Risk factors for juvenile cybercrime: A meta-analytic review

So far, most meta-analyses and reviews on juvenile crime risk factors focused on risk factors for traditional crimes. It is unknown, though, whether these risk factors are also relevant for the explanation of cybercrime perpetration. This meta-analytic review aimed to identify risk factors for cyberstalking, hacking, and sexting perpetrated by juveniles. A literature search yielded 48 articles (24 for cyberstalking, 15 for sexting, and 10 for hacking) that produced 903 effect sizes (306 for cyberstalking, 61 for sexting, and 536 for hacking). The results showed similarities, but also differences in risk factors for the three types of cybercrime. Overall, peer factors were found to be important for all three types (deviant peers for cyberstalking and hacking and peer pressure for sexting). Besides, for cyberstalking, previous online and offline perpetration and victimization were significant risk factors. Other small but significant effects for multiple cybercrime types were found for dark personality traits (for cyberstalking and sexting) and high computer preoccupation (for cyberstalking and hacking). Implications for (preventive) intervention are discussed, as well as the need for future research

Explaining risk factors for successful family supervision orders: families with intellectual disabilities in child protection in the Netherlands

Families with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID) are overrepresented in child protection, and are at higher risk for long and unsuccessful family supervision orders (FSOs). This is worrisome, as many children apparently are exposed to unsafe parenting situations for longer periods of time. Therefore, the present study examined which child and parental factors and child maltreatment are related to the duration and success of an FSO in families with MBID in the Netherlands. Casefile data were analysed of 140 children with an ended FSO. Results from binary logistic regression analyses showed that in families with MBID, young children, children with psychiatric problems, and children with MBID were at higher risk for a longer duration of FSOs. Furthermore, young children, children with MBID and children who were sexually abused had a lower chance of a successful FSO. Unexpectedly, children who witnessed domestic violence or whose parents were divorced, had a higher chance of a successful FSO. The discussion focuses on implications of these results for treatment and care of families with MBID from the perspective of child protection

Risk factors for (violent) radicalization in juveniles: A multilevel meta-analysis

Juveniles who become radicalized pose a great threat for society. Although research on radicalization is accumulating, a quantitative review of risk factors for youth radicalization is lacking. Therefore, a series of meta-analyses were conducted on k = 30 studies (247 effect sizes) to examine risk factors for radicalization in youth, yielding significant effects for 15 out of 17 risk domains, ranging in magnitude from r = 0.080 to r = 0.482. Medium positive effects were found for activism, perceived in-group superiority and perceived distance to other people, while small effects were found for gender, personality, delinquency and aggression, lower educational level, negative peers, in-group identification, perceived discrimination, perceived group threat, perceived procedural injustice, perceived illegitimacy of authorities, and other, whereas the effect for poverty was very small. Moderator analyses showed that the risks of negative parenting and societal disconnection were smaller for right-wing radicalization than for religious or unspecified radicalization. The risks of personality and perceived group threat were greater for willingness to carry out extremist acts and extremist behavior than for attitude towards radicalization. Further, when the percentage of ethnic minorities in the sample increased, the risks of personality, negative parenting, and societal disconnection for radicalization were larger

Associations among the parent–adolescent relationship, aggression and delinquency in different ethnic groups: a replication across two Dutch samples

Background: The aim of the present study is to examine whether the patterns of association between the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship on the one hand, and aggression and delinquency on the other hand, are the same for boys and girls of Dutch and Moroccan origin living in the Netherlands. Since inconsistent results have been found previously, the present study tests the replicability of the model of associations in two different Dutch samples of adolescents. Method: Study 1 included 288 adolescents (M age = 14.9, range 12-17 years) all attending lower secondary education. Study 2 included 306 adolescents (M age = 13.2, range = 12-15 years) who were part of a larger community sample with oversampling of at risk adolescents. Results: Multigroup structural analyses showed that neither in Study 1 nor in Study 2 ethnic or gender differences were found in the patterns of associations between support, autonomy, disclosure, and negativity in the parent-adolescent relationship and aggression and delinquency. The patterns were largely similar for both studies. Mainly negative quality of the relationship in both studies was found to be strongly related to both aggression and delinquency. Discussion: Results show that family processes that affect adolescent development, show a large degree of universality across gender and ethnicity