1. Juvenile delinquency in rural and urban communities : application of an integrated risk factor modelIza Kokoravec Povh, 2025, doctoral dissertation Abstract: The doctoral dissertation examines juvenile delinquency patterns in rural and urban environments and seeks to develop and test an Integrated Risk Factor Model of delinquency. The theoretical section discusses the challenging period of adolescence and the emergence of delinquent behavior as normative behavior. It then describes the concepts of juvenile criminality and delinquency, concentrating on specific problematic forms of delinquency and highlighting the importance of studying juvenile delinquency through both official crime statistics and self-report and victimization studies. The dissertation emphasizes the significance of environments and delinquency in urban and rural communities. This is followed by an overview of official statistics on juvenile crime and crime in both urban and rural environments, along with a presentation of key findings from studies on delinquency, victimization, and youth violence in Slovenia since its independence. Special attention is given to findings from the second international study on self-reported juvenile delinquency and victimization (ISRD2). The dissertation then discusses risk and protective factors crucial for studying and understanding delinquency. Finally, the theoretical section examines various criminological theories, focusing particularly on well-known integrated theories, and develops a new Integrated Risk Factor Model of delinquency, which is subsequently tested.
The empirical section of the dissertation tests the hypotheses and answers the following research questions: 1) What are the prevalence rates of self-reported juvenile delinquency in rural and urban areas in Slovenia? 2) Is there a correlation between socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, immigration status, socioeconomic status, and religion) and involvement in juvenile delinquency? and (3) Can an Integrated Risk Factor Model explain delinquency in rural and urban environments equally well? A series of bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed using data from the 4th international study on self-reported juvenile delinquency and victimization (ISRD4), conducted between October 2022 and March 2023, which involved 2,653 juveniles aged 13–17 from urban and rural environments.
The results reveal variations in the prevalence and most common types of juvenile delinquency between urban and rural areas. It shows that delinquency is not solely a product of urban environments. Context-specific differences in demographic factors and risk factors are observed. The findings show that in rural environments, fewer risk factors influence delinquency. Still, these factors have a stronger impact, while delinquency among urban juveniles arises from a broader range of risk factors. This section also tests the Integrated Risk Factor Model. The model is structured around the relationship of delinquency to three broad concepts: 1) Crime Propensity (moral values and self-control); 2) Strain (Family (family bond, parental supervision, and adverse childhood experiences); school (school bond and school crime); and peers (delinquent friends and victimization)); and 3) Involvement (time spent in public places, at parties, and with family). The final Integrated Risk Factor Model successfully explains a significant portion of delinquency. However, the tailored model for urban and rural environments explains a slightly larger proportion of delinquency than the general model.
In the final section, three Integrated Risk Factor Models are presented: the general Integrated Risk Factor Model, the Urban Risk Factor Model, and the Rural Risk Factor Model. The conclusion addresses the implications of the findings for the hypotheses and research questions and provides suggestions for further work as well as recommendations for policy and practice.
Keywords: juvenile delinquency, rural areas, urban areas, risk factors, integrated risk factor model
Published in DKUM: 06.10.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 14
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2. Self-control and morality in Slovenian primary and secondary school sample : the results of YouPrev studyEva Bertok, Gorazd Meško, 2013, original scientific article Abstract: Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to test one of the main concepts of Situational Action Theory – the concept of the crime propensity on a large Slovenian sample of young people ages 13–17. Crime propensity is constructed from self-control scale and moral values scale.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The factor analysis was used to see if separate dimensions of self-control could be distinguished. A multiple regression was run to predict 16 self-reported delinquent acts from morality and self-control variables, which represented generalized crime propensity index.
Findings:
On the basis of 19 questions concerning self-control and moral values, almost one third of variance of self-reporting of 16 different delinquent acts was explained. The construct of crime propensity was proven relevant even with different methodology.
Research Limitations / Implications:
Even though YouPrev study employed a similar set of questions concerning self-control and moral values, some very cruicial differences should be noted between the two studies; the most important is the inclusion of risk-taking component in the self-control scale in the YouPrev study which was not included in the PADS+ study.
Originality/Value:
The paper presents the analysis that hasn’t been made yet in connection with self-reported delinquency acts in Slovenia.
Keywords: juvenile delinquency, morality, self-control, crime propensity, Slovenia
Published in DKUM: 23.04.2020; Views: 1339; Downloads: 67
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3. Prevention of juvenile crime and deviance : Adolescents' and experts' views in an international perspectiveThomas Görgen, Anneke Evenepoel, Benjamin Kraus, Anabel Taefi, 2013, original scientific article Abstract: Purpose:
This article analyses perspectives on youth crime prevention in samples of 13–17 year old students from 6 European countries and of practitioners/experts in Belgium and Germany.
Design/Methods/Approach:
Surveys were conducted among urban and rural school students (n = 10682). Expert and practitioner perspectives were taken into account using Delphi surveys, standardized surveys on the state of youth crime prevention, and semistructured interviews with practitioners in the areas where the school surveys were conducted.
Findings:
While the majority of students have been targeted by drug abuse prevention measures, rates for violence prevention are lower. Students ascribe moderate preventive potential to school and they regard peers and parents as most influential in prevention while professional agents are viewed as less important. Punitive approaches are not rejected, but approaches focusing on individual resources and problems are given priority. Experts point at the significance of socioeconomic factors related to the problem of (youth) delinquency and hence of social policy measures. They recommend prevention starting at an early age, strengthening social skills and following multi-professional approaches.
Research Limitations / Implications:
Schools surveys excluded special schools, and response rates in expert surveys were low or moderate.
Practical Implications:
Findings point to young persons’ understanding of factors influencing their behaviour and at connections between involvement in offending and accessibility for approaches to prevention. Expert surveys show needs for improvement in the field of prevention, especially in terms of funding, evaluation, and fundamental strategic approaches.
Originality/Value:
Perspectives of both actors and targets of preventive approaches are taken into account.
Keywords: prevention, juvenile delinquency, school survey, expert survey, drug abuse, violence
Published in DKUM: 23.04.2020; Views: 1089; Downloads: 53
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4. Juvenile delinquency school failure and dropout in Portugal : drafting a picture in different voicesAna Cardoso, Heloísa Perista, Paula Carrilho, Mário Jorge Silva, 2013, original scientific article Abstract: Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to address and discuss the relationship between different school paths and self-reported young students’ behaviours and perceptions regarding violence and delinquency. Their views on prevention deserve particular attention. This is though a picture drafted in different voices, since young students’ opinions contrast with those of several other actors in the domain of juvenile delinquency.
Design/Methods/Approach:
This analysis is based on the YouPrev project findings in Portugal, generated by the different empirical data collection instruments employed, thus combining a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Gender differences as well as differences between urban and rural regions are highlighted whenever relevant.
Findings:
School failure and dropout is a structural problem in Portugal and some expert views anticipate a reversal in recent trends and a new rise of these phenomena as a result of the current crisis. The YouPrev school survey outcomes in Portugal confirm that young people with negative school integration have a higher life-time prevalence of self-reported delinquency.
Among the 1,755 young students surveyed, 29.4% reported they had committed, over their life-time, at least one of the offences listed in the questionnaire. 156 of these students reported that they had committed a violent offence during the last twelve months. Among these, 46 may be described as frequent violent offenders. The concentration of risk factors among the frequent violent offenders shows that these are also victims of other forms of violence in the context where they live in.
Young people share the idea that “what works” best in the prevention of juvenile delinquency is to improve their prospects to get a job and to provide them a good general education.
Both in the rural and in the urban regions the relationship between young people and the family is seen as crucial either by experts or by the young boys and girls.
Research Limitations / Implications:
Self-reported delinquency surveys attempt to overcome insufficiencies of the official statistics – these surveys open the possibility to obtain more diverse information and to identify delinquent practices that are not registered. But one of the possible criticisms is that, in these kinds of studies, chronic and persistent delinquents are not represented. In this particular analysis, information is missing for those students who skip school and those whose parents, for different reasons, did not give consent to their participation in the survey.
The conduction of expert face-to-face interviews complemented the prospective information collected by the Delphi study, compensating and enriching the relative low number of responses to the survey.
Practical Implications:
The outcomes promote the awareness-raising on juvenile delinquency and prevention strategies among different actors: experts, schools, and young students. These can also be used as training material for professionals, working in social services and police forces, in particular.
Originality/Value:
This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the practices and views within the domain of juvenile delinquency and violence. This is a research topic insufficiently explored in Portugal, at least in a comprehensive way, either in terms of subjects or territorial coverage. It also adds to existing research with crossed views, based on a multi-method approach, on the interplay between school failure and dropout and juvenile delinquency and prevention.
Keywords: juvenile delinquency, violence, prevention, school failure, Portugal
Published in DKUM: 20.04.2020; Views: 998; Downloads: 36
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5. Juvenile crime in the 21st century : a really escalating problem or just a media sensation? The case of CroatiaIrena Cajner Mraović, Valentina Asančaić, Dubravko Derk, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: Purpose:
The main goal of the paper is to analyse dynamics of juvenile crime and to identify long-term tendencies in the development of this negative social phenomenon in Croatia in this century.
Design/Methods/Approach:
Based on official police statistics, the analysis of the dynamics and the average rate of change are used to reveal and compare trends in reported overall, violent, and juvenile property crime in Croatia between 2000 and 2013. Model of a linear trend is used to make a prediction of future short-time trends.
Findings:
Though the total number of reported juvenile crime is stable or even slightly declining over the observed period, there are exceptional increases or declines in certain years and in certain offences, which can create the wrong impression about alarming changes. It especially applies to the oscillations of the number of reported juvenile homicide and rape, because of small absolute numbers. Substantial and significant fluctuations during the observed period, are found in reported rates for robbery and theft: there is a decrease in reported theft and increase in reported robbery.
Originality/Value:
In Croatia, but also in other post-socialist countries in Central Eastern Europe, there are general beliefs of the dramatic increase in juvenile crime rates since late 1990s. Results of this study reveal how such cursory review obscures some long-term and significant changes in juvenile crime, which are indicative when speaking about the juvenile crime under conditions of intensive social change.
Keywords: juvenile, overall crime, violent crime, property crime, Croatia, trends
Published in DKUM: 16.04.2020; Views: 1100; Downloads: 53
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