Policing Youth Crime: Children's Views
| Author | Bankole Cole,Karen Pfeffer |
| Published date | 01 January 1996 |
| Date | 01 January 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9606900102 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
KAREN PFEFFER, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University
of
Humberside
BANKOLE COLE, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University
of
Humberside; Member
of
the Humberside Police Research Group
POLICING YOUTH CRIME:
CHILDREN'S VIEWS
Introduction
Concern about youth crime has a long history. Much literature exists in
the United Kingdom on the nature and extentof youth offending and how
the criminal justice system has dealt with the problem (eg, Rutter and
Giller, 1984; Home Office, 1987; Morris and Giller, 1987). Central to the
body of available literature is the notion that youth crime control and
prevention are matters for the whole community. In addition, the strategic
role that the police play or should play is often emphasized.
Police work in the field of youth crime prevention and control has been
concentrated mainly in two areas: (i) police involvement in schools in the
form of police/schoolliaison schemes, and (ii) multi-agency cooperation
between the police and other interested public or private bodies on projects
designed to tackle youth crime in the community (NACRO, 1984-1985;
Blagg etal., 1988;Cooper, 1989). Today, most police forces in the United
Kingdom have links with schools and many also support holiday schemes
for children and young people (eg, SPACE; 'Operation Lifestyle'). It is
often argued that the aim of these holiday programmes is not to reduce
criminal opportunities but to increase the typeand number of non-criminal
opportunities available to those at risk of offending. However, the main
principle behind such projects is that they have the potential to reduce
youth crime, at least in the long-term (ACPS, 1986; Heal and Laycock,
1987).
Children's
views
What do young people think about police work in youth crime prevention?
Hewstone and Hopkins (1991) and Hopkins et al. (1992) evaluated the
impact of Police Schools Liaison (PSL) on young people's views and
attitudes about the police and offending, focusing on young people's
attitudes towards the police. They found limited positive effects of PSL
on young people's attitudes towards the police; however, the effects on
young people's views about crime prevention was not examined.
Young people's views about crime, crime prevention and the criminal
justice system have been examined from a developmental perspective,
within a legal socialization framework (Adelson et al., 1969; Tapp and
Levine, 1977; Torney, 1977; Emler and Hogan, 1981). Legal socialization
refers to "the development of legal ideas, concepts, attitudes, reasoning
January 1996 The Police Journal 5
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