Rodzinne uwarunkowania przestępczości nieletnich w świetle kryminologicznych teorii nieformalnej kontroli społecznej

Abstract

Social control as a set of means used in order to sustain social bonds and therefore to maintain social order, offers to criminology a category of special epistemological value, both in context of etiology of criminal behavior, and in the context of change of criminal behavior in the life course of the individual. Research and analyses indicate that bonds connecting the individual to his/her closest social environment can be – in both of the mentioned contexts – important or even determinant factors. That is why specialists in the criminological field, investigating the phenomenon of change of individual’s criminal behavior through life tend to turn their increasing attention towards informal relations of juvenile, as well as adult offenders and their functioning in small social groups, of which recognized as the most important is family. The aim of this article is to characterize some of the relations between youth criminality and their family life in the light of criminological theories of informal social control.