Risk factor research has proliferated within the discipline of
criminology
Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...
in recent years, based largely on the early work of
Sheldon and
Eleanor Glueck in the US and David Farrington in the UK.
The identification of risk factors that are allegedly predictive of offending and
reoffending (especially by young people) has heavily influenced the
criminal justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
policies and practices of a number of first world countries, notably the
UK, the
USA and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
.
Criticism
The robustness and validity of much 'artefactual' risk factor research (see Kemshall 2003) has recently come under sustained criticism for:
*
reductionism
Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical positi ...
: oversimplifying complex experiences and circumstances by converting them to simple quantities, limiting investigation of risk factors to psychological and immediate social domains of life, whilst neglecting socio-structural influences;
*
determinism
Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...
: characterising young people as passive victims of risk experiences with no ability to construct, negotiate or resist risk; and
*
imputation: assuming that risk factors and definitions of offending are homogeneous across countries and cultures, assuming that
statistical correlation
In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistic ...
s between risk factors and offending actually represent causal relationships, assuming that risk factors apply to individuals on the basis of aggregated data.
Two UK academics,
Stephen Case and
Kevin Haines, have been particularly forceful in their critique of risk factor research within a number of academic papers and a comprehensive
polemic
Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
text entitled 'Understanding Youth Offending: Risk Factor Research, Policy and Practice'.
References
Criminology
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