Brazilian Young Offenders: Profile and Risk Factors for Criminal Behavior

Alex Eduardo Gallo

doi:10.6000/1929-4409.2013.02.16

Authors

Alex Eduardo Gallo Departamento de Psicologia Geral e Análise do Comportamento / Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Mestrado em Análise do Comportamento, Universidade Estadual de Londrina Rod. Celso Garcia Cid, Km 380, CP: 10.011 - CEP: 86057-970 - Londrina, PR, Brazil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2013.02.16

Keywords:

Criminal behavior, demographic variables, risk factors

Abstract

This paper presents a study that belongs to a research program, driving at the development of adequate social repertoire, which could decrease offences by youth. Adolescents attended in community services and probation programs in a mid-size Brazilian city were characterized, under objective of assessing the major number of variables and its correlation to criminal behavior. Data were collected in a survey design and major results showed that: 87.8% were male, and age average was 15.9 years; about the offences, theft was the most common one (36.7%) followed by robbery (15.4%) and drug-dealing (9%). Most of themwere not attending school and 61.8% had only the elementary degree. The results suggest that not attending school was associated to increasing number of re-incidences, use of drugs and use of weapons.

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