Who are the most ‘violent’ young
adolescents?
Claire Gavray – Univ. Liège (Belgium)
Nicole Vettenburg – Univ. Gent (Belgium)
Ljubljana – 9-12 september 2009
Claire.gavray@ulg.ac.be / nicole.vettenburg@ugent.be
Introduction
• Important issue
• Violence:
– attitude towards violence (valorisation of
violence)
– Gender
• ISRD2 – Belgium
Tabel 1. Life-time and last year prevalence
Life time
%
Last year
%
Freq. violent offences a
27.5
18.0
Rare violent offences b
6.6
4.1
n = 2247, weighted data; prevalence based on valid cases
a group fight and carrying an object which can serve for protection or attack
b pick pocketing/snatching, robbery/extortion, and assault
Delinquent behavior and attitude
Tabel 2. Odds ratios of logistic regression for violent delinquent behaviours on demographic,
family- and school-related and lifestyle variables as well as individual descriptors
Block 1: demographic
Male
Age
Migrant (ref=native)
2.42 ***
1.08
2nd generation
1st generation
Block 2: family
Intact family
Good relationship with mother
Good relationship with father
1.29
0.98
0.91
0.99
0.97
Block 3: school
Positive attitudes towards school
Negative attitudes towards school
Skip school
Grade (reference: 7th grade)
1.01
1.28 *
1.16
8th grade
9th grade
Block 4: lifestyle
Alcohol
Drugs
Delinquent friends
Goes out
Time spent with (reference: alone)
0.69
0.60
2.39
2.28
2.23
1.75
Family
Friends
***
***
***
**
Discriminated
Victim
0.99
1.42
1.20
1.48 *
Block 5:individual
Low self-control
Positive attitude to violence
1.49 *
2.27 ***
Tabel 3. Relationship between offences & attitude to violence
Agregated offences
Average score of attit. To
violence
A. Freq. Violent offences
Sign.
***
- ja (n= 395)
2,60
- nee (n= 1799)
1,94
B. Rare violent offences
***
- ja (n= 91)
2,91
- nee (n= 2104)
2,02
C. Rare property offfences
***
- ja (n= 89)
2,80
- nee (n= 2110)
2,03
D. Harddrug use
***
- ja (n= 25)
2,79
- nee (n= 2167)
2,05
E. Alcohol use
***
- ja (n=793)
2,19
- nee (n= 1411)
1,99
• In the descriptive analyses:
– Mutual relationship (behaviour – attitude)
– Gender differences concerning:
• Violence
• Personal & social profile
Construction of a score of attitude towards
violence (valorisation)
Five items:
1. A bit of violence is part of the fun
2. One needs to make use of force to be respected
3. If somebody attacks me, I will hit him/her back
4. Without violence everything would be much more
boring
5. It is completely normal that men want to prove
themselves in physical fights with others
=> Possibility to answers: fully disagree – somewhat disagree – somewhat
agree – fully agree
Tabel 4. Attitude to violence – girls & boys
Fully disagree
%
Girls
Boys
A bit of violence is part of the fun
57
32
One needs to make use of force to be respected
70
44
If somebody attacks me, I will hit him/her back
16
10
Without violence everything would be much more
boring
66
45
It is completely normal that men want to prove
themselves in physical fights with others
41
33
Creation of a new variable ‘highest attitude’:
in each gendergroup
=> 25% highest valorisation versus 75%
• Girls: 25% of 1096=280
• Boys: 25% of 1151= 323
Analyses:
– First step: total group (boys + girls)
– Second step: same analyses in each gender group
Results: A. Total group
• Significant correlation between attitude to violence and:
– Problems of physical wealth and number of accidents
– High self-evaluated level of crime at school (a lot of
stealing, fighting, vandalism drugs…)
– School problems (repeating, truancy)
– Surinvestment in their group of friends, specially
delinquent ones
– Negatives relations with the parents, especially with
mother
– Low level of selfcontrol
– Use of alcohol and drugs (own and parent’s ones)
– Delinquency rates and especially violent behaviour
Results: B. Gender groups
Similarities:
–
–
–
–
–
use of alcohol and drugs
physical wealth and number of accidents
delinquency rates and especially violent behaviour
level of selfcontrol
surinvestment in group of friends, specially in
delinquent one
– desinvestment in school and schooling
– self-evaluated level of crime at school
– quality of relationships with parents
Differences:
Already differences concerning those factors
between boys and girls valorising most violence
• Relationships with peers
Member of a ‘gang’
54% boys
39% girls
Mixed group
76% girls
47% boys
• Relationships with school
repeated a grade
truancy
realistic self-eval.achievement
like school
good relationships / teachers
>
girls
boys
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
boys : broader instrumental conception of school…
and neighbourhood
Very significant differences directly visible
in explicative analyses
Concerning
• Family, social and cultural characteristics
• Negative life-events and early victimisation
(Only) all those discriminant gender variables in a
explicative model of attitude towards violence
²girls
Pr> F
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
boys
Pr > F
Depression
Recently hit
Birthplace
Family omposition
Father’s diplôme
Mother at work
Other spoken language
Relations with mother
Relations with facther
Lost a brother or…
Leisure otherwise than family
0.25
0.04
0.24
0.02
0.40
0.13
0.02
0.16
0.44
0.03
0.53
0.92
0.78
0.19
0.33
0.90
0.15
0.11
0.16
0.86
0.81
0.03
Signification of the model Pr > F
R2
0.02
0.13
0.10
0.6
CONCLUSIONS
Delinquent behaviour
attitude towards violence
----------------->
< ----------------
Girls + Boys
25% highest ‘violent’
Same predictors
YES but…=/=. Et =/=
Girls
family, social, cultural marks
early l.e, victimisations
> isolated reaction ?
Boys
> collective identity ?