Juvenile Delinquency and Victimisation: Urban vs Rural Environments

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners are increasingly concerned about juvenile delinquency and victimisation as complex social problems. These two phenomena span across the rural-urban dimension, but little research has been dedicated to studying the influence of geographic variables on juvenile delinquency and victimisation. Even though crime rates and fear of crime are generally higher in urban areas, and crime varies heavily across the rural-urban dimension, it is not absent in rural communities. Studies have tended to generalise findings about juvenile delinquency and victimisation from urban areas to rural areas. Early studies found that delinquency rates were higher in densely populated urban areas, but later studies indicated that rural delinquency is also a growing concern. For example, some researchers found that rural youth are at higher risk of being victimised and bullied. Risk and protective factors are similar for both urban and rural youth, but the relative impact of those factors differs across communities. Studies have also found differences in access to various services, commodities, and facilities across the rural-urban spectrum. There is a shortage of studies in Slovenia that focus on studying the urban and rural dimensions of juvenile delinquency and victimisation. The only study in Slovenia that adequately addressed these issues was the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD2). Although this study did not find any statistically significant differences between the two settings, we believe that this does not indicate that crime in rural communities is not worthy of attention. Future studies should focus more on comparing urban and rural regions and qualitatively address juvenile delinquency and victimisation. Rural areas also require preventative place-specific policies and services.