Worldview of High-Risk Juvenile Delinquents

Abstract

Societal-level risk factors can identify those at risk for violence but do not purport to determine how these factors affect individual-level beliefs or judgments. The current study examined high-risk, violent juvenile offenders with devastating past experiences to determine whether an individual-level approach could identify differences in the way they perceived their social world and whether these perceptions influenced the decision-making process. Participants—34 high-risk male delinquents between 15 and 18—were administered quantitative, structured interviews with both traditional risk factors and a decision-making task that required a judgment that could or could not lead to violence. Using traditional risk factors alone, participants appeared homogeneous. The decision-making approach distinguished between juveniles who, as one might expect, perceived a dangerous world where they either “kill or be killed,” from juveniles who optimistically were able to envision a world with alternatives to violence. These differences accounted for aspects of the decision-making process not captured by traditional risk factors and were significantly related to violent past behavior. We must improve upon a recidivism rate of 55% for juvenile offenders. A better understanding of how offenders perceive their social environment may be a first step towards successfully rehabilitating them to return to that environment upon release.