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STATUS OFFENCE

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011

A delinquency or crime that can only be committed by people occupying a particular status.

The Juvenile Delinquents Act (replaced in 1984) for example, created criminal offences of school truancy, incorrigibility, sexual immorality and violations of liquor laws.

Only young people could be charged with or found to be in a state of delinquency because of these behaviours.

It was found that approximately 20% of young girls coming to youth court did so because of their sexual behaviour while few boys were brought to court on these grounds.

Smoking and symbolism: children, communication and cigarettes 
J. Rugkåsa, O. Kennedy, M. Barton, P. S. Abaunza, M. P. Treacy, and B. Knox 
Northern Ireland Centre for Diet and Health, School of Biomedical Sciences
Health promotion, with its concern with empowerment and autonomy, must recognize the agency of its target population. Based on 85 in-depth interviews with 10- to 11-year-old children throughout Northern Ireland, this paper argues that it is necessary to focus on the social relations of children if we are to understand and prevent childhood smoking. Addressing the complex issue of childhood agency, it is argued that regardless of various restrictions to their choices, children can act intentionally in constructing their identities. Instead of viewing the smoking children as communicating with the adult world, we focus on smoking as negotiation of status within the children's culture. Such negotiations utilize symbolism derived from and shared with the `adult world'. It is important that those analyzing children's lives understand children's ideas and behaviour on their own terms. We must make sure that the very concepts in which the children's experiences are put are appropriate ones. It is suggested that the metaphor `rite of passage' and terminology such as peer `pressure' versus adult `influence', commonly used to analyse the children's smoking behaviour, may actually conceal important aspects of childhood agency. - her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/16/2/131

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender 
Josine Junger-Tas 
Denis Ribeaud 
Maarten J. L. F. Cruyff 
This article considers differences in patterns of youth delinquency and problem behaviour between boys and girls. It uses cross-sectional surveys of self-reported youth offending in 11 European countries, and a similar survey covering various ethnic groups in Rotterdam, both carried out in 1992. These surveys show that there remains a substantial gap in the level of delinquency between girls and boys across all countries and ethnic groups. The findings confirm that weak social controls by family and school are an important correlate of delinquency for males and females in all country clusters and across all ethnic groups. On the whole, the correlates of delinquency are found to be similar in males and females, which suggests that there is no need for a different theory to explain delinquency in boys and girls. Social control explains part of the gap in delinquency between boys and girls, simply because social controls of girls tend to be stronger and tighter. Culturally determined differences in the strength of family-based social controls can also explain some of the variation in delinquency between ethnic groups. - euc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/3/333

Adolescent Outcomes and Welfare Reform An Analysis Based on the Survey of Program Dynamics 
Eileen Trzcinski PhD, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Wayne State University, e.trzcinski@wayne.edu
Jerrold Brandell PhD, Professor, School of Social Work, Wayne State University
Lynda Ferro MSW, School of Social Work, Wayne State University
Deborah Smith MSW, School of Social Work, Wayne State University
Abstract: This article presents research that examines potential effects of welfare reform on children in late childhood through adolescence. The research used the Survey of Program Dynamics to examine the links between outcomes for adolescents, source of income, mother's employment, and welfare reform. Specifically, the research examined how poverty status and family welfare receipt during middle childhood interact with current poverty status and welfare receipt during adolescence to influence a range of outcomes for adolescents. The outcomes that are examined include both parent reports and a set of indicators that are available in the 1998 adolescent self-administered questionnaire. Overall the study found that school outcome variables, status offence/ criminal behavior variables and substance use and abuse are the adolescent outcomes which are most sensitive to differences in income, patterns of program participation and the timing and extent of maternal employment. 
Journal Title: Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment: a professional journal Volume: 12 Issue: 2/3 

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