British and nigerian adolescents' lay theories of youth crime

Abstract

Thisrtud~eumined~orrculturaldi&rencsr in cxpluutionr for the c a m of youtb quatiom were d y r s d wing an attribution theory frmcwork. British children tended to we personal nplrnrtionr of youth aime (75%), in oompuiron, N~~u~u I childnn tended to UIC ntuatid cxpluutionr of youth aimC (61%). Tbm w u a nide Wiety of rapollla within b a e broad categories, the most frequently occunhg verbatim rapona for British 12-yar olda were "for fun" (19.2%) and "baause they M bored" (ZaO%) for the British 14-yar 016. For Nigerian 12-yar d6 the mob frequdy d g verbatim rapom mre "no home trrininp" (27.4%) and "they are poor" (17.0%) for tbe N i i 14-year oldr The raultc indiatc that Britirh children tend to blame the individual for youth crime w h m u N i i children tend to blrms otha person, (mostly tbe M y ) d tbe environamt (economic factors). The 6ndinp rrypsd youth aime is important to discunionr of tbe natwc of lay thsoria and tbeir poaibk applicrtiool. Impliationr md futun nrevch direction, M dimmad. ahrre m n g British and N i -12-d 14-ye^ 01dr Rapom to opmcaded that an ioaeued padartrndineof the dturrl dirmity in children'r lay tbsoria of INTRODUCI'ION Various explanations for juvenile crime exist in acadcmic literature, but as Hollin and Howells (1987) argue, views about crime go beyond academic theories into public opinion and lay theories. T h m is a substantial amount of literature on adult lay theories of juvenile crime (e.g., Banks et d., 1975; Furnham and Henderson, 1983; Hollin and Howells, 1987) emphasising differences between various sectors of the population, including political affiliation (Furnham and Henderson, Author for Corrsrpoodena. 21

A Study of Teachers' Perceptions of Youth Problems

“…Brown & Lalljee (1981) found that adolescents tended to explain crimes in terms of personal causes rather than situational causes. Cultural differences in British and Nigerian adolescents' explanations for youth crime were found by Pfeffer et al (1996). They found that British adolescents tended to use internal attributions and that Nigerian adolescents tended to use external attributions.…”

“…A basic distinction within attribution theory is between internal and external causes of behavior. Social psychologists (Smith & Bond, 1994;Pfeffer et al, 1996) have consistently reported that in Western cultures over-emphasis is placed on internal attributions, whereas in non-Western cultures there is evidence that more emphasis is placed on external attributions (Weisz et al, 1984). This difference is thought to be due to a focus on the individual and personal responsibility in Western societies and on the family and collective responsibility in non-Western societies (Pfeffer et al, 1996).…”

“…Lay theories for youth problems, speci cally youth crimes, have been widely researched in social psychology literature (Brown & Lalljee, 1981;Hollin & Howells, 1987;Pfeffer et al, 1996). Hollin & Howells (1987) emphasized differences between various sectors of the population and lay theories about juvenile crime.…”

Juvenile delinquency in Angola

“…However, although Pfeffer et al (1997) obtained data about what children attributed to other children's criminal behaviour, no study has been conducted that allowed African children to account for their own offending. It has been argued that there is an over-emphasis on internal attributions in western societies (Moghaddam et al, 1993).…”

“…However, in the field of social psychology, a few studies have been conducted. Pfeffer et al (1997) conducted a cross-cultural study of 196 British and Nigerian adolescents' explanations for the causes of youth crime using an attributions-theory framework; they found that British adolescents tended to blame the individual for youth crime. In contrast, Nigerian adolescents tended to blame 'other persons' and environmental factors for youth crime.…”