Risk and Protective Factors Related to Offending: Results from a Chinese Cohort Study
| DOI | 10.1177/00048658040370S102 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Author | Xin Ren,Elmar G.M. Weitekamp,Terrance J. Taylor,Hans-Jürgen Kerner,Paul C. Friday |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Risk
and
Protective Factors Related
to
Offending: Results From
a
Chinese
Cohort Study
Terrance ].Taylor
Department of Criminal justice, Georgia State University, United States ofAmerica
Paul
C.
Friday
Criminal justice Department, University of North Carolina
at
Charlotte,
United States ofAmerica
Xin
Ren
Criminal justice Department, California State University-Sacramento,
United States ofAmerica
Elmar G.M.Weitekamp
Department
of
Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law,
Katholic University Leuven, Belgium
Hans-Jurgen Kerner
Institute of Criminology, University ofTubingen, Federal Republic of Germany
ecent research has illustrated the importance of
risk
and protective
sample of
81
offenders and
81
nonoffenders residing in Wuhan, China, in
I99
1/92
to determine how the accumulation
of
risk
and protective factors
in various domains differentiates offenders from nonoffenders. Specifically,
we examine the importance
of
multiple causation and cumulative effects
of
risk
and protective factors as they apply in a Chinese context. Results
suggest that the
risk
and protective factor approach often used in studies
of western offending also holds promise in studies
of
Chinese offending.
Specifically, our findings support the importance of examining multiple
causation and cumulative effects
of
risk
and protective factors as related to
offending. The findings also suggest that the
risk
and protective factors
found
to
be important in China may be somewhat different
to
those
identified through studies conducted in the West, illustrating the impor-
tance of recognising historical and cultural context in the
risk
and protec-
tive factor paradigm.
R
factors on offending.The current study examines survey data from a
Recent criminological efforts have attempted to outline risk and protective factors
of criminal offending in hopes of developing successful prevention and intervention
Address
for
correspondence: Terrance J. Taylor, Department
of
Criminal Justice, Georgia
State University,
PO
Box
4018, Atlanta, GA,
USA
30302-4018. E-mail: tjtaylor@gsu.edu
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TERRANCE J.TAYLOR ETAL.
programs. While early research into the ‘causes’ of delinquency tried to identify the
factors most associated with becoming delinquent (e.g., Glueck
&
Glueck, 1950) or
inhibiting involvement
in
delinquency (e.g., Hirschi, 1969), Hawkins, Catalano and
Miller (1992) have introduced the notions of risk and protective factor approach
within the criminological discipline. Their early work drew
on
the emergent research
in
the fields of public health, which has since been expanded (Kazdin et al., 1997;
Kraemer et
al.,
1997;
Mercy
&
O’Carroll,
1988)
to identify factors that enhanced
or
ameliorated the odds that an individual would misuse alcohol and illicit drugs in
adolescence and early adulthood. Their efforts also provided a foundation for efforts
to apply criminological theory in developing successful prevention practices
(Hawkins, Catalano,
&
Brewer, 1995). Since that time, efforts have turned to identi-
fying and categorising risk and protective factors for a number
of
misbehaviours,
especially serious, chronic and/or violent behaviour (for extensive reviews, see the
works of Howell et
al.,
1995; Loeber
&
Farrington, 1998). Many of the identified risk
and protective factors come from longitudinal studies conducted in the United States
(Denno,
1990;
Elliott, Huisinga,
&
Ageton, 1985; Gleuck
&
Gleuck, 1950;
Hawkins et al., 1992; McCord
&
McCord, 1959; Polk et
al.,
1981; Robins
&
Wish,
1977; Shannon,
1988;
West
&
Farrington, 1973; Wolfgang, Figlio,
&
Sellin, 1972);
England, Wales and Scotland (Farrington &West,
1993;
Ferguson, 1952; West, 1969;
Wilkins, 1960); Scandinavia (Christiansen, 1964; Guttridge et
al., 1983;
Magnusson,
Stattin,
&
Duner, 1983; Wickstrom,
1985);
and Germany (Pongratz et al., 1977;
Traulsen, 1976; Weschke
&
Krause, 1983).
To
this
point, however, only one such
cohort study has been conducted in
a
developing country (Puerto Rico; Nevares,
Wolfgang,
&
Tracy, 1990).
Data for the current project were collected as part of a study initiated
by
the late
Marvin Wolfgang in 1989 and later
by
Friday, Ren and Weitekamp (2002).
Working with the China Society for Juvenile Delinquency Research, Wolfgang
initiated an ambitious project to collect information from police records on
a
birth
cohort for a population born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in 1973. The
original cohort
as
designed
by
Wolfgang and his Chinese colleagues consisted of all
persons in the Wuchang District of the city
of
Wuhan who were born in
1973.’
While some basic descriptive information documenting the low offending rate and
basic characteristics of the sample was published in Chinese
(Xu
et al., 1994, 1996,
1997), Wolfgang passed away and much
of
the cohort data he had originally
collected was sadly lost before any substantial analysis of the data.
One component of the original Wolfgang data collection was retained,
however: surveys were completed
by
all
81 offenders identified in police records
and
a
matched group of 81 nonoffenders. The present study examines this survey
data to examine two specific research questions. First, what are the risk and protec-
tive factors for offending and are they different from those identified in western
studies? Second, what are the relationships between the risk and protective factors
associated with offending? Specifically, how much overlap is there between the risk
and protective factors identified in the Chinese birth cohort?
We begin
by
discussing previous research, which has used the risk and protec-
tive factor approach for studying juvenile delinquency. Since
this
work has been
mainly conducted in western countries, we then turn our attention to an examina-
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