Josine Junger-Tas

The Self-Report Methodology in Crime Research

Self-reports are often used in criminological research. Use of self-reports raises a number of important methodological issues including sampling options, participation and response rate concerns, and validity problems related to respondent characteristics, criminal involvement, and memory effects. Other central issues include instrument construction, conceptualization of the dependent variable, administration of the instrument, and reliability. The self-report method has improved greatly over the past fifty years. Many of its problems and limitations have been addressed. Although the self-report method does not replace other measures or methods, it has become a valuable tool for measuring criminal involvement and testing theory.

Self-reported youth delinquency in Europe and beyond: First results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study in the context of police and victimization data

This article reports on the first results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2), a large international collaborative study of delinquency and victimization of 12—15-year-old students. The analysis is based on a subsample of the data set: 43,968 respondents from 63 cities and 31 countries. The prevalence rates of the major categories of delinquency, both for individual countries as well as for 6 country clusters, are presented as well as data for victimization experiences (theft and robbery/extortion). Using different measures, significant differences in level and type of offending are found between country clusters, with the Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries generally (but not always) scoring highest, followed by Northern Europe, Latin American and Mediterranean countries, with post-socialist countries at the bottom. The results for victimization experiences do not follow this pattern. The second part of the article compares ISRD-2 offending and victimization rates with two other main sources of internationally available crime-related statistics: International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) data and European Sourcebook (i.e. police-based) data. The analyses show a moderate level of support for a convergence of different measures. The article concludes with implications and suggestions for further research.

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender

This article considers differences in patterns of youth delinquency and problem behaviour between boys and girls. It uses cross-sectional surveys of self-reported youth offending in 11 European countries, and a similar survey covering various ethnic groups in Rotterdam, both carried out in 1992. These surveys show that there remains a substantial gap in the level of delinquency between girls and boys across all countries and ethnic groups. The findings confirm that weak social controls by family and school are an important correlate of delinquency for males and females in all country clusters and across all ethnic groups. On the whole, the correlates of delinquency are found to be similar in males and females, which suggests that there is no need for a different theory to explain delinquency in boys and girls. Social control explains part of the gap in delinquency between boys and girls, simply because social controls of girls tend to be stronger and tighter. Culturally determined differences in the strength of family-based social controls can also explain some of the variation in delinquency between ethnic groups.

The many faces of youth crime : contrasting theoretical perspectives on juvenile delinquency across countries and cultures

Introduction.- Substance Use.- Delinquency.- Victimization Experiences.- Social Response and Reporting.- Family.- Schools and the Education System.- Lifestyle.- Self Control and Attitudes Towards Violence.- Neighborhood.- Macro-Sociological Perspectives on Individual Problem Behavior.- Theoretical and Policy Implications.

Ethnic Minorities and Criminal Justice in the Netherlands

Several ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, relative to population, commit more crimes and more serious crimes than do Dutch offenders. There are indications that minority offenders who commit less serious or nonserious offenses seem to be punished more harshly than similar Dutch offenders. Relatively more ethnic minority members are placed in pretrial detention and sentenced to prison-partly because of different crime patterns, partly because many have no fixed residence, and partly because many are less likely than Dutch defendants to turn up at the trial and to plead guilty. Even taking account of these variables, minority membership continues to be a factor in explaining sentencing. Although ethnic stereotyping may play a role, disparities appear to result largely from the unfavorable economic, social, and legal position of ethnic minorities.

International handbook of juvenile justice

Preface. Foreword. PART I: THE ANGLO-SAXON ORIENTATION. 1. Punishment and Control: Juvenile Justice Reform in the United States. 2. Canadas Juvenile Justice System: Promoting Community-based Responses to Youth Crime. 3. Beyond Welfare Versus Justice: Juvenile Justice in England and Wales. 4. Mainstreaming Restorative Justice for Young Offenders through Youth Conferencing - the Experience of Northern Ireland. 5. Transition and Reform: Juvenile Justice in the Republic of Ireland. 6. Between Just Desert and Welfare: Juvenile Justice in the Netherlands. PART II: WESTERN CONTINENTAL EUROPE. 7. The French Juvenile Justice System. 8. Surviving of the Protection Model? Competing Goals in Belgian Juvenile Justice. 9. Between Tolerance and Repression: Juvenile Justice in Germany. 10. Austria: A Protection System 11. The Swiss Federal Statute on Juvenile Criminal Law. 12. The Emerging Juvenile Justice System in Greece. 13. Continuity and Change in the Spanish Juvenile Justice System. PART III: EASTERN EUROPE. 14. Continuity in the Welfare Approach - Juvenile Justice in Poland. 15. Restorative Approach and Alternative Methods: Juvenile Justice Reform in the Czech Republic. 16. Welfare versus Neo-Liberalism - Juvenile Justice in Slovenia. 17. Legal and Actual Treatment of Juveniles within the Juvenile Justice System of Bosnia and Herzegovina. PART IV: TWO SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 18. The End of an Era? - Youth Justice in Scotland. 19. Keeping the Balance between Humanism and Penal Punitiveness - Recent trends in Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in Sweden. 20. Trends in International Juvenile Justice: what Conclusions can be drawn?

Trends in International Juvenile Justice: What Conclusions Can be Drawn?

Treatment of children, who are victims of the conditions in which they are living and children who have violated the law, is a reflection of a societys culture and value system. This treatment is a societys vision of children and youth and its views on how to socialize and educate children. In the last decades of the 20th century this vision has undergone drastic change, which led to considerable modifications of juvenile justice legislation both in North America and in Europe.

Sex Differences in the Predictors of Juvenile Delinquency Females Are More Susceptible to Poor Environments; Males Are Influenced More by Low Self-Control

The goal of the article is to investigate whether well-established risk factors for delinquency among adolescents are equally important for males and females. The risk factors discussed here are derived from four theoretical approaches: social bonding/social control theory, self-control theory, routine activities/opportunity theory, and social disorganization theory. Data are drawn from the International Self-Reported Delinquency study (ISRD-2). The results show that the risk factors proposed by social bonding theory, social disorganization theory, routine activities/opportunity theory, and self-control theory are not equally related to delinquent behavior among males and females. When all the theoretically relevant factors are combined together, three interaction terms are found to be statistically significant; family disruption and deviant behavior of friends have more influence on delinquent behavior of females, whereas the lack of self-control is more strongly related to delinquency among males.

Delinquent Behaviour in 30 Countries

Describing the nature and distribution of delinquency in 30 countries is an awesome task. In order to make this task more manageable, we make extensive use of six country clusters based on Esping-Andersen (1990) and Saint-Arnaud and Bernard (2003) (see Chaps. 1 and 2). We will start by presenting some of our results from the total combined sample as well as for the country clusters, for prevalence, incidence and versatility of self-reported delinquency.

Reforming Juvenile Justice

Trends in Youth Offending in Europe.- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.- Young Peoples Rights: The Role of the Council of Europe.- Criminal Responsibility of Adolescents: Youth as Junior Citizenship.- Parental Responsibility for Youth Offending.- Juvenile Transfer in the United States.- Transfer of Minors to the Criminal Court in Europe: Belgium and the Netherlands.- The Prevention of Delinquent Behaviour.- Diversion: A Meaningful and Successful Alternative to Punishment in European Juvenile Justice Systems.- Restorative Justice and Youth Justice: Bringing Theory and Practice Closer Together in Europe.- Community Sanctions and the Sanctioning Practice in Juvenile Justice Systems in Europe.- Custodial Establishments for Juveniles in Europe.- Reforming Juvenile Justice: European Perspectives.