Young Offenders’ Lifestyle and Delinquency

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Young offenders’ lifestyle is considered to be an important risk factor for delinquency. In general, studies conducted to date are interested in certain types of activities (Miller, 2013) or in the number of hours spent in contexts considered to be criminogenic (Higgins & Jennings, 2010). However, no author has yet shown interest in a more general analysis of the young offenders’ lifestyle. A broader understanding of these youth’s life habits would help identify the most criminogenic lifestyles and focus interventions on reducing them. This communication aims to 1) identify the different types of lifestyles among young offenders; 2) link this typology of lifestyles with young offenders’ individual characteristics; 3) identify the most criminogenic lifestyles. In this study, 100 young offenders from the Montreal’s Youth Center in the province of Quebec, aged 14 to 18 years, were interviewed. Through cluster analysis, four lifestyle profiles have emerged. Young people in each of these profiles cannot be distinguished from each other in regards to their individual characteristics. However, the youth crime rate in each profile is different. These results reiterate the importance of considering contextual characteristics in addition to individual characteristics in the explanation of delinquency.

Authors

• Catherine Pineau-Villeneuve, University of Montreal

• Geneviève Parent, University of Montreal