The Scottish Government

Social Work Research Findings No. 37
1999

Understanding Offending Among Young People

Janet Jamieson, Gill McIvor and Cathy Murray

Main Findings

• Most 3rd and 4th year pupils who were surveyed said they had offended, though the types of offences committed were generally not very serious. Girls were less likely than boys to report committing offences and they reported doing so less frequently. There was, however, a striking similarity in the types of offences reportedly committed by boys and girls.
• Young people themselves did not make an association between their own offending and their upbringing but this was the reason they most commonly cited to explain offending by other people.
• Although some gender differences in offending among young people were identified in interview, more surprising were the many similarities between male and female respondents.
• Many resisters and desisters viewed offending as immoral and/or futile. Resisters thought that offending was intrinsically wrong or feared its consequences. The latter also featured in accounts of desistance, which was also explained with reference to maturation, the experience of adult transitions and changes in lifestyle. Persisters often believed that the acceptability of offending was contingent on a variety of factors, including the type or severity of offence. Female persisters most often portrayed themselves as desisting or attempting to desist.
• Resisters were least likely and persisters most likely to report use of illegal substances. There was an escalation in the severity and frequency of substance use and drug-related offending with age. Drug addiction was the most common explanation for continued offending in the older age groups.
• Persisters were least committed to education and employment and were most likely to have family members, friends or partners who had offended.
• Persisters were most critical of the police but often believed they had been treated fairly by the courts. Prisons were perceived to be ineffective by around half of those interviewed. Young people generally lacked knowledge about the children's hearing system and about the role of social workers in relation to young people who offend.

Methods

This study was undertaken by the Social Work Research Centre at the University of Stirling between 1996 - 1999. It consisted of two primary components. The first involved a survey of self-reported offending among 3rd and 4th year pupils in six secondary schools in two Scottish towns.

The second component involved in depth interviews with young people of both sexes in each of three inclusive age groups: 14-15 years (referred to as the youngest age group), 18-19 years (referred to as the middle age group) and 22-25 years (referred to as the oldest age group). The terms 'boys' and 'girls' are used to denote young people aged 16 years of age or younger (both from the self-report survey and from interviews with young people in the youngest age group), while the terms 'young men' and 'young women' are used to refer to interviewees in the middle and oldest age groups.

On the basis of responses to the self report offending questionnaire or information provided during the interview, young people were classified as resisters (young people who had never offended); desisters (young people who had offended in the past but had not done so in the previous 12 months); and persisters (young people who had committed at least one serious offence or several less serious offences in the previous 12 months).

Interviews were conducted with a total of 92 resisters, 75 desisters and 109 persisters. Half of the sample were male and half female. Interviews were also conducted with seven police officers, seven social workers and five teachers to explore their perspectives on young people and offending.

The samples for the self report survey and the interviews were drawn from two Scottish towns located in areas which had crime rates close to the national average. Westburgh had developed around heavy industry that had subsequently declined and had male unemployment rates higher than the national average. Eastburgh was a new town whose economy had developed around new technologies and whose rates of male and female unemployment were lower than for Scotland as a whole.

Age related patterns in offending

By focusing upon three different age groups the present study permitted an exploration and analysis of the nature of offending among young people with age.

The school-based survey of self-reported offending among 3rd and 4th year secondary pupils in the two research sites revealed that the majority of young people had apparently committed one or more offences, with most claiming to have done so within the previous 12 months. However, most of this offending was of a relatively minor nature, such as stealing from school, vandalism, shoplifting and fighting.

Comparable self-report data were not available in respect of the older age groups. However, there was evidence from the interviews that young people's attitudes towards offending changed with age, with increased tolerance for property crimes of an essentially utilitarian nature and less tolerance for offences - such as street fights or vandalism - which tended to be associated with younger people.

Young people's use of drugs and its contribution to their offending increased dramatically with age. Drug use was relatively uncommon among the youngest age group in which, with the exception of alcohol and cannabis, few young people admitted to having used drugs. By contrast, more than half of those in the oldest age group said they had used amphetamines, LSD and temazepan and just under half had used heroin. Drug use was slightly more common among girls than among boys while the experiences of the young men and young women interviewed were broadly similar in this respect.

Gender differences in offending

The self-report data pointed to a higher rate and frequency of offending among boys than among girls. Girls were more likely than boys to report having never offended and were less likely than boys to be classified as persistent offenders. However, despite this clear difference in the prevalence of offending there was a striking similarity in the types of offences committed by boys and girls. Any explanations of offending among boys and girls therefore need to be capable of accounting for the similarities in their offending as well as the differences.

Male offending

Professionals believed that the incidence of offending was higher among young men and boys than among young women and girls. Offending among young people was said by professionals to be associated with social and economic deprivation, a lack of parental supervision and discipline, school failure and drug misuse. Peer pressure was considered by young people to be particularly influential in respect of offending among boys.

Male respondents were more likely than their female counterparts to have been the victim of a physical assault outside the home and were less likely to express sympathy towards victims as a result of their own experience of victimisation. In comparison with female respondents young men and boys more often emphasised the practical consequences of victimisation, such as the course of action taken by the police, and were more likely to invoke the concept of 'victim blame'. In this respect they appeared to adopt an 'individualistic' approach to moral reasoning which focuses upon the effects of actions upon the individual rather than upon other people.

A number of writers have linked male criminality to difficulties establishing masculine identities in a changing economic context. Male persisters were more likely than female persisters to consider it likely that they would re-offend and were less likely to report having desisted or having plans to do so.

Female offending

Young women and girls tended to be less tolerant of offending than young men and boys. To some extent the attitudes towards offending of female persisters were more similar to those of male persisters than they were to other young women of a similar age. Furthermore, female persisters differed from other young women in terms of their attitudes towards certain types of violent offences, in respect of which there were less marked differences between male persisters and other categories of young men.

There was a perception among police officers, teachers and social workers that girls were increasingly becoming involved in offending. Whilst shoplifting was the offence most often associated with girls, police officers suggested that violence among girls was becoming more common and attributed this partly to media influences which encouraged girls to behave like and compete with boys in areas that were traditionally the province of the latter. Offending among young women, on the other hand, which was also said to have increased significantly in recent years, was attributed largely by police officers and social workers to drug addiction, with young women being introduced to opiates and to offending through their relationships with young men.

The experience of victimisation was less common among girls and women than boys and men. However, domestic violence was more often reported by female respondents. Young women and girls were more likely to express sympathy towards victims as a result of their own experience of victimisation, suggesting that they adopted, in comparison with male respondents, a more 'relational' approach to moral reasoning which takes account of the effects of actions on others.

Young women and girls also more often emphasised factors related to personal or family relationships in their explanations of offending by other people, while boys and young men more often attributed others' offending to the misuse of drugs.

Female persisters more often than male persisters were keen to be perceived as desisting or attempting to desist and female persisters in the middle age group were most likely to initiate avoidance strategies to facilitate their desistance.

Resisters, desisters and persisters

Persisters took a less serious view of certain types of offences than did resisters, with desisters occupying a position somewhere between the two. Desisters and resisters tended to regard offending in general as unacceptable, considering it to be immoral, futile or both. Persisters, on the other hand, were more likely to consider some types of offending to be acceptable, with this being conditional upon a variety of factors including the perceived seriousness of the offence or the circumstances of the offender. Offences which were more common among young people in different age groups - for instance, fighting amongst those in the youngest age group and drug related offences amongst those in the oldest age group - were more often thought to be acceptable by young people of a similar age. Some offences were, in addition, considered by persisters acceptable if they were motivated by poverty or drug misuse.

Persisters were most likely and resisters least likely to have misused drugs or to consider engaging in a range of risk-taking behaviours. Persisters were least likely to evince a commitment towards education and employment, with more having been excluded or suspended from school, more having left school at 16 years of age and more being unemployed. Persisters were most likely to report having family members, friends and partners who had offended and resisters were least likely to do so.

In the youngest age group desisters more closely resembled resisters than persisters in terms of their attitudes towards offending and the use of drugs. In the oldest age group, by contrast, desisters more closely resembled persisters than resisters in their views about offending and drugs. These observed differences between the three age groups of interviewees in the positioning of desisters relative to resisters and persisters suggested that the process of desistance differed with age. This conclusion was borne out by the finding that desistance among the youngest age group was more often attributed to a desire to avoid the potential consequences of continued offending and among the middle and oldest groups was more often linked to the transition to adulthood or by a conscious lifestyle change.

Relationships and offending

The literature on risk and protective factors identifies the family as central to an understanding of why some young people offend while others do not.

Young people appeared to be more at risk of offending if they came from families where other family members had offended, with girls and young women being more likely than boys and men to report that female members of their family had offended. By contrast, the importance of their family's positive influence with respect to offending was often identified by resisters and desisters. For those in the youngest age group, families exerted their influence through the communication of pro-social views and through the desire of young people not to arouse parental disapproval. Among the middle and oldest age groups the desire not to hurt other family members was more apparent and the assumption of family responsibilities featured increasingly with age in accounts of desistance.

Persisters were most likely and resisters least likely to report having friends who offended. Although most young people did not consider that their friends' views about offending influenced their behaviour, peer group pressure was often cited as a reason for offending, especially amongst young men and boys, and some young people reported having consciously changed their circle of friends in an attempt to desist from offending behaviour.

Young people did not, in general, believe that their partners' views about offending influenced their own attitudes or behaviour. Female resisters and desisters were least likely to report being influenced in this respect by partners while female persisters were more likely than male persisters to indicate that their partners' views about offending influenced them. In most cases partners were thought to exert a positive influence, though some female persisters indicated that their partners had introduced them to offending and drug misuse.

The criminal justice system

Boys and young men were more likely than girls and young women to have had some contact with the police, while more female than male respondents reported having had social work involvement. Male and female persisters were equally likely to report having appeared before the courts but young men were more likely than young women to have been incarcerated in prison or a young offenders institution.

The deterrent impact of contact with the criminal justice system was largely confined to young people whose involvement in offending was of a relatively minor nature. Persisters had the least positive and resisters the most positive views of the police, with persisters usually describing their encounters with the police in negative terms. There is evidence from other studies that people's perceptions that criminal justice agencies have treated them fairly may have a positive influence upon their willingness to obey the law.

Conclusions

Offending by young people - especially those in the youngest age group - was, it appears, usually a transitory phenomenon which derived from a desire to conform to pressures from friends to engage in a range of risk-taking behaviours that signal increasing independence from adult influences. Offending among those in the oldest age group was often associated with social exclusion and the misuse of drugs, pointing to the value of policy initiatives which aim to reduce economic and social inequalities and promote social inclusion.

It is clear from this study that gender, although one of its strongest predictors, provides only a partial explanation for offending among young people. The phenomenon of youth crime is, instead, complex, varied and defies simplistic solutions. A strategic approach which integrates responses at the individual, the local and the national levels will, accordingly, be required, if offending among young people in Scotland and related problems, such as drug abuse, are to be successfully addressed.