Interpreting Crime and Criminals - Essay Example

Interpreting Crime and Criminals The aim of this dissertation is to explain the individual and social phenomena in a research question of my personal interest: ‘juvenile delinquency’, the causes and consequences thereof and the different remedial actions that can offer a lasting solution to this interesting but often, misunderstood problem. The main findings of the study prove that it’s not just poverty and unrest that should be blamed for factors leading to youth crime, but a whole institutionalised apparatus comprising the police, judiciary etc. that is in urgent need of overhaul. Apart from qualitative data derived from MET sources, a questionnaire (through telephonic interview) (See Appendix I) tackles the full extant of areas in which the system should harmonise itself, to understand the complexities of juvenile crime. This topic has a lot of scope for further development as demonstrated through two essays underlining qualitative study, and ethical concerns. Table of contents Ch 1: Introduction 1.1: Research problem 1.2: Rationale for research 1.3: Research importance Ch 2: Literature Review 2.1: Theoretical background 2.2: Methodology Ch 3: Analysis 3.1: Method of analysis 3.2: Analysis Ch 4: Conclusion and recommendations 4.1: Conclusion 4.2: Recommendations/Remedial Measures References Appendix I: Interview Appendix II: Advantages of qualitative research Appendix III: Ethical issues towards research Ch 1: Introduction 1.1 Research problem: Understanding the individual and social phenomena comprising juvenile delinquency (youth crime), the causes and consequences thereof and remedial measures to this effect. 1.2 Rationale for research: Criminology is a multidisciplinary study that performs an exploratory analysis of facts that are closely related to the research information for a particular case study. My main purpose of choosing ‘juvenile delinquency’ as a focus topic, was to investigate special findings that have often been neglected in the past. Juvenile crime comprised 17% of all crime in the UK in recent years (MET Info on Juvenile Stats, 2007) and scratching the surface, yielded more reliable data for further understanding of the issues at hand. Poverty and crime are interlinked chapters. 1.3 Research importance: The subject of juvenile crime has gained national media attention in recent years, ever since the Stephen Lawrence murder case; the main reason being due to the gradual tendency of such individuals to become sociopaths in the longer run (McCord & Spatz Widom, 2001); disaffected by society and indifferent to the ethics and moral values contained therein; the importance of this topic can be gauged from the fact that much less research material is available as of today (Singer, 1997), and there is a far, bigger need to understand the problem in totality. Investigators have arrived at different study models to gain a more complete understanding of the issues being discussed. There is a more sincere need for counselling and support (Feld, 1999) rather than criminalising the young offender; many relativist values offer a full chance of redemption (and rehabilitation) for juvenile offenders - there is a need to understand the psychology of such individuals which is one of the most significant constituents of my overall presentation. The research approach consists of a telephonic interview, derived from MET department’s Police cells in different locations at Tower Hamlets, London. The idea of choosing police constables dealing with such crimes, for the purpose of identifying the core issues affecting young offenders, is to achieve a realistic amount of progress in future investigation activities. By and all, juvenile criminals suffer from different psychological and behavioural disorders which also, forms a core component of our research. Juvenile crime as a research subject, is still at its primary stages (Feld, 1999). A lot of secondary information is needed to achieve a realistic educational value for the information being discussed herein. It is indeed significant to note that the vast amount of juvenile criminals receive press publicity due to the very fact that they are under aged (McCord & Spatz Widom, 2001). Society, by and large still has misapprehensions about the true extent of juvenile crime. Ch 2: Literature Review 2.1 Theoretical backgeround: It is an important thing to take note of, that secondary sources are mainly used to validate the prima facie evidence gathered through the pace of telephonic interviews, and it is as important to investigate the facts that would support the ‘naturally-occurring’ interviews (Silverman, 2005) which is the biggest achievement of the dissertation. The content to be described hereafter would have the same and corresponding support as the remaining content. The biggest social phenomena of juvenile delinquency, is posed by the basic question in this regard: why do juveniles turn to crime? According to Cathy Spatz Damon & Joan Mc Cord (2001), there are a range of contributing factors such as prenatal care, differences in temperament, family influences, peer relationships, impact of school policies towards delinquency and the broader influence of the neighbourhood and community. Back in the 1950’s, there weren’t any significant laws that differentiated between juvenile and adult offenders. It is with the recent spate of violent crimes, that the biggest social change to affect juvenile deliquescent criminals, has been the ongoing recriminalising of juvenile crime with equal severity (Singer, 2005). To understand the consequences of such offences, it is essential to clarify the vital statistics in achieving a qualitative description of the offending criminals. Based on MET records and secondary evaluation, the following parameters have been identified (Singer, 2005): 1)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by prior arrests. 2)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by type of injury. 3)Arrest frequencies for different offence categories. 4)Felony type by gender in percentage. 5)Felony type by race in percentage. 6)Felony type by prior arrests in percentage. 7)Adjudication in percentage. 8)Adjudication by felony type. 8)Adjudication by gender. 9)Adjudication by . 10) Disposition. All these parameters comprise part of our questionnaire directed at PC constables. Delinquency, as a qualitative parameter, can be measured using the right combination of tools. The three most significant metrics for (any prison/correction facility) are given as: prevalence, incidence and rates (Weis et al, 2001). The self-contained report used to evaluate such linear variables is called a data analysis exercise (Weis et al, 2001) which would be investigated in the next chapter. There are numerous qualitative approaches used by criminologists to understand the psychology of juvenile offenders, the most reliable ones do not depend on police statistics at all (Noakes, L. & Wincup, E., 2004). It should be kept in mind that most juvenile offenders are prone to victimisation which can adversely affect their self-worth and actuate psychological problems in the aftermath. A lot of care, and sensitivity is required in enabling the articulation (understanding the incidence of crime) of the juvenile’s sporadic ethics, and association with criminality. Indeed, it requires an ethnographic sketch of the juvenile’s crime history, to bolster evidence for detailed information. By all means, juvenile crime analysis entails qualitative information which must be used for understanding the true nature of a juvenile mind. Juvenile crimes need to be addressed from the right platform in which they are being investigated. They are both a social as well as an individual phenomena. From a social point of view, the strain theory (aspirations, opportunity, freedom etc.) (Lamson, 2001) gives the most accurate analysis of juvenile crime for the various categories of individuals as described by Singer (2005). In a similar vein, for the individual phenomena, a combination of trait and rational theories would explain why juvenile criminals would commit a crime. The conventional idea is that poverty, drugs and bad family values are the biggest catalyst for delinquent behaviour: only on closer scrutiny, it can be postulated that aspirations play the most important role in the making of a juvenile criminal. It is this aspect that is least studied: it is this aspect that has been often misunderstood, rejected and confused under statistics (police records, etc.). It is indeed the first major proof in our dissertation aims: that quantitative data cannot capture the full extent of factors leading to juvenile crime; only qualitative data can do so. 2.2 Methodology: As it can be seen that qualitative information derived from a strong focus on key metrics, gives important findings related to our research aims on juvenile crime; the psychiatric matters can only be visible due to a ‘natural interview’ [Foucolt 1978a, 1978b]. It is for the purpose of achieving reliable qualitative estimates, that the following questions were earmarked for the interview. A small sample of police stations in the Tower Hamlets area of London, were isolated for asking the broad range of questions (derived from secondary sources, as above). The PC constables from Bethnal Green, Brick Lane, Bow Road, Limehouse, Isle of Dogs and Poplar stations were asked to frame their opinions on the following set of questionnaire. Tower Hamlets has both a high concentration of ethnic minorities, and is also one of the hotbeds of juvenile crime among various London regions. Since the data (qualitative) were made available through a telephonic interview, the detailed transcripts have been recorded in Appendix I. It can be clearly seen that the research questions undertaken, clearly validate the discussions made in section 2.2, or secondary data sources (Howard, 1976 & 1983; Spradley, 1979). Ques 1: What are the major contributing factors for juveniles in your area to turn into crime? The aim of this open-ended qualitative question was to picture frame the main causative factors into one of the key contributing factors identified therein; prenatal care, differences in temperament etc. Ques 2: What are the values for the following points of discussion: 1)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by prior arrests. 2)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by type of injury. 3)Arrest frequencies for different offence categories. 4)Felony type by gender in percentage. 5)Felony type by race in percentage. 6)Felony type by prior arrests in percentage. 7)Adjudication in percentage. 8)Adjudication by felony type. 8)Adjudication by gender. 9)Adjudication by race . 10) Disposition. Though not a very open-ended question in itself, the question was simplified to cover different aspects of juvenile crime in Yes/No type simplified answers. Ques 3: What are the prevalence, incidence and rates of juvenile crimes in your area of jurisdiction? What is your general opinion on the belief that the young offenders may have been made scapegoat due to institutional lapses of the department? This question was slightly unsatisfactory because none of the constables were willing to admit institutional deficiencies which leaves an open-ended debate on the presumption. The verdict on reciminalising of young offenders, and theoretical aspects of their crime behaviour, has been verified with ease of definition. Ques 4: What are the remedial course of action for taking care of juvenile delinquents in the overall institutional set up? As remarked earlier, this occurrence was clearly identified in the run up to understanding the issues of juvenile delinquency. Ch 3: Analysis of data 3.1 Method of Analysis: For the sake of interactive assessment, the analysis method follows a closer scrutiny of interviews made; as a result the interviews have been conversational in nature (Atkinson, 1990). Conversation analysis is one of the four principle methods of documenting interviews for different information backgrounds (Miller & Barry, 1997). Since most answers derived from the questionnaire are based on intelligent deduction, there is a need to familiarise the reader with key symbols that were used for this purpose. The different police constabularies were symbolised as: Bethnal (B1), Brick Lane (B2), Bow Road (B3), Limehouse (L), Isle of Dogs (I), Poplar (P). The aim of analysis would be to answer the questions pertaining to our research aims, as spelled out earlier. 3.2 Analysis: Here is a schematic analysis of the important issues pertaining our research questions, based on different set of questionnaire. Ans 1: For B1, B2 and I, the main influences were schools and neighbourhood policies towards delinquents, segregation, racial discrimination etc. Clearly for other areas, the juveniles (mostly ethnic minorities) faced a different set of issues compared to predominately White neighbourhoods, where peer pressure and aspiration values were considered the main catalysts for juvenile crime. The yob culture in parts of urban England has a great resonance with such tendencies. Ans 2: This has different values for different jurisdictions. Clearly, a lot of data was not available during the interview. The most important conclusion from these strands of information is that there is a lot of scope for further research on this subject without doubts, and that the information could be used for an efficient analysis of qualitative factors in play (See Appendix I for more details). Ans 3: As mentioned earlier, none of the constables were willing to throw any light on institutional deficiencies (e.g. in correction facilities) which could have had more implications on the high prevalence and incidence of juvenile crime in all the areas designated, except for P. The rates were correspondingly higher as well. Since this question was also based on a simplistic Yes/No response compared to hard statistics, there is reason to believe the information was available and at hand when needed. Ans 4: Different police stations had their own opinions on this subject. This is what each one had to say, in brief. B1: Redistribution of immigrants (?) and better focus on education, housing etc. B2: Redistribution of immigrants (?) and access to better mental health clinics, schooling, counselling etc. B3: No comments L: Better parent/guardian relationship with adolescents, housing, better race relations, education. I: Compulsary learning of English by immigrants, better staff for coordination efforts. P: No comments None of the departments concerned, directly addressed the issue of institutionalised deficiencies in recriminalising young offenders -and the absence of basic improvisation standards therein. Clearly, this is a subject which hasn’t generated much interest among the MET department’s peer review committee. Ch 4: Conclusions and recommendations 4.1 Conclusion: As a final conclusion, it must be kept in mind that juvenile offenders have a better scope for improvement than other criminals because of the absence of a criminal past. Without negating their high rates of incidence, it must be kept in mind that there is a relative low incidence of crime in associated areas if proper education is made available. Here is a final overview of different juvenile criminal scenarios as described under the relevant research question Understanding the individual and social phenomena comprising juvenile delinquency: At an individual level, the main theories which can describe juvenile delinquency are trait and rational theories which underscore discontent and aspirational values as the main driving force behind criminal activity for young people. At a social level, it is understood as the strain theory as explained by Ans. 1 (Refer 3.2). Clearly, juvenile criminals have an ‘attention-seeking’ problem which is a mental health issue. Causes and consequences: The main causes have been identified as prenatal care, differences in temperament, family influences, peer relationships, impact of school policies towards delinquency and the broader influence of the neighbourhood and community (Refer 3.2, Ans 1). The consequences have been identified and diagnosed as a set of immutable qualitative factors (Refer 3.2, Ans 2). 4.2 Recommendations/Remedial measures: This is one significant area of the research which has not received satisfactory response from the interviews. Since all the police departments in our sample refrained from accepting any institutional responsibility for the present condition of juvenile offenders, this study requires further research and elaboration. From a criminologist point of view, this vacuum throws open a set of veritable challenges and a new research question can dominate the entire spectrum of issues dealing with juvenile system reform. Since the present state of affairs tends to recriminalise juvenile offenders, it is only through a close assessment of their aspirational values and ‘internal psychology’ that further research is possible. Currently, this is the biggest limitation of our research, and also, the biggest challenge. References Atkinson, P. (1990) The ethnographic imagination. London: Routledge Feld, B.C. (1999). Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration (Readings in Crime and Punishment). Oxford University Press, USA. Foucault, M (1978b) I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister and My Brother London: Peregrine Books. Foucault, M (1991) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translator A. Sheridan. London Penguin Social Sciences. Howard, B. (1983). Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School. New York Press, NY Howard, B. (1973). Outsiders: Study in Sociology of Deviance. New York Press, NY Howard, B. (1986). Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book or Article. (with a chapter by Pamela Richards) University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London Lamson, A. 2001. Psychology of Juvenile Crime. Human Sciences Press. McCord, J. & Spatz Widom,. 2001. Juvenile Crime: Juvenile Justice. National Academy Press. Miller, J. & Glassner, B. (1997) “The ‘Inside’ and the ‘Outside’: Finding Realities in Interviews.” In D. Silverman (ed.) Qualitative research: theory, method and practice. London: Sage]. Munhall, P. (2000). Qualitative Research manual: John Wiley & Sons Noakes, L. & Wincup, E. (2004). Criminological Research: Understanding Qualitative Methods. John Wiley & Sons. Meda Chesney-Lind. (1997). The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime. Sage Publications Ltd. ( MET Info on Juvenile Stats, 2007). Official Stats on Juvenile Crime. Homepage of Met department. Silverman, D. (2005). Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. Sage Publications Ltd. Silverman, D. (2005 a). Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction. Sage Publications Ltd. Singer, S.I. (1997). Recriminalizing Delinquency: Violent Juvenile Crime and Juvenile System Reform. Cambridge University Press. Spradley, J.P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. Wadworth Group. Bemont, CA Weis, J.G., Crutchfield, R.D. & Bridges, G. (2001). Juvenile Delinquency: (Readings). Pine Forge Press: Second Edition Appendix I Interview: Telephonic interviews with PC constables for MET offices at Bethnal (B1), Brick Lane (B2), Bow Road (B3), Limehouse (L), Isle of Dogs (I), Poplar (P). Ques 1: What are the major contributing factors for juveniles in your area to turn into crime? B1: Schools and neighbourhood policies towards delinquents, segregation B2: Racial Discrimination B3: Peer pressure, family problems L: Peer pressure, generation gap I: Racial discrimination, Schools and neighbourhood policies towards delinquents P: Peer pressure Ques 2: What are the values for the following points of discussion (Please answer in Yes/No): (- means data not available) 1)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by prior arrests. B1: Yes B2: - B3: - L: - I: - P: - 2)Mean perceived likelihood of prosecution by type of injury. B1: No B2: Yes B3: Yes L: - I: - P: yes 3)Arrest frequencies for different offence categories. B1: - B2: - B3: - L: - I: - P: - 4)Felony type by gender in percentage. B1: Yes B2: Yes B3: Yes L: Yes I: Yes P: yes 5)Felony type by race in percentage. B1: Yes B2: Yes B3: Yes L: Yes I: Yes P: yes 6)Felony type by prior arrests in percentage. B1: - B2: - B3: - L: - I: Yes P: - 7)Adjudication in percentage. B1: - B2: - B3: - L: - I: - P: - 8)Adjudication by felony type. B1: Yes B2: Yes B3: No L: No I: - P: - 8)Adjudication by gender. B1: Yes B2: Yes B3: Yes L: Yes I: Yes P: yes 9)Adjudication by race B1: Yes B2: Yes B3: Yes L: Yes I: Yes P: yes 10) Disposition B1: - B2: - B3: - L: - I: - P: - Ques 3: What are the prevalence, incidence and rates of juvenile crimes in your area of jurisdiction? What is your general opinion on the belief that the young offenders may have been made scapegoat due to institutional lapses of the department? B1: - No blame on institution B2: - No blame on institution B3: - No blame on institution L: - No blame on institution I: - No blame on institution P: No blame on institution Ques 4: What are the remedial course of action for taking care of juvenile delinquents in the overall institutional set up? B1: Redistribution of immigrants (?) and better focus on education, housing etc. B2: Redistribution of immigrants (?) and access to better mental health clinics, schooling, counselling etc. B3: No comments L: Better parent/guardian relationship with adolescents, housing, better race relations, education. I: Compulsary learning of English by immigrants, better staff for coordination efforts. P: No comments Appendix II (Advantages of qualitative research) Aim: To demonstrate the appropriateness of qualitative research in comparison to quantitative research for this dissertation. In the field of criminology (and especially juvenile crime), information gathered from Qualitative research overlooks any quantitative methods such as surveys, statistics and other substantial data (Silverman, 2005) in favour of scrutinising the causative factors for study purposes. A qualitative researcher is basically, a soft scientist (Silverman, 2005), who can look beneath the surface (of facts and numbers) to come up with a more holistic evaluation of the questions arising in the mind of a sceptic reader who cannot be convinced with statistics alone. Ethnographies, interviews and subtle texts contain the core component of the problem being investigated (Silverman, 2005). In all its probability, qualitative research is a handy tool that gives the full scope and extent of the treatment meted out to its variability, and validity (Silverman, 2005 a). For the purpose of our dissertation, the important step has been to reconsider the value of core facts concerning the three core components of our research aims concerning juvenile delinquency: a) the individual and social phenomena of juvenile crime, b)causes and consequences thereof and c)Remedial measures to this effect. It should be kept in mind that qualitative data contains little or no scope for tampering and arbitrating with primary information. Indeed, our advantages of using qualitative information for this research, has yielded some amazing results e.g. the MET department sample (police stations B1, B2, B3, L, I and P) didn’t have any substantial answer for institutional deficiencies within the police system. It was therefore suggested that the police stations be given responsibility of conducting further research on factors such as recriminalising of target juvenile youth, and remedial measures to overhaul the bottlenecks in the system. The Police department has, so far, received a large number of notices in its relation to understanding the psychological and emotional attributes of imprisoned juveniles. Analysis of qualitative data is a straightforward, and non-confusing activity. There are no departures from a perceived result and/or chances for preconceived failure (Munhall, 2000). Evaluation presents a direct and easily understood summary of main information strands. There is always a possibility to arrange qualitative data in the form of question/answers arrangement (Munhall, 2000). My efforts in this dissertation have culminated into a clearly definable results summary (Refer 3.2). This also led to an unambiguous achievement in solving for the main research questions as identified in section 4.1. Had the study focused on quantitative aspects of core research (e.g. police statistics, criminal records, census data etc.), it would become a clear case of missing the wood for the trees as so much misinformation is buried under quantitative data. For example, a cursory glance at the racial characteristic of young offenders would reveal that twice as many juvenile offenders tend to be young and black, as against young and White English. This is a misleading information as it leads observers to suggest something vague like, “Blacks are more often juvenile criminals”. Qualitative data, in comparison has no such misleading information. It only captures the true extent of where the research is heading to. Read More