CHAPTER 3: THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF CHILD AND YOUTH
MISBEHAVIOUR IN SA:
THE NATURE OF CHILD AND YOUTH MISBEHAVIOUR IN SA:
STATUS OFFENCES:
-Status offences: Misbehaviors committed by children and youths, which would not be
considered illegal if perpetrated by an adult.
-This is due to the youth’s status in society.
-The behavior does not violate the criminal code, it is not dealt with by the CJS, but is left to the
discretion of parents and schools, and it prohibited for youths only because of their age.
-Status offences can be grouped into 3 types:
1. Behaviour that is prescribed because the person committing it is considered under the
age of discretion and in need of protection.
2. Behaviour that is regarded as harmful to society or self-destructive
-Children perpetrating such behavior are regarded as status offenders and directed to a
juvenile court when it is found that their parents cannot take care or control of them.
3. Pervasive behaviour that indicates maladjustment to society’s norms and values.
-Examples: Absenteeism from school (aka truancy), alcohol consumption, running away from
home, incorrigibility, disobedience and immoral conduct.
-Absenteeism = A situation where a learner is not at school for an entire day and one can
distinguish between authorized (school and parents permit it) and unauthorized (absence from
school for reasons not known to parents or school) absenteeism.
-Frequent absenteeism can lead to becoming socially isolated, children are more likely
to become involved in illegal activities, struggle to understand basic concepts relating to
the school curriculum, are more likely to become school dropouts.
-5 most common reasons for absenteeism:
-poverty, lack of transport, illness, lack of parental involvement and food insecurity.
-Underage drinking is another common status offence.
-Alcohol is the most commonly used mood-altering substance among young people.
Most alcoholic beverages are produced with the intoxicating ingredient ethyl alcohol (ethanol)
, -This is a powerful mood-altering substance, and its use by teenagers poses serious
health risks, clouding judgement and interfering with the development of social skills
and with school achievement.
-The still growing adolescent brain is especially vulnerable to alcohol’s toxic effects, with the
risk of cognitive defects, poor executive functioning and poor long-term memory.
-Research shows that underage drinking increases one’s involvement in criminal behaviour,
such as vandalism, assault, sexual offending and road traffic accidents.
-There is also an association between heavy episodic adolescent alcohol use and suicide,
becoming a victim of crime, and high-risk behaviour.
-Binge drinking means consuming five units of alcohol in quick succession.
-This causes damage to the brain which could lead to alcohol dependence.
-Reasons for the use and misuse of alcohol include;
-Peer pressure and a desire to fit in, parents condoning underage drinking, a poor home
environment and boredom, ignorance of alcohol’s harms, the relative cheapness of
alcoholic products and the ease of access to alcohol.
-Siegel and Senna discuss possible intervention strategies aimed at reducing status offences.
-Introducing curfew laws has been suggested to restrict opportunities for children to get
in trouble.
-Punishing parents for their children’s misbahviour (it is doubtful whether punishing the
parents will deter youthful offenders).
-Projects to alleviate boredom at school
- Support services
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILD AND YOUTH OFFENCES:
-Various background factors and personal characteristics as well as high-risk behaviour’s
increase the likelihood of a child becoming involved in criminal behaviour.
1. Age:
-Juvenile males commit more crimes that any other population segment, thus the crime rate
follows the proportion of young males in the population.
-The younger the child is when he/she enters the juvenile justice system, the higher the risk is
that the child will become involved in criminal behaviour.
, -3 Primary Juvenile Offending Trajectories:
1. Early-peaking moderate offenders, who showed an early onset of offending, with a
peak around the age of 14 followed by a decline.
2. Late-onset moderate offenders, who displayed little or no offending behaviour in their
early teen years but had gradual increase until the age of 16 years.
3. Chronic offenders, who demonstrated an early onset of offending with a sharp increase
throughout the timeframe of the study.
-Research shows that the peak years for both offending behaviour and for being victimized are
between the ages of 12 and 21.
-Progression through puberty has also shown to be associated with changes in behaviour in
both males and females and may be linked to an increaser in aggression and delinquency.
2. Psychological Variables:
-Deficits in respect of the social competencies of a child or adolescent (tolerance, autonomy
and emotional confidence) increase the risk of social and personal maladjustment in their
future.
-This is compounded if the child has learnt distorted cognitive scripts by observing significant
others who show aggression and rebelliousness in their daily lives.
-A script determines what events are to happen in the environment, how the child should
behave in response to these events and what the likely outcome of those behaviour’s would be.
-A child can develop hostile attribution bias.
-A child with this bias is more likely to interpret ambiguous innocent actions by peers as
hostile and threatening, which in turn can cause bullying, victimization and
psychologically related incorrigible behaviour.
3. School Performance:
-Academic failure, low bonding to school, truancy ad dropping out of school & frequent school
transitions = predictors of future violent and/or deviant behaviour.
-Some major reasons for leaving school before end of grade 12 are;
-Poverty, frustration associated with the inexperience of teachers, a lack of relevance of
the curriculum and teaching materials, the absence of parents at home, and the need to
care for siblings and/or sick family members.
