NCJ Number
165322
Date Published
1996
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Two studies focusing on juvenile delinquency in Milan, Italy revealed what prompts the change in a group of adolescent peers who are relatively peaceful and democratic and then break away and engage in gang activities and crime.
Abstract
The studies were conducted by the Centro Nazionale di Prevenzione e Difesa Sociale. The researchers planning the studies decided that the two crucial institutions promoting, containing, and intensifying deviant conduct and delinquency might be gangs and organized crime. The research findings were somewhat surprising. They revealed that young people who associate with contemporaries who have participated, supported, and promoted crimes are doing so in the context of being with a group of friends and not a group of accomplices with whom to discuss and plan crimes. The studies also revealed that what transforms a friendly group into a gang is the collective formation of the idea that they have no future. As a result the group wreaks its vengeance by attacking symbols of the adult culture and the social institutions designed to safeguard or contain adolescent growth. Thus, prevention is important. A new form of collaboration among services that safeguard the process of adolescent growth is needed. Networks and collaborations among services are also needed to increase the ability to plan, conduct, and sustain a project.