Worldview Of High-Risk Juvenile Delinquents: Relationship To Decisions To Shoot  

Oleh:

Goldberg, Julie H.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Criminal Justice and Behavior vol. 34 no. 6 (Jun. 2008), page 846-861.
Topik: Juvenile Delinquents; Firearm-Related Violence; Decision Making
Fulltext: 846.pdf (119.62KB)

Isi artikel

Societal-level risk factors can identify those at risk for violence but do not purport to determine how these factors affect individuallevel beliefs or judgments. The current study examined high-risk, violent juvenile offenders with devastating past experiences to determine whether an individual-level approach could identify differences in the way they perceived their social world and whether these perceptions influenced the decision-making process. Participants—34 high-risk male delinquents between 15 and 18—were administered quantitative, structured interviews with both traditional risk factors and a decision-making task that required a judgment that could or could not lead to violence. Using traditional risk factors alone, participants appeared homogeneous. The decision-making approach distinguished between juveniles who, as one might expect, perceived a dangerous world where they either “kill or be killed,” from juveniles who optimistically were able to envision a world with alternatives to violence. These differences accounted for aspects of the decision-making process not captured by traditional risk factors and were significantly related to violent past behavior. We must improve upon a recidivism rate of 55% for juvenile offenders. A better understanding of how offenders perceive their social environment may be a first step towards successfully rehabilitating them to return to that environment upon release.

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