SHORT ANALYSIS: YOUTH VIOLENCE

Sara Elo

SHORT ANALYSIS ON YOUTH VIOLENCE

Anger, Violence and Recidivism in Justic System Involved Youth – Erinn L.Acland & Caitlin Cavanagh.

Gang violence and violence done by youth has been making headlines in the past months. It seems as though our youth is doing worse than before, and it is showing in statistical rises in youth and gang violence. What is causing this? Are those who commit crimes as teenagers bound to commit them all of their life?

According to the article, young people with long-term anger and recidivism have a connection. Agnew’s general General Strain Theory claims that if there is stress in life that gives rise to anger, it may amplify the pain that has already come from previous struggles. The theory is also supported by research that shows that young people who report more problems in different areas in life also report more anger, and that is associated with subsequent delinquency. In the United States, courts often survey justice-related anger in terms of whether they are at risk to do similar crimes again. Contacts with the criminal justice system usually starts when the person is a teenager, so that’s why it is important to do a research about this topic. Currently, it is still unclear whether prolonged anger can directly affect recidivism. It is also important to understand that anger and violence have different forms.

The article includes Moffit’s developmental theory of crime. According to the theory, there are two different types of criminals: lifelong criminals and teenage criminals. Usually lifelong criminals have more violent behavior than teenage criminals. A person's own ability to regulate emotions also has an effect on how, for example, the feeling of anger is expressed.

Regarding the court process, YLS/CMI is an official part of it. YLS is a well-validated risk assessment. With the YLS for example the judge makes an assessment of what the assessment of the young person's risky behavior is.

Young people with long-term anger and recidivism have a connection.

In ANOVA research the researchers found out that the young people who did not commit surrogacy were often slightly older and of a female gender. In general the findings in the researches were, that anger is related to current violance, but it’s not associated with any form of recidivism. However, it must be taken into account that certain features of anger are related to both violence and the recidivism. In contrary to prior expectations, youth anger in general only affects their current behavior, not future behavior.

In my opinion this article was very interesting, and successfully highlighted the ongoing issues. It is clear that the persons childhood, earlier experienses and youth have a huge influence on the rest of a person's life. But if these findings in the article are true, I’m very surprised in a positive way.

I believe that there is no clear connection between directly violent behavior and recidivism. I believe that potential recidivism is due to adopting a certain lifestyle. Even if you are not a very violent person, but you live in the middle of the drug trade all your childhood, you may have to defend yourself often. Then as a child you may already adopt a lifestyle that a certain kind of violence is allowed. In such a case, even if a person commits several violent crimes, it is not necessarily the violence itself that matters, but the lifestyle. If the young person were to be removed from similar circles, it might be found that his "character" is not violent. After reading the article, I thought about how important it is to give help especially to young criminals. According to the article, especially young boys are prone to recidivism. Especially in the US justice system, as far as I know, there is not much focus even on helping young prisoners off the criminal path. In my opinion, many thing in the research on the risk results leading to recidivism could be prevented by good treatment and repatriation of young prisoners.

Also in Finland we would have a lot to develop in the treatment of young prisoners and also in the prevention of surrogacy. According to the information I found, youth crime in Finland is most visible in robberies committed by young people. I also found information that juvenile delinquency has decreased in Finland over the past 25 years. This information about the situation in Finland is at odds with the idea I have received from reading about youth crime in the newspapers recently. In my opinion, especially gang crime and clashes between youth gangs have been on the rise. According to what I've read, it's also more and more common for young people to carry knives for example in clashes.

I understand that the resources to help young people who behave badly are also small in Finland. However, behind bad behavior is often poor mental well-being. And that's exactly why it would be important for young criminals around the world to get help. They have the right to grow into balanced adults. It would also be important for our society. Prisons and their maintenance are really expensive, so it would be worthwhile to try to keep young people away from them.

Youth anger in general only affects their current behavior, not future behavior.

Sara Elo