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Results for social disorganization (scotland)

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Author: Norris, Paul

Title: The Effect of Neighbourhoods on Adolescent Property Offending

Summary: The aim of this report is to examine young people’s involvement in property crime and to assess whether such behaviour can be predicted by neighbourhood characteristics at an early age. A key aspect of this investigation is whether different offending trajectories are influenced to a greater extent by young people’s perceptions of their neighbourhood or by the actual physical and social features of the neighbourhood itself. The report draws upon the findings of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime and uses a range of data including the self reports of 4,328 young people and various neighbourhood-level data taken from the 2001 census, police records and a survey of community residents. The key findings are as follows: Property crime is fairly uncommon amongst young people, although a small minority are involved from an early age and offend quite persistently. Vandalism is the most common form of property crime, whereas housebreaking and fire-raising are rare. Three distinctive property offender groups were identified: an early onset group who desisted sharply from around age 14; a late onset group who increased their offending from age 13 to 15, before declining only slightly; and a chronic group of offenders who were consistently involved in the highest volume of property crime from age 13 to 17, although they did show a sharp decline in offending from age 15. Neighbourhood characteristics at age 12 do play a part in influencing whether or not a young person starts property offending during early adolescence. Over and above this, young people’s perceptions of their neighbourhood impact on their offending. Young people who perceive their areas to be poorly controlled by the adults who reside there are more likely to start offending early. Those who get involved in chronic property offending are significantly more likely than other young people to live in socially disorganised neighbourhoods, which are characterised by frequent population turnover and a high density of young people. These findings provide support for initiatives which aim to empower communities to deal with offending at the local level by adopting strategies that emphasise a lack of tolerance towards crime and disorder amongst young people and which focus on improving social capital within residential neighbourhoods. Area based initiatives aimed at preventing property crime amongst young people are most likely to be effective if they target adolescents at age 12 or under, whereas those who start offending later appear to be less influenced by neighbourhood conditions.

Details: Edinburgh, Scotland: Centre for Law and Society, The University of Edinburgh, 2006. 38p.

Source: The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, Report No. 11: Internet Resource: Accessed July 18, 2012 at http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/cls/esytc/findings/digest11.pdf

Year: 2006

Country: United Kingdom

URL: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/cls/esytc/findings/digest11.pdf

Shelf Number: 102905

Keywords:
Juvenile Offenders (Scotland)
Neighborhoods and Crime (Scotland)
Property Crime (Scotland)
Social Disorganization (Scotland)