Risky behavior falls along the continuum of delinquency and social deviation and is common among adolescents. It can significantly influence the development of their social identity in adulthood. This paper introduces an actuarial tool for objective risk assessment of delinquency and social deviance in adolescents and families. It has two main categories: protective factors (personal, interpersonal, family, and community layers) and risk factors (violence, substance abuse, delinquency, victimization, risky sexual behavior, self-harm, dropout), considering peer and family influences. Validation involved professional input, testing with at-risk frameworks, statistical validity and reliability analysis, and experts resolving criteria issues. This proposed tool holds significant importance in precisely mapping the risk factors and resilience of adolescents in the context of delinquency and social deviation. It facilitates the development of personalized and tailored treatment plans.

Keywords: Risk assessment, Risk factors, Protective factors, Juvenile delinquency, Youth resilience, Youth at risk

Crime among youth is one of the major social encounters affecting most of the black Townships in South Africa. Inanda township has emerged as one of the areas in eThekwini with the high rates of violent crimes. The sort of crime that occurs in this area range from murder cases, attempted murder, and sexual offences. In this study, it has been noticed that most of these criminal activities are carried out by youth between the ages of 18-35. This study aimed at evaluating the relationship between African parenting style and its relationship with Youths’ tendency to participate in a crime. The study took place at Inanda Township. The research used a qualitative approach to gather data from 20 participants, through in-depth interviews involving a semi-structured approach. The finding of this study demonstrated that parenting style has a strong influence on the behaviour displayed by their children within a community. It has also been discovered that some youth get involved in delinquent behaviour, not because of poor parenting, but rather because of peer pressure or friend influence leading us to look back at Sutherlands’ Differential Association Theory suggesting that delinquent behaviour is genetically a function of learning delinquency through association within delinquents within intimate personal groups. Even though the entourage influences molding youths’ behaviour, still parenting style should be held accountable for how they raise their children who they send to society. Hence, the findings reveal that parenting style was very influential in shaping youth behaviour.

Keywords: Parenting Style, Crime, Youth, Africa

Work-home balance is an important goal for most employees, including prison officers; however, work-family conflict occurs when the work and home domains are out of balance. Strain-based conflict is one type of work-family conflict, and it occurs when work problems follow a person home and create conflict at home. The current study used the job demands-resources model to determine how the demand variables of role overload, fear of victimization and the resource variables of instrumental communication, quality supervision, and job autonomy were related to the strain-based conflict of surveyed officers at a southeast Nigerian prison. Based on multivariate regression analysis of survey data from 120 Nigerian prison officers, role overload and fear of victimization had significant positive associations with strain-based conflict and instrumental communication and job autonomy had significant negative associations. Quality supervision had a nonsignificant negative association with work-family conflict.

Keywords: Prison Officers; Job Demands-Resources Model; Work-Family Conflict; Correctional Staff; Nigeria

This paper addresses the perceptions and experiences of cyber bullying that young people make in the context of anonymous online profiles. This includes the topic how hurtful such behaviour is perceived. Morevover, the question is raised in how far such experiences might even relativise the anonymity on the internet from the perspective of those affected. This is based in empirical data of 40 qualitative interviews of adolescents from Germany who were thirteen to seventeen years old. The explorative examination was based in the Grounded Theory. The findings demonstrate the severe impairment that some victims perceive, especially against anonymous and multiple online profile with which they particularly identified themselves and in which they invested a lot of time and effort. This kind of victimisation could even damage the perceived integrity of their online profiles as well as the integrity of their own persona. Overall, the findings indicate that it is worthwhile to consider the individual perceptions of people affected by cyber bullying much more in criminological research, but also in criminal justice.

Keywords: cyber bullying, relative anonymity, integrity, perception

Cyberbullying victimization has been shed lights on as a significant social problem, which has caused serious detrimental, suicide for its youth victims. Thus, it is imperative to understand the student’s risk of cyberbullying victimization in order to establish crime prevention strategies to secure our school environment. The purpose of this study is to conclude the relationship between the school’s guardianship efforts and cyberbullying victimization. Data analyzed in this study was derived from the 2017 National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement. The findings of this study indicate that the school’s rule environment is negatively associated with cyberbullying victimization, whereas school security and social support (teacher or adult at school) were not significant predictors of cyberbullying victimization. The policy implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

Keywords: cyberbullying, school security, school rule environment, social support, NCVS

Criminological research indicates that the Latinx population disproportionately commits crime. Latinx youth represent nearly 30% of the juvenile justice system. In 2008, Pérez and colleagues examined ethnic-specific differences that affect Latinx in the strain delinquency relationship. The authors used Latinx General Strain Theory (LGST) to identify the distinctive strains Latinx experienced as a result of their unique socio-cultural and ethnic experiences. However, the impact Latinx negative perceptions of police have on Latinx delinquency has yet to be fully identified. This study examines the impact police perceptions have on Latinx delinquency. Results suggest that Latinx youth who reported negative perceptions of police were likelier to report delinquency. Future research should examine more measures of police perceptions or police racial discrimination in the Latinx delinquency relationship.

Keywords: Police Perceptions, Latinx, Latinx Delinquency

This study tested a social control model on alcohol outcomes among Mainland Chinese university students. Respondents with close parental ties were less likely to consume alcohol and those that had close relationships with drinking/smoking friends, were more likely to. In addition, results indicated that students with positive school commitment and parental bonds were less likely to be currently or frequently drinking. Moreover, respondents attached to their university were related to lower levels of frequent drinking, while students who smoked cigarettes were associated with higher levels. The limitations of this study are also discussed.

Keywords: social control theory, social bond theory, China, delinquency, Hirschi