NCJ Number
153347
Date Published
1994
Length
179 pages
Annotation
This study examines juvenile victimization, juvenile offending, and juvenile interactions with police in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Abstract
Although this study was primarily a self-report victim survey, the study also queried juveniles about their own delinquent acts and their contacts with the police. Questionnaires were completed by 892 students at four schools in different areas of the city. These were followed up in face-to- face interviews and informal discussion sessions with 120 students (30 from each school). This book first examines the broad social and historical context of crime and the policing of juveniles in Edinburgh, outlining something of the city's social and spatial divisions as well as questioning some basic assumptions about the idea of childhood and its implications for understanding victimization. Another chapter examines the nature and extent of crimes committed against juveniles by adults as well as by other juveniles. Another chapter examines other ways in which crime and the fear of crime has an impact on youth, as witnesses of crime, for example, and considers the informal strategies and techniques juveniles adopt to cope with crime. A chapter explores the nature of juveniles' contact with crime as offenders, as well as some of the popular and populist explanations of delinquency. The analysis concludes with an examination of juveniles' relations with the police and their expectations of them. Overall, the study shows that criminal victimization and offending are significant among the youth of Edinburgh, and their contacts with police are more adversarial than service-oriented. Extensive tables and figures and a 58-item bibliography