Criminology Research Council grant ; (14/73)
The study was carried out with 174 young people who appeared in the Brisbane Children's Court on a range of antisocial offences. The young people were all of those appearing before the court on the day on which the study was conducted. The children and parents, unless previously interviewed, were invited to participate. The data were obtained by two interviewers, both of whom had professional training and experience in interviewing. They attended almost all sessions of the Brisbane Children's Court throughout the study time period.
The study illustrates the problem of subjective judgments made by researchers and interviewers. The report begins with an explanation of the problem and the procedures developed in an attempt to overcome this.
Some of the major characteristics of this population were:
- Their family structure is quite markedly skewed away from the nuclear pattern.
- While the young people generally perceived their parents' relationship as satisfactory, they had more than usual difficulties in relating to their parents.
- Where criminal behaviour exists in other people in the family home the risk of crime contamination for the child was very high. However, the risk of crime contamination from delinquent peers was equally high.
- The young people in this study had uniformly low school achievement records and a high percentage had very poor perceptions of their personal relationships at school. The high frequency of speech defects noted in the study group further complicates school achievements.
- The study indicated that only 30 per cent of the young people had a diet which approached a nutritious and balanced one. They also reported a high usage of alcohol and tobacco.
- Overall the social relationship patterns reflected a high degree of alienation between them and the community they had lived in.
- While emotional support at home was very low for 40 per cent of this population, the girls experienced stronger feelings of rejection at home.
- The young people reported a moderately high rate of previous offences (detected and un- detected), mainly in the areas of theft and school truancy.
- The interviewers in this study tended to rate the likelihood of further delinquency amongst the young people as much higher than the young people themselves or their parents.
The study generally points to the need for greater resources in the family development area, alternative school programs, and self-development courses for the young people.
There were two reports submitted for this project:
- A survey of juvenile offenders, Queensland : an in-depth study of the social and personal conditions of a number of children appearing before Brisbane children's courts / By A. A. Eakin and Eric Linford Reilly. (Variant title: Brisbane delinquency study) (1973)
- Delinquency survey - personal/social conditions of delinquents : preliminary report ... on the first 100 completed questionnaires / as presented by the research assistants to A.A. Eakin and E.L. Reilly (1975)