Przestępczość młodocianych : interpretacja zjawiska w świetle ogólnej teorii napięcia Roberta Agnew

Abstract

This monograph tests R. Agnew’s (1992) general strain theory (GST) of youth crime and delinquency, takes into consideration the results of social structure transformation in Poland and its sense of alienation. Generally speaking, the consequences of socio-political changes that occurred after 1989 in Poland, in addition to an increase in unemployment and poverty, is also a crisis of authority, growing consumerism, corruption and deregulation of criminal policy. The response to that state of affairs is to increase the number of crimes committed among young people (13-17 and 17-21 years). In the case of juvenile delinquency and young adult crime in Poland noteworthy changes both quantitative and qualitative. In professional literature we could detail the main points: - an increase of the number of crimes against life and health (brutalization of crime), - a significant reduction of the lower age limit of offenders, - the systematic increase of delinquency of girls/women, - an increase of the criminological recidivism, - the transcending of crime beyond the pathological environment (the circle of social margin) - the perpetrators come from families of middle or high social status, - an increase of the number of crimes like playful (play type) - behavior based on aggression, violence, acts of vandalism, - an increase of the number of crimes committed without clear, base motives (for example, crimes where the definition of situational and motivational background of the perpetrators is very difficult), - an increase of the number of delinquency in which we can notice a lack of connection between victim and perpetrator (crimes where victims are strangers, unknown perpetrators), - an increase of a participation in organized crime and international crime. The main problem of the research contains in the following question: Is there a relation between the sense of strain (of different types) and the social control, differential association, personality factors, situational-social factors, and youth delinquency? The following groups were compared: - delinquents and non-delinquents (pupils), - aggressive act offenders and non-aggressive act offenders, - offenders which were punished only one time and punished many times. An additional objective of the study were relations between: - the sense of alienation (of various dimensions) and delinquency (the same groups were compared), - the general sense of strain, the social control, differential association, situational, social factors, personality factors, and severity of criminal behavior, - the sense of strain (general strain and different types) and the dimensions of alienation, - the sense of strain (general strain and different types) and the social control, differential association, situational, social factors, personality factors, - the social control, differential association, situational, social factors, personality factors and the sense of alienation, The hypotheses were tested on 179 male young adult prisoners and 145 pupils. At the outset we seek to determine whether the results obtained in the Polish conditions correspond to those obtained in studies of American youth. They applied the same statistical procedures (factor analysis, multiple regression analysis), that R. Agnew and H.R. White did. We drew conclusions that the factor analysis and multiple regression analysis obtained concurrent results. The main hypothesis concerns on the existence of significant differences in the sense of strain, social control, differential association, situational, social factors and personality factors among youth delinquents and non-delinquents. It turns out that the young offenders to a greater extent than non-offenders (pupils) experiences a sense of strain (its different types), lack of adequate social control, is characterized by low levels of aspirations to further education, it is characterized by lower self-esteem and more external attribution of the causes of failures/strain. These young delinquents are also more linked to people /peers, who are involved in crime and use drugs. This hypothesis has not received unequivocal support for the situational and social factors. Differences between groups (where higher results were obtained by young offenders), relate to one dimension, that describes the lack of life prospects and a negative assessment of the social reality of the country, but long-term financial problems in the family were on the borderline of significance. In conclusion it can be assumed that in the group of youthful offenders reviewed on the Polish soil model by R. Agnew and H.R. White (with modifications made by the author) describes the relations between factors, which may be predictors of youth crime and delinquency, and may be important in making their criminal behavior. The results could be used in the prevention of criminal behavior, therapy, rehabilitation, criminal and social policy. Finally we could remark, that general strain theory has the potential to serve a major explanation of young adult crime and juvenile delinquency in contemporary society.