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The relationship between how an individual interacts with others and society in their adolescence and violent crime offending has been a topic of study by researchers for decades. A risky lifestyle in adolescents is not always of their choosing, as external factors which they are born into can greatly affect the potential for growth and mobility in society. This may include absent parental figures or guardians, neglect or abuse, substance issues, and other concerns. Areas that are addressed to understand the relationship between a risky lifestyle and violent crime in youths are gender influences, parental involvement, and peer interactions. Violent crime is, as a category, comprised of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. It is important to understand the factors of an individual’s life to determine how at risk they are for offending and also for victimization.
Crime is committed for several reasons and can be different for each situation and each offender. Adolescents are in a phase of life that is very much influenced by others as they search for their identity. While continuing to learn about societal norms and rules, adolescents are somewhat capable of reasoning as an adult, able to make decisions logically and recognize consequences. However, it is seen that youth offenders often have a very egocentric and sensation-seeking motive for committing a crime (Currie & Covell, 1998). According to Currie and Covell (1998), sensation-seeking behaviors exhibit a need for new and exciting or complex situations, like an adrenaline rush, which gives adolescents a willingness to take risks in order to experience a new sensation. This is more relevant with violent crimes than a property crime that is of lower risk of being caught or charged. Currie and Covell (1998) evaluate cognitive egocentrism in adolescence in two manners, personal fables, and imaginary audiences. A personal fable is when the adolescent has an inclination to underestimate their personal vulnerability. This could appear as an adolescent feeling unstoppable or that they will never be the one to get caught committing an act of deviant nature. While it is good for children to develop self-confidence, this sense of “I’ll never get caught” does not serve well when dealing with violent crime. Concerning awareness, the imaginary audience concept is described as when adolescents overestimate the extent to which others are attending to or are aware of him/herself (Currie & Covell, 1998). By doing this, an adolescent may feel a need to impress their peers, gaining a false sense of confidence which may dare them to commit a crime or act in a deviant or more violent way. Together, the two phenomena form cognitive egocentrism which predisposes the individual to a faulty decision-making process and criminal behaviors that push the limits and turn to violent crime (Currie & Covell, 1998).
Adolescents need to be well-socialized to understand the consequences that accompany behaviors, which is most often done by parents or guardians. These authority figures and the environment in which a child is raised have a great impact on the future behavior of the child and in this case criminality. If parents place restrictions on their children, it limits the egocentrism and sensation-seeking tendencies that they may develop when left to care for themselves (Currie & Covell, 1998). Evidence shows that the family history of a young offender, especially a young and violent offender, often exhibits inadequacy and prior criminal history, leaving them to fight their way out of a cycle (Currie & Covell, 1998). If this family history shows signs of abuse or neglect of the child, the likelihood of committing a later crime increases. Maltreatment in itself is a significant predictor of youth criminality, though physical neglect has the most significant effect on both each type of delinquency and total delinquency (Evans & Burton, 2013). The study by Evans and Burton (2013) shows that physical abuse is not a strong predictor of future violent crime while taking into account physical neglect, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Interestingly that abuse did not lead to more violent behavior than any of the other categories. Evans and Burton (2013) refer to the betrayal trauma theory to explain that a victim may be conflicted if dependent on their caretaker who doubles as the abuser. This connects the low violence rate of crime of individuals victim to physical abuse. In fact, only physical neglect proved to be a significant predictor of the frequency of violent crime, and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth and Families 2010 report, neglect was shown as the most prevalent form of maltreatment (Evans & Burton, 2013). The more often maltreatment experienced by a child correlates to more frequent delinquent offenses seen in the behavior of the child. An explanation for this increase in violent crime among youth is the Relative Deprivation Theory. This theory suggests that when denied basic needs, people tend to devise their means of living, often turning to crime (Ordu & Nnam, 2017). This speaks to both nonviolent and violent crimes. For example, theft of food is rather nonviolent, yet robbery is violent and could also be for food or necessities, depending on the situation it could be taken either way.
A neglectful parental influence can also have effects on the social and academic lives of adolescents. Limitations to success may be set due to the lack of support in these areas of the adolescent’s life. The research by Ordu and Nnam (2017) shows a positive relationship between maladjustment and youth criminality. Maladjustment is defined in this scenario as the inability to cope with difficulties at school, ranging from bullying to discrimination or even stereotyping. This can impair the decision-making capabilities of youth and increase the tendency for involvement in violent crime behaviors. Crime can also be taught within schools, as when this authoritative influence is absent, youth will turn to peers to justify their actions or the community for leaders, often the negative influences that increase exposure to the offenders and violence (Engström, 2018).
Peer deviance plays a major role in the behavior of an individual, especially in the adolescent time frame. As discussed, adolescents are trying to discover their true selves at this time and this process is impacted greatly by those they interact with, most specifically their peers. Deviance among one’s friends was the main lifestyle variable to increase the level of offending among violent offenders (Engström, 2018). In a questionnaire that encompassed both sexes, Engeström (2018) used an age cohort of sixteen-year-olds to study deviance in relation to peers and activity with their peer group. Looking at risky behavior, it was identified that a higher time in the center of the city drastically increased the probability of youth being an offender. In this scenario, it was also found that peer deviance was related to being an offender, not in connection to being a victim or a victim-offender, and overlapping the categories (Engström, 2018). Youth may exert a direct influence on their peers through pressure and utilize personal fables to heighten the stakes and facilitate group offenses by making others feel a need to commit violent crimes alongside their peers (Currie & Covell, 1998).
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