Juvenile crime drop: What is happening with youth in Spain and why?

Abstract

One of the most robust findings in criminology is the fall in crime rates throughout the Western world. However, there is still much to be learnt about this and its causes. This case study analyses the Spanish juvenile crime trends and tests the explanatory capacity of the sociodemographic hypotheses. We use aggregate data provided by the police and self-report data. Our analysis could be of interest in a worldwide debate on the crime drop. Demographic changes and the economic situation have little relevance in explaining the changes. However, public policies seem to have had a greater impact on crime trends. Furthermore, gender equality can be considered a possible explanatory factor.

Immigration and crime: a time-trend analysis of self-reported crime in Sweden, 1999–2017

“…Previous Scandinavian and European studies on self-reported crime trends among youths have indicated that crime trends among immigrants may be declining (Balvig, 2011;Fernández-Molina & Bartolomé Gutiérrez, 2018). In one Spanish study, the results show that, following a period of decline among immigrants as well as natives, selfreported crime rates among immigrant youths have stabilized, while rates among Spanish juveniles continue to fall (Fernández-Molina & Bartolomé Gutiérrez, 2018). However, in all these studies immigrants have been treated as a single group, which has produced little knowledge about potential changes in the delinquent involvement of different immigrant groups over time.…”

“…One central question in the crime policy debate is that of whether youth crime is increasing or decreasing. In both the US and several European countries studies indicate a declining trend in rates of crime and delinquency for several types of offences (Arnett, 2018;Balvig, 2011;Fernández-Molina & Bartolomé Gutiérrez, 2018;Grucza et al, 2018;Moss, Santaella-Tenorio, Mauro, Keyes, & Martins, 2019). In general, the Swedish research shows a similar picture, indicating that both official and self-reported crime rates have decreased over time for several types of crime; youths from a range of different backgrounds are tending to report lower rates of participation in crime (Shannon, Bäckman, Estrada, & Nilsson, 2014;Svensson & Ring, 2007).…”

Artículo 3/2020_EJIC (nº 199) Victimización en Europa: un estudio de la distribución geográfica y temporal de los robos en domicilio y las agresiones

“…Además, parece que las condiciones socioeconómicas de la población influyen en la criminalidad, disminuyendo la delincuencia en jóvenes que tienen una buena situación económica y aumentando en los que presentan ingresos más bajos (Fernández-Molina & Bartolomé, 2018;Nilsson et al, 2017), pudiendo ser uno de los efectos de las medidas interpuestas durante la crisis financiera (Fernández-Molina & Bartolomé, 2018).…”

Changing routine activities and the decline of youth crime: A repeated cross‐sectional analysis of self‐reported delinquency in Sweden, 1999–2017*

“…More recently, research on the crime drop has extended to youth crime, which is the focus of this article. Declining trends in youth crime have been found in several countries, such as Spain (Fernández‐Molina & Bartolomé Gutiérrez, 2020), Finland (Elonheimo, 2014; Salmi, 2009), Denmark (Balvig, 2011), Sweden (Estrada, 2019; Sivertsson et al., 2019; Svensson & Ring, 2007; Vasiljevic et al., 2020), the United States (Arnett, 2018; Baumer et al., 2018; Grucza et al., 2018; Keyes et al., 2018; Moss et al., 2019), England and Wales (Griffiths & Norris, 2020), Scotland (Matthews & Minton, 2018), and the Netherlands (Berghuis & de Waard, 2017; van der Laan et al., 2019). The decline has been found in both self‐report studies and police‐recorded data, and it applies to different crime types, such as property crimes, violence, and vandalism (e.g., Arnett, 2018; Moss et al., 2019).…”

“…The decline has been found in both self‐report studies and police‐recorded data, and it applies to different crime types, such as property crimes, violence, and vandalism (e.g., Arnett, 2018; Moss et al., 2019). Some studies, though, showed the decline to be more pronounced for property crimes than for violence (e.g., Fernández‐Molina & Bartolomé Gutiérrez, 2020; Salmi, 2009; Sivertsson et al., 2019) and for boys than for girls (Estrada et al., 2016; Keyes et al., 2018).…”