulating it through the prism of Albert Cohen's theory of delinquent subcultures, an approach which came to prominence in Criminology in the 1960s, but has since then been largely eclipsed by other approaches in that field. Drawing on Sageman's findings and observations, I suggest that Al Qaeda-affiliated or -inspired groups in the West can be best understood as a collective response or “solution” to the strains encountered by the members of these groups, and that these strains are imposed on them by the circumstances in which they find themselves. My broader aim is to show that although Criminology, with a few exceptions, ignores the subject of terrorism, terrorism studies can appreciably benefit from an engagement with Criminology as a source of theoretical inspiration.

Juvenile attitudes towards the police: The importance of subcultural involvement and community ties

Citizens' attitudes toward police have been examined in a variety of contexts during the past several decades. Additionally, the importance of juveniles' attitudes towards the police has received considerable attention during the past decade. The current article examines attitudes toward police from a large, multi-site study of sixth to ninth grade youths. Three specific questions were examined: (1) What is the influence of police contact (generally and by different types of contact) on juvenile attitudes toward the police? (2) How does involvement in delinquent subcultures affect these attitudes? (3) How do community contexts and ties influence juvenile attitudes toward the police? Results suggested that community ties and involvement in delinquent subcultures substantially mediate the influence of police contact on juveniles' attitudes toward the police.

Gender Differences in Capitalization Processes and the Delinquency of Siblings in Toronto and Berlin

The focus of this paper is on youth capitalization as it relates to gender differences in the delinquency of siblings. The study of opposite-sex siblings provides a unique opportunity to examine variation in how parental capitalization of sons and daughters is influenced by the same family unit. The structural form and function of the family changed enormously in relation to gender over the latter half of the last century, as indicated in the growing participation of mothers in the labour force of Western developed nations. We find this reflected in data that we look at from both contemporary German and Canadian school settings analyzed in this paper. We argue that the male subculture of delinquency is a residue of the former hegemony of an outmoded patriarchal power structure in both of these geopolitical settings, as well as across most family settings. In settings where mothers have unusually great power relative to fathers, there is substantial and significant evidence of daughters being less controlled than sons; however, even in settings where mothers have equal or greater occupational power than fathers, and where differences in parental control of daughters relative to sons are reduced, it is still the case that these gender differences in parental control are linked to gender differences in delinquency. Male subcultural delinquency may simply be a vestigial social trait, making male subcultural delinquents the social dinosaurs of a passing, more patriarchal era.

A Multilevel Analysis of Neighbourhood Contextual Effects on Serious Juvenile Offending

The extent and nature of contextual effects on juvenile offending are frequent subjects of current research, mainly in the USA. After a short literature review, this paper presents empirical results of a new study which hints at the existence of neighbourhood contextual effects on serious offending by adolescents. The study is based on three types of cross-sectional data on 61 neighbourhoods in two German cities and a rural area: a self-report survey of students aged about 13 to 16, a separate survey of residents in the survey neighbourhoods, and census and administrative data on the same neighbourhoods. Multilevel analysis is applied to identify and explain the neighbourhood-level variance of selfreported serious juvenile offending. Hypotheses from both main traditions of theoretical reasoning about contextual effects on juvenile delinquency - subcultural and disorganization theories - are supported by the empirical findings. The spatial concentration of adolescents with attitudes typical of delinquent subcultures increases the likelihood of serious offending net of relevant individual predictors, whereas the social capital of neighbourhoods (as measured by the independent survey of residents) reduces it. Methodological problems of applying multilevel analysis to delinquency research are discussed.

Delinkvencijos raiška neformaliose jaunimo grupėse

This paper presents empirical research about delinquency in informal youth groups in Lithuania. The theoretical basis of this research - theory of delinquency and drift, created in the midst of the XX th century by David Matza - famous USA criminologist, whose efforts to combine positivist point of view with classical ideas gave way to a new - critical School of criminology. Empirical research was carried out in three youth groups: football fans group “ultra”, nationalistic group - skinheads and motorbike club - “Vorai”. The main tasks of this research were to identify, what kind - “delinquent subculture” or “subculture of delinquency” - these groups are and to explore the process of drifting from conventional to delinquent behavior by using techniques of neutralization. 
 The results show, that these groups are an integral part of conventional society and have no features of “delinquent subculture” as it was depicted in positivistic theories. The members of the groups are normal teenagers, who by definition (but not by nature) are delinquents as far as they do infractions. To make an infraction these teens use different techniques of neutralization.

Theory of Segmented Assimilation and the Adoption of Marijuana Use and Delinquent Behavior by Asian Pacific Youth

This article examines the adoption of behaviors of the teen drug and delinquent subcultures among Asian Pacific youth within the framework of the theory of segmented assimilation. Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou's theory offers a new perspective to the question: Under what conditions are youth susceptible to marijuana use and delinquent behavior? In contrast to Milton Gordon's classic one-path theory, segmented assimilation theory looks to the immigrant culture and social capital (e.g., social solidarity) as critical factors in the assimilation process. The theory suggests several different types of adaptation by immigrant youth and Asian youth born in the United States. The data from the Asian Student Drug Survey were used to analyze the patterns of marijuana use and delinquent behavior among Japanese. Chinese, Filipino. Korean, Southeast Asian, Asian Indian, and Pacific Islander youth, controlling for human capital and social capital, as well as other relevant factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors that affect the odds of marijuana use and delinquent behavior for the seven ethnic groups in this study. The likelihood of marijuana use differed significantly among the ethnic groups. For example, Pacific Islander and Filipino youth were much more likely than Japanese youth to use marijuana. Korean, Southeast Asian, and Asian Indian youth did not differ significantly from the Japanese youth in marijuana use. Like the model that predicted marijuana use, the Chinese youth were least likely to engage in delinquent behavior, while Filipino and Pacific Islander youth were most likely. Segmented assimilation theory points to the importance of the human and social capital that serve to insulate youth from the influence of the teen drug and delinquent cultures.

Theory of Segmented Assimilation and the Adoption of Marijuana use and Delinquent Behavior by Asian Pacific Youth

This article examines the adoption of behaviors of the teen drug and delinquent subcultures among Asian Pacific youth within the framework of the theory of segmented assimilation. Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou's theory offers a new perspective to the question: Under what conditions are youth susceptible to marijuana use and delinquent behavior? In contrast to Milton Gordon's classic one-path theory, segmented assimilation theory looks to the immigrant culture and social capital (e.g., social solidarity) as critical factors in the assimilation process. The theory suggests several different types of adaptation by immigrant youth and Asian youth born in the United States. The data from the Asian Student Drug Survey were used to analyze the patterns of marijuana use and delinquent behavior among Japanese. Chinese, Filipino. Korean, Southeast Asian, Asian Indian, and Pacific Islander youth, controlling for human capital and social capital, as well as other relevant factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors that affect the odds of marijuana use and delinquent behavior for the seven ethnic groups in this study. The likelihood of marijuana use differed significantly among the ethnic groups. For example, Pacific Islander and Filipino youth were much more likely than Japanese youth to use marijuana. Korean, Southeast Asian, and Asian Indian youth did not differ significantly from the Japanese youth in marijuana use. Like the model that predicted marijuana use, the Chinese youth were least likely to engage in delinquent behavior, while Filipino and Pacific Islander youth were most likely. Segmented assimilation theory points to the importance of the human and social capital that serve to insulate youth from the influence of the teen drug and delinquent cultures.

Friends' Behavior, the Hedonist Lifestyle and Delinquent and Moral Behavior Two Years Later

ABSTRACT Whereas the influence of consumption of pornographic and other problematic activities on young people's delinquent involvement has been a popular concern in Hong Kong, it has not acquired rigorous and generalizable evidence from longitudinal research. With a baseline study of 2,500 randomly selected young people and a follow-up study of 1,686 of them, the present study examined the activities and delinquent and moral behavior over a period of two years. Results from structural equation modeling reveal that the activities and their composite factor, known as the hedonist lifestyle, had only weak effects on subsequent delinquent and moral behavior. The apparent contribution of the hedonist lifestyle disappeared in the model that included friends' behavior as the antecedent. Hence, friends' delinquent behavior and moral behavior were more important predictors and explained away effects of the hedonist lifestyle. These findings are consistent with the interpretation of subculture theory that focuses on the subculture and lifestyle shared among friends as a root of young people's behavior. Hence, the hedonist lifestyle is primarily a concomitant of the delinquent subculture and unlikely to be a unique predictor of delinquent behavior.

Adolescent Violence, Social Control, and the Subculture of Delinquency

This study examines whether violence, rather than being an isolated subculture in itself, is a part of a general subculture of delinquency. It also examines the relationship of variables adapted from social control theories to violent behavior and non-violent delinquency. Using Icelandic data, the study supports the notion that violence is a part of a general subculture of delinquency. It finds a strong relationship between violent behavior on one hand and illegal activities, alcohol use, and smoking on the other. Furthermore, it finds that violent behavior is positively related both to violent behavior and to nonviolent delinquency among friends. The findings also support the argument that social control affects violence in a similar way as other forms of delinquency. Factors drawn from social control are significantly related to violence, and correlation patterns are similar to that of non-violent delinquency.

SUBTERRANEAN SOURCES OF SUBCULTURAL DELINQUENCY BEYOND THE AMERICAN DREAM*

Are subcultural forms of crime and delinquency wholesale rejections or distorted reflections of core values of market‐oriented societies? Current evidence casts doubt on the former position, while contemporary theory suggests the possibility that a culture of competition encourages hierarchic forms of self‐interest, leading to the acceptance of inequality and anomic amorality and, ultimately, to group‐related delinquency. Oddly, the effects of this culture of competition and hierarchic self‐interest have not previously been documented empirically in sociological or criminological research, even though this step is fundamental and crucial to the argument that subcultural crime and delinquency derive from market‐driven values. We analyze data from four sites in East and West Germany to identify the strands of a subterranean causal web that link core values of market society to subcultural delinquency.

Defiance and Despair: Subcultural and Structural Linkages between Delinquency and Despair in the Life Course

Although anomie or strain theories of delinquency assert that adolescent distress leads to delinquent rebellion, delinquents do not report being more distressed than other youth. P. Willis further observes that rebellious youth who take part in a counterschool subculture tend to move relatively easily if not happily away from school and into early adult work roles that only become problematic later. The delinquent subculture temporarily insulates participants from sources of distress they might otherwise feel. However, this oppositional disposition also provokes educational and employment problems that intervene and interact with the residue of this subculture to ultimately produce distress. This lagged or sleeper effect of adolescent rebellion does not emerge until early midlife. Their panel research finds that adolescent rebellion in the form of subcultural delinquency leads to educational and employment problems and ultimately to feelings of hopelessness among adults who have dropped out of school and become unemployed. The origins of these effects are both cultural and structural

Defiance and Despair: Subcultural and Structural Linkages between Delinquency and Despair in the Life Course

Although anomie or strain theories of delinquency assert that adolescent distress leads to delinquent rebellion, delinquents do not report being more distressed than other youth. Willis (1977) further observes that rebellious youth who take part in a counterschool subculture tend to move relatively easily if not happily away from school and into early adult work roles that only become problematic later. The delinquent subculture temporarily insulates participants from sources of distress they might otherwise feel. However, this oppositional disposition also provokes educational and employment problems that intervene and interact with the residue of this subculture to ultimately produce distress. This lagged or “sleeper” effect of adolescent rebellion does not emerge until early midlife. Our panel research finds that adolescent rebellion in the form of subcultural delinquency leads to educational and employment problems and ultimately to feelings of hopelessness among adults who have dropped out of school and become unemployed. The origins of these effects are both cultural and structural.