Rozmiary i uwarunkowania zachowań dewiacyjnych młodzieży wiejskiej

Bibliographic Data

ID6136957
AuthorsAndrzej Siemaszko (corresponding author), Andrzej Siemaszko Andrzej Siemaszko (Instytut Badań Przestępczości)
Year1986
Issue13
Pages7-108
Publication date1986-10-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchiwum Kryminologii (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2719-4280 • E-ISSN: 0066-6890
PublisherPolish Scientific Publishers PWN (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.7420/ak1986a
OpenAlexW3123957531
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited50

In the years 1978-1979, a study of the extent and causes of deviant behaviour in older schoolchildren was carried out in Warsaw which included three thousand persons. boys and girls. Since there was a lack of comprehensive studies of the extent and causes of social maladjustment of the rural, youth in Poland' it was decided that this study should be repeated in typically agricultural regions. The study, carried out in late l981, was aimed at the following: to construct a Polish version of the self-report delinquency scale, to estimate the extent of deviant behaviour in the analyzed populations, and to determine the variables particularly closely related to deviant behaviour. The stratified random sample consisted of 2,144 persons (1,7O2 boys and 429 girls). They were students of 86 different grades of various secondary schools, and were aged 14- 19. The study was carried out by an anonymous questionnaire which contained 124 questions; among them. there were 42 questions - about the various types of deviant behaviour, while the remaining ones concerned the separate groups of independent variables. The data on the following groups of independent variables were collected:1. the attitudes towards the family, the past and present and future family situation, and the character of interactions within the family; 2. deviance in the environment; 3. the attitudes towards friends, the character of interactions with friends and the intensity of bonds with the reference groups; 4. the attitudes towards school and the learning progress; 5. attitudes towards the legal norms; 6. the appraisal of life prospects and of the chances for fulfilment of aims and aspirations by means of legitimate methods; 7. the system of values, outlook on life and attitude towards moral norms; 8. engagement in social, cultural and sports activities and the like. A distinct group were the so-called alcohol variables, analyzed separately and the socio-demographic variables. Moreover, the questionnaire contained a ninc-question lye scale. The dependent variable was an index of 42 questions about various types of deviant behaviour. The possible answers to all the questions were indentical: "never", "once or twice", "several times", "a dozen or more times" and "more often". The sum of the respondents' affirmative answers to the questions about deviant behaviour formed the so-called variety scale. The frequency scale resulted from summing up all types of answers to each of the questions. Since the correlation between the scales of variety and frequency exceeded r :0.90, the variety scale was used in the analysis. This was due to its simplicity and a greater easiness of statistical interpretation. Three groups of deviant behaviour were distinguished for the purposes of the analysis. The first of them were manifestations of behaviour given a working term of insubordination. Though not forbidden by the law, such behaviour is improper in consideration of age or represents a challenge to the authority of the parents" guardians. teachers etc. For instance. the following types of behaviour were included here: staying away from home all night without the parents' consent. running away from home, or smoking before the age of 14. The second group were acts of "dishonesty" also not penalized as a rule– e.g. failure to give a lost thing back to its owner, or steadling rides. The third and most important group were acts that bore the character of transgressions or offences. Among others, this category included brawls. beatings and other offences against person. robbery thefts. breaking and entering, receiving stolen property, and other offences against property. The examined young persons committed the following acts, most frequently: smoking before the age of 14. stealing rides. failure to give the change left from shopping back-to the parents (over 80f of affirmative answers), failure to give the change back to a shopkeeper, failure to give back a found object (over 70% of affirmatie answers). misdemeanour at school. beating. participation in a brawl (over 50% of affirmative answers). Most seldom they admited taking drugs, picking public telephones and slipping out of a pub without paying the bill (less than 10%, of the examined persons). Generally, about 35% of the examined boys (i.e. 583 persons) admitted having committed at least once a half of the, 42 acts included in the questionnaire. over 20% of boys had a high, and 7.7% a Very high level of deviance. In the Warsaw study. a very high level of deviance was found in 6.1%, of boys. Therefore, the percentage of boys with a high level of deviance is similar in both studies and nearing other Polish estimates of the extent of social maladjustment of the school youth. In the present study, hypotheses were verified which were derived from some of the most popular theories of deviance: i.a., Sutherland's theory of differential associations, Hirschi's control theory, Merton's aims – means theory, (and the related conceptions of Cloward and Ohlin), Sykes and Matza's theory of neutralization. Also certain hypotheses were verified indirectly that were derived from the Gluecks' multifactor conception and the labeling theory: The major findings were as follows: Family situation Four items of the questionnaire made together the scale of ties with the family. These were the following questions: "Do your parents try to understand your problems?'', "Do your parents trust you?, ,,Do you generally like to discuss your plans with your parents?", "Do you trust your parents?". The scale of family ties revealed a rather high negative correlation with the deviance scale (r = -0.34 for boys and. R = -0.28 for girls). It appeared that the lesser the sense of ties with the parents. the higher the tendency to deviant behaviour. Two questions concerned the general apprasal of the atmosphere at home and the degree of the respondents' identification with their families. A strong interdependence was found between the way of defining the atmosphere- at home and the level of deviance. .The respondents who scored highest on the deviance scale, defined their atmosphere at home as bad several times more frequently, and much more seldom as good or very good, as compared with the others. As regards the question whether the respondents would like their own future families to be similar to their parental homes, the distribution of answers was alike. Among the respondents who would not like it at all or rather would not like it, there were nearly three times more of those who scored highest on the deviance scale. The global index of the attitude towards the family (constructed with the answers to all questions concerning the ties and identification with the family) revealed a negative and rather high correlation with the deviance scale, both in the case of boys (r = -0.30) and of girls (r = -0.26). Thus it appeared that deviant behaviour is inversely related to family ties and identification. Those of the examined persons who revealed a nelative attitude towards their families scored significantly higher on the scale of deviance as compared with those whose appraisal of their homes was favourable. Deviance of the environment and attitudes towards friends There were four questions that concerned deviance in the environment, one of which ("Has any member of your closest family ever been convicted by the court?'') concerned the perceived intensity of deviance in the family. Both the boys and the girls whose family member had a criminal record had the highest level of deviance. This finding is of a great theoretical as well as practical value since it demonstrates the groundlessness of the frequently accepted assumption that the family is always the source of pro-social patterns of behaviour. Three questions concerned deviance of the environment, their construction aimed at reflecting various aspects of the problem both as regards the subjective and the objective point of view: the different intensity of deviance and range of environment. The questions were: "Did you ever happened to have problems at school, boarding-school or at home because of your friends?'', "Did any of your acquaintances have a case in a juveni1e court or court of general criminal jurisdiction?", "Are there many young persons in your environment who have troubles with the police?". The distribution of answers to these questions markedly differentiated the examined populations in respect to deviance. In the groups distinguished according to their level of deviance significant differences could be found as far as the deviance of the environment is concerned. The respondents whose level of deviance was the highest appeared to move significantly more often with decidedly negative circles. A scale of deviance in the environment was constructed of the above questions. Of all the scales included in the study, this one showed the highest correlation with deviant behaviour, both in the case of boys (r = 0.56) and of girls (r = 0.36). Instead, the distribution of answers to the questions about emotional ties with the reference groups, the degree of identification with these groups and the emotional stability failed to differentiate the examined populations in respect of the degree of deviance; this finding was a surprise. Attitudes towards the law There were three items in the questionnaire that concerned the attitude towards the law: "The law should be observed"; "Most of the acts people term offences actually cause no harm at all to anybody''' and "In order to get a position in life, lawless behaviour is indispensable"; the latter two were at the same time an operationalization of the Sykes and Matza's techniques of neutralization. Opinions denying or aggreeing with the statement concerning the harmlessness of offences were the 1east important in the differentiation of the examined populations in respect to the level of deviance. This variable was also least correlated with the

Traditional medicine · Education and Cultural Studies · Labour Market and Migration · Medicine · Psychology · Social Issues in Poland

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