Citation

Prinsloo J, Ovens M. Child Abuse Res. South Afr. 2016; 17(2): 72-82.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, South African Professional Society on the Abuse of Children)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The relationship between community social disorganisation, crime and victimisation is well known. Contrary thereto, informal control and social cohesion seem to inhibit crime and delinquency. A non-random sample of 188 young persons who are living in informal settlements in South Africa were surveyed to assess risk in terms of social disorganisation and protective factors in terms of social efficacy. The sample comprised of 58.5% male and 41.5% female participants with a mean age of 16.3 years. The research participants were questioned in terms of their family structure, neighbourhood cohesion and safety, access to drugs and criminal activity in neighbourhoods, parental affection and relationships, parental knowledge of the adolescent peer group and their family environment. It emerged from the data that the family composition of the participants is under strain and characteristic of family disorganisation. The parents of 50.2% of the participants were also doubtful about the peer associations of the participants, about 70% of the parents knew very little or nothing about the parents of the friends of the participants. Furthermore, 40.2% of the parents of the participants did not know who their children were with when they were not at home. The participants also indicated that 18.5% of their parents were not (never) and/or 4.8% were hardly ever aware of their social activities. Less than 40% of the participants' parents were involved in decisions regarding their children's social life. Activities associated with drug dealing such as young people loitering in streets and public places as well as criminal youth gangs, are common to participants'. An associative criminal subculture was reported by 67.5% of the participants, and 23% of the participants did not foresee any difficulty in obtaining an illegal gun, should they have need of one. Almost 54% of the participants experienced inadequate affective relationships with their parents, and 36% of the participants experienced rejection by their parents. Constant family discord played a lesser role in the participants' families. Physical violence occurred in 35% of the participants' families and 60% doubted that the adults in their families could be seen as good role models while 17% hardly ever or never (6%) set a good example for their children to follow. It therefore, follows that risk factors such as physical disorders within families, social disorder, family disruption, local adolescent friendship networks, and unsupervised adolescent peer groups should form the core foci of intervention programmes for at risk youths identified in these communities. Multi-sector, multidisciplinary interventions are required to empower these impoverished communities and to act as a safety mechanism. Support of these vulnerable communities remains an ethical responsibility of government and NGOs to support existing informal controls in these groups and to enhance social cohesion, in efforts to lower rates of crime and delinquency.

Language: en