Crimineel gedrag van ouders en kinderen

Abstract

Criminal behaviour of parents can be seen as an important risk factor considering juvenile offending. The aim of the present study is to examine the extent in which frequency and seriousness of parental offending was related to offending of their child. Police officers in the Netherlands filled out a form when they came in contact with juvenile offenders to registrate risk factors and undertaken actions. All children were aged 8 to 14 years. Earlier police contacts as well as crimes committed in the eighteen months after the form was filled out, were checked in the police systems, so a good insight of all committed crimes of the juveniles was obtained. Further, the parents of these juveniles were traced inthe police systems, to see whether they showed criminal activities. Finally, data were gathered on 577 juveniles and their parents, of which 34% (n = 196) of the children was exposed to parental criminal behaviour. Of the 34%, 33 children seemed to have two criminal parents and 163 children had one parent showing criminal activities. Children having both parents showing criminal activities,were the ones showing the highest frequency of offending. Furthermore, the frequency of parental offending was positively related to the frequency of offendingof the child. Concerning seriousness of parental offending, the more serious the offending of the father, the more serious the offending of the child appeared to be. Surprisingly, the more serious the committed crimes of mothers,the less serious the child’s offending. These results points to the influential role criminality of parents have on offending of their child. Early interventions must be taken in high risk families in which the parents show criminal activities.