Potential risk and promotive factors for serious delinquency in Japanese female youth

ABSTRACT

In Japan, concerns toward contemporary youth offending and violence have resulted in multiple changes in the treatment of youth. These changes are the result of negative societal perceptions of youth following a string of violent youth-on-youth murders and media sensationalizing juvenile crimes. Compared to what is known about male criminality, very little is known about female criminality, particularly about important risk and promotive factors for delinquency. Using the risk factor prevention paradigm, the study investigates potential risk and promotive factors for delinquency in 219 Osaka female youths, aged 15–18. The findings show that the strongest risk factors were high risk-taking and having troubled peers, whereas having a nonworking mother had promotive effects. Females were also compared to males, and the only significantly different factor was having a nonworking mother.

KEYWORDS:

• Japan
• risk factors
• delinquency
• females
• gender discrepancy
• promotive factors

Notes

1. 22 were excluded because 4 did not report their gender and 18 did not respond to all the delinquency and deviance items.

2. The seriousness scale is rated as follows: personal attack: 13.21 (picking a fight with someone, hurting someone in a fight); motor vehicle theft: 6.70 (taking a bicycle/scooter/motorbike for a ride without the owner’s permission); burglary: 6.43 (breaking into a house, store, school or other building without the owner’s permission); common theft: 5.07 (taking parents’ money without permission); shoplifting: 2.20 (shoplifting); vandalism: 1.80 (drawing graffiti on buildings or other property); public mischief: 0.70 (smoking cigarettes, running away from home, pachinko, staying out somewhere other than home).

3. The categories were scored as none = 1, one to two times = 1, three or more times = 2.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank 社会安全研究財団 (Research Foundation for Safe Society) and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for their generous support.

Notes on contributors

Laura Bui

Laura Bui, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Violence Prevention Research Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.

David P. Farrington

David P. Farrington, OBE, is emeritus professor of psychological criminology at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. He received his doctorate in experimental psychology from Cambridge University. His major research interest is in developmental criminology, and he is director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of over 400 London males from age 8 to age 56. In addition to over 650 published journal articles and nearly 100 books on criminological and psychological topics, he has published 96 books, monographs, and government publications.

Mitsuaki Ueda

Mitsuaki Ueda, PhD, is associate professor at the Institute of Advanced Research and Education, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He received his PhD in welfare society studies from Kyoto Prefectural University. His research interests include criminological theories, comparative criminology, fear of crime, and desistance from crime and delinquency.