NCJ Number
85824
Journal
Monatsschrift fuer Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform Volume: 64 Issue: 1-2 Dated: (February-March 1981) Pages: 1-17
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
A West German study sought statistical correlations between social characteristics and prior police records of juvenile crime suspects to identify factors operative in the labeling process.
Abstract
Data on 3,257 juvenile (under age 21) suspected of offenses such as jumping bail, assault and battery, and various types of theft and burglary were obtained from 1977 Munich (West Germany) police crime statistics. Offenses were categorized according to degree of seriousness as petty or grave. The social variables examined were education, vocational training, and employment status; variables indicative of the stigmatization process were prior police record, prior conviction, and repeated prior offenses. Results indicate that the juveniles suspected of more serious offenses had less favorable educational and vocational backgrounds as well as less stable employment histories. Those suspected of less serious offenses had more advantageous backgrounds. Unskilled and unemployed suspects were more likely to be known by the police, to have prior convictions, and to be recidivists than were vocationally trained suspects with jobs. Socially marginal juveniles were heavily represented among suspects of both more and less serious crime categories. A high correlation was found between offense seriousness and police knowledge for skilled and employed suspects. It appears that prior conviction is a barrier to acquisition of vocational skills and employment and thus has a stigmatizing effect. Flow charts clarify the pattern and give support to the contention that social marginality is conducive to the likelihood of a police record, which in turn affects the recorded offense seriousness, i.e., produces a labeling effect. Charts, tabular data, footnotes, and a bibliography are given.