2001 Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime_early findings age 12-13 (original) (raw)

The rise in crime is one of the most striking social changes since the Second World War. Police recorded crime rose dramatically between 1950 and the mid 1990s in all developed countries (except Japan) and, because of the shape of the age-crime curve, this is to a large extent the result of an increase in misconduct and ordinary crimes committed by young people . This increase in problem behaviour among young people has also been paralleled by post-war increases in other psychosocial disorders during the teenage years, such as suicide, eating disorders and personality dysfunctions . These major societal changes have meant that youth crime, and indeed issues in relation to young people in general, have become a salient political issue