Juvenile crime, or is it all just a game?

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Juvenile offenders often perceive their actions differently than adults do. For example, “cell phone theft” is a typical offense among young people that is often viewed more as a game. This project aims to identify the patterns through which young people perceive and evaluate their actions, as well as the underlying logic they use to interpret and justify them. This insight will also be applied in practice to inform preventive measures.

Department

Social Sciences

Peer delinquency: perception and assessment of typical youth offences from the perspective of young people as a basis for prevention measures

Differences in perception and evaluation become all the clearer when criminal behaviour among young people is considered in their everyday context. For example, young people often justify typical mobile phone theft on the basis of underlying "rules of the game" for victims and perpetrators. It is not uncommon for offenders to have had experiences as victims themselves. The research is based on numerous group discussions, individual interviews with young offenders and with social workers, law enforcement officers, juvenile court judges, probation officers, etc. Building on this, around 1,600 girls and boys will be interviewed in Vienna using innovative audio vignettes.

Research Goals

Young people's perception and evaluation patterns as well as interpretation and legitimisation logics
Preventive measures
Group discussions, individual interviews, expert interviews
Survey of 1,600 young people