Results of the second round of the international self-report delinquency (ISRD2) study: Importance of education and social learning for 12-15 year olds

Abstract

The first part of this chapter describes the basic structural contours of youth crime and victimization in a comparative perspective; the second part of the chapter focuses on the importance of school, education and social learning. Accordingly, this chapter reports on the results of a large international collaborative study of juvenile delinquency and victimization (International Self Report Delinquency Study-ISRD2) conducted in 30 countries between 2006 and 2008. About 68,000 pupils in grades 7, 8 and 9 (12-15 year old) answered questions about alcohol and drug use, offending, victimization, family, school, friends, neighborhood and attitudes towards violence. Presentation of the results uses six country clusters, based on an expansion of Esping-Andersen's (1990) welfare regimes: Anglo-Saxon countries (liberal model), West-European countries (corporatist model), Scandinavian countries (social democratic model), South European countries (Mediterranean model), Post-socialist countries, and a Latin American group. The overall result is that delinquent behavior and victimization is a rather common, typical experience among most youth. Youth who spend more time with family rather than friends, and youth who like school and perform well are less likely to commit delinquent acts (and be victimized) than their counterparts. This finding is true for all 30 countries in the study.