Life-course and desistance from crime for juvenile offender- An analysis from the perspective of resilience

• Main Authors: Su-Hui Chang, 張淑慧
• Other Authors: 許春金、 陳玉書
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2s5pdm

博士 === 中央警察大學 === 犯罪防治研究所 === 101 === ABSTRACT Interviews and social factors are used to study the progress of five juvenile offender case studies that were listed in the restraint database in 1996, but who have not committed a crime between 2003 and 2013. This study determines how age, maturity, societal incidents and human agency lead to a desistance from crime due to an altered life course and resilience. This study also analyses the sustainability of desistance from crime and the behavioral mechanism and traces the history of juvenile offenders who desist from crime and return to society. Finally, this study makes suggestions for strategies for desistance from crime, the guidance and assistance of juvenile offenders and future policy. This study draws conclusions and examines the process that causes juveniles to commit crimes and analyzes the sustainability of desistance from crime and the method for returning to the society after desistance from crime. In terms of life course, puberty marks the start of behavioral variation and is a critical moment for life change, so the first crime usually occurs at between 13 to 15 years of age. However, the age at which crimes are first committed is not rigid, because family experiences in the early years affect life development and unexpected life incidents and environmental pressures can induce juveniles to commit crimes. The development of criminal behavior is divided into “early stage”, “induced stage” and “continued stage”. The transition to desisting from crime is continuous and cumulative. The progress of this transition is affected by age, maturity, societal incidents and variation in life course. Age and maturity lead to positive development and societal incidents bring opportunities for change. The human agency feeds back and induces good behaviors and increases the scope for social control through personal agency, proxy agency and collective agency. Finally, it enables adaptability to environmental pressures and triggers the mechanism to desist from crime. The factors related to desisting from crime are many, such as inherent and external systems, including personal, family and social systems. The sustainability of desistance from crime is progressive. They give the juvenile offender a way of returning to society in four active stages: “reduce reliance on life experience when difficult incidents arise”, “decrease or cut off the link to negative crises”, “increase aggression” and “become more positive” in conjunction with three resilience factors: “the ability to make decisions”, “external resources” and “interactive learning” and the supports from societal resources. The human agency and resilience are interrelated. Both can lead to a desistance from crime and a return to society. Under the effect of a human agency and resilience, the juvenile offender can decide to cease criminal behavior by their own free will and develop a new life that depends on “private logic”, “life plan” and “fictional goal” that allows a desistance from crime and the construction of a good life.