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THE OFFENDING TRAJECTORIES OF YOUTHFUL ABORIGINAL OFFENDERS
Annie K. Yessine
National Crime Prevention Centre
James Bonta
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
The current study examine the offending trajectories of Aboriginal youths under a probation sentence in Manitoba, Canada, and compared them to those of non-Aboriginal juvenile probationers. The results from growth-mixture analyses indicated that, for both sub-samples, a two-group latent trajectory model best represented the shape of the developmental progression in criminal behaviour from early adolescence to middle adulthood. While a small proportion of the offenders showed serious and persistent offending behaviour over their life-course, the majority of the juvenile probationers engaged in relatively less frequent and/or serious criminal activity over time. The size of the chronic high-offending trajectory group was slightly larger among the Aboriginal offenders (18.7%) than among the non-Aboriginal offenders (12.3%). Additional analyses revealed that the Aboriginal offenders were more likely to come from an impoverished background, characterized by an unstable familial environment, substance use, and negative peer associations. These criminogenic risk/needs contributed to their serious and persistent pattern of criminality. In contrast, accommodation problems predicted increased odds of membership in the chronic high group of the non-Aboriginal offenders. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications and suggestions for future research.
EMOTIONS AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR VICTIMS' RIGHTS IN CANADA
Karen Stanbridge and J. Scott Kenney
Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Prevailing explanations of the increase in collective action surrounding victims' rights in early 1980s Canada generally follow the precepts of political process, resource mobilization, and framing approaches in social-movements research by depicting the movement as a corollary of contemporary organizational, political, and cultural conditions. We find that the increase in activism, while certainly influenced by such factors, also required that victim-advocate groups properly manage, display, and frame the strong emotions associated with the victim experience – grief, fear, injustice, and anger – to maintain the internal integrity of the group as well as its external or public legitimacy. Our analysis contributes to social-movements analyses of how understandings of movement dynamics can be deepened by paying attention to how emotions play out in the process of collective action.
THE USE OF RISK FACTORS PROPOSED BY DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN PREDICTING PROGRAM DROP-OUT
Marina Rachitskiy
University of Surrey
Ralph Serin
Carleton University
G. Tendayi Viki
University of Kent
This archival study investigated the use of risk factors proposed by certain theories of developmental pathways of antisocial behaviour, namely those of Moffitt (1993) and Loeber (1985), in predicting program drop-out at a treatment facility for youths exhibiting serious behavioural difficulties (Robert/Smart Centre). The study evaluated 113 youths admitted to the RSC on their infractions during treatment and seven risk factors proposed by the two developmental theories. Analyses indicated that youth who failed to complete the RSC prescribed intervention programs exhibited a wider variety of infractions during treatment. Both variety of infractions and program drop-out were significantly predicted by the developmental risk factors. Specifically, infractions, early overt behaviour, current covert behaviour, and cognitive/learning difficulties were the best predictors of program drop-out. Mediation analyses revealed a direct relationship only between program drop-out and current covert behaviour. Interestingly, mediation analyses revealed that variety of infractions suppressed the relationship between program drop-out and cognitive/learning difficulties. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
