March 2009
Social risk factors for
involvement in crime
This brief provides an introductory discussion of five areas of
social risk factors for involvement in crime: family, education,
economics, community and peers, and alcohol and other drugs.
Family
Family environment and parental Parental behaviours play a strong role in shaping a child’s risk of
behaviour are important risk or later involvement in criminality.
protective factors for
involvement in crime because of Parental criminality appears to be strongly correlated with an
their influence on a child’s
increased risk of a child of developing conduct problems and later
development
criminal involvement. The influence of parental criminality is
complex because of the multiple mechanisms (shared
environmental factors, genetic and other biological risk factors,
negative modelling by parents) involved that potentially pass on a
parent’s risk of criminal involvement to their child.
Poor parenting practices, such as poor parental supervision and
parents’ rejection of a child, are modest predictors of subsequent
delinquency by the child. Children who experience severe or
harsh parental practices have increased rates of conduct
problems, substance abuse, depression and anxiety and violent
crime in early adulthood, compared to those whose parents did
not use physical punishment.
Family violence and maltreatment of children have significant
inter-generational effects on an individual’s likelihood of becoming
involved in crime. Some research suggests that maltreatment
during childhood doubles an individual’s probability of engaging in
many types of crime.
The effect of family influences appear to be greatest during the
early years of a child’s life and reduces as they get older, although
poor parental supervision and low levels of warmth between
parents and their teenage children have also been identified as a
contributing risk factors for future offending.
Attachment 3
Social risk factors for involvement in crime
Education
Education has an important role in influencing an individual’s
Success in education reduces opportunity for success in society. Non-participation in school level
the economic benefits of crime education is a risk factor for later delinquency and criminal activity.
and thus the incentives behind Education changes the relative opportunities afforded by crime,
criminal offending
and in particular property crime, compared to legitimate
employment. Greater levels of education ensure greater returns
from employment, making it more attractive than crime.
A low level of parental education (neither parent having a school
qualification) have also been identified as a risk factor for future
offending for children aged under 13 years.
Economic
Economic factors that influence criminal behaviour include relative
Economic factors, such as
wealth (disparity), poverty (deprivation) and unemployment.
disparity, deprivation and
unemployment, put individuals at
risk of criminal offending The balance of evidence suggests a link between disparity and
violent crime. The strength of this relationship is debated but
international analysis suggests that a relationship exists after
controlling for other factors.
Evidence suggests that deprivation is associated with criminal
offending across the spectrum. Analysis from the Christchurch
Health and Development Study argues that socio-economic
deprivation is associated with self-reported crime and officially
recorded convictions, even after controlling for parental, individual,
school, and peer factors.
Unemployment is a predictor of involvement related to crime, but
in particular property crime and not violent crime. The strength of
the relationship between unemployment and crime is contested, it
is unclear how significant this relationship is compared to other
social and economic factors.
Community and peers
Community and peers primarily Community and neighbourhood effects on criminality are hard to
appear to affect antisocial measure but they do appear to exert an influence on antisocial
behaviour
behaviour and crime. Neighbourhood effects become more
important as a child gets older.
Many studies have shown that antisocial peer groups play an
important part in the development of deviancy and violence.
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Social risk factors for involvement in crime
Alcohol and other drugs
The exact nature of the relationship between alcohol and other
Alcohol and other drugs present drugs (AoD) and crime is complex. Not all consumption of AoD
a risk for particular individuals
and are often associated with directly leads to criminal offending but sustained abuse of either
other risk factors drugs or alcohol does appear to increase an individual’s chance of
becoming involved in crime. Offending committed by individuals
under the influence of AoD is often affected by other factors, such
as mental health, temperament, geographic location and peer
influences.