法律专业青少年犯罪外文翻译文献编辑

文献信息

文献标题：Poverty and delinquency: A qualitative study on selected juvenile offenders in Malaysia（贫穷与犯罪：对马来西亚部分青少年犯的定性研究）

文献作者：Tai Soo Shong，Siti Hajar Abu Bakar，M Rezaul Islam

文献出处：《International Social Work》,2018:1-15.

字数统计：英文3110单词，16842字符；中文5223汉字

外文文献

Poverty and delinquency: A qualitative study on selected

juvenile offenders in Malaysia

Abstract This qualitative case study explored the voices of juvenile offenders in Malaysia who were plagued with poverty, and brought to light their plight. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of poverty on the delinquent character and behavioural development of the children on three major crime-enhancing themes – miserable family conditions, school failure and association with deviant peers – to get a broader view of how poverty could influence their life trajectory. The purposive maximum variation sampling method was used in the selection of six young offenders between the ages of 13 and 17 years from Sekolah Tunas Bakti Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A multiple data collection method that included observation, in-depth case study and document analysis was used for data collection. Results showed that three major crime-enhancing themes due to poverty were strongly related to children’s delin quent character and behavioural development. The knowledge gained from this study will further contribute to understanding the real-life experiences of juvenile offenders, particularly those who are experiencing extreme deprivation, and it is hoped that the insight gained could help in the prevention and control of juvenile delinquent behaviour in Malaysia.

Keywords: Delinquency, deviant peers, juvenile offenders, Malaysia, miserable family conditions, poverty, school failure

Introduction

The developmental risks associated with poverty and economic disadvantage have been well documented, but the processes that account for the relations between poverty and children’s development have not been thoroughly explored (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002; McLoyd, 1998; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Socio-economic status has always been used as a means to provide an explanation for juvenile delinquent behaviour (Bjerk, 2007; Leiber et al., 2009). The literature has shown that poverty and low socio-economic status in childhood are powerful risk factors that have always been associated with substance abuse, crime and delinquency (Bjerk, 2007; D’Onofrio et al., 2009; Galloway and Skardhamar, 2010). In general, one cannot deny the fact that lack of financial resources is one of the greatest reasons why some people turn to illegal means for the sake of survival. Economic hardship often results in spiritual, emotional and material deprivation, all of which could exacerbate antisocial behaviour among children.

Agnew et al. (2008) argued that the relationship between economic problems and delinquency is nonlinear, such that only the experience of economic problems is associated with higher delinquency. They found that the relationship between socio-economic status and economic problems is only moderate in size. The fact that the rich get richer and the poor get prison (Reiman and Leighton, 2013) does have its repercussions, as one cannot deny the painful truth that the moment a child is born into a poor family, he or she may have to face a bleak future. In the process of struggling for existence some may thrive well, but many of them will end up being victims of fate and circumstances. One cannot deny the fact that risk factors leading to later damage occur more frequently among children in families that are poor, and still more frequently among families that are persistently poor and live in areas of concentrated poverty (Schorr and Schorr, 1989: 29). Needless to say, children are

more likely to fare badly in life if their parents have a low education level, and/or low occupational status, or are unemployed. However, it should be noted that poverty is not restricted to one dimension, for example income, but it manifests itself in all domains of life, such as housing, education, health (Deleeck and Van den Bosch, 1992: 3) and one’s daily activities.

Literature review

This study underpins three main concepts: poverty, delinquency and juvenile offenders. Poverty transcends the traditional definition of a shortfall in income levels. In other words, income levels are not the only determinant of poverty. Poverty is a multidimensional concept (Akindola, 2009). Peter Townsend, a leading authority on UK poverty, defines poverty as when someone’s ‘resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are, in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities’ (Seymour, 2009: 15). According to Booth (cited in Fried and Elman, 1971), the ‘poor’ are those whose means may be adequate, but are barely sufficient for a decent independent life; the ‘very poor’ are those whose means are insufficient for this according to the usual standard of life in this country. Delinquency is an act or conduct of a juvenile that is socially undesirable. Juvenile delinquency generally means the failure of children to meet certain obligations expected of them by society. The blame can be placed on factors ranging from a child’s embryonic development to dysfunctional families, dilapidated schools, abject poverty, peer relations, low self-control or any combination of these and other issues (Joshi, 2013). Juvenile delinquent behaviour refers to the behaviour committed by someone below 18 years of age that violates criminal law (Houston and Barton, 2005). These delinquent behaviours can range from less severe behaviours such as abusing the school rules, absenteeism, school truancy, cigarette smoking and vandalism to more severe crimes such as stealing, robbery, substance abuse, rape and weapon possession (Choon et al., 2013). Based on the law in Malaysia, the term juvenile delinquent refers to a young person who has committed a criminal offence and has been given a court order (Maznah, 2007). The

Malaysian Ministry of Education states that delinquency in school includes violation of both the Penal Code and the school norms. In Malaysia, two forms of status offences are recognizable, namely, being beyond the control of parents and being exposed to moral danger (Hussin, 2007). According to the Prison Act 1995, a juvenile or a young offender is defined as ‘a prisoner who is under the age of 21 years’ (Kassim, 2006). Students may be punished by the school authorities for behavioural misconduct such as vandalism, fighting, smoking and truancy, as well as for minor misbehaviour including disrespect to others, impoliteness, inappropriate or messy school attire or appearance, and bringing to school items that are banned, such as mobile phones (Choon et al., 2013).

Since poverty can lead to various kinds of delinquent activities, one cannot deny the fact that it is directly related to juvenile delinquency (Prochnow and Defronzo, 1997) as it not only leads to stressful living conditions, but also creates situations that are conducive to antisocial activities. Earlier studies of the relationship between socio-economic status and juvenile delinquency have shown that it is mostly a low social class problem. Defined as ‘an act by a juvenile under the age of 18 that if committed by an adult would constitute a crime, a disorderly person offense, a petty disorderly person offense, or a violation of any other penal statute, ordinance or regulation’ (New Jersey Judiciary, 2012), delinquency is inextricably related to poverty in the four primary settings affecting child development, namely, family, school, peer groups and communities.

Previous studies have shown that children who live in persistent or chronic poverty have less favourable cognitive and social development and poorer physical and mental health than those who live in transitory poverty (Costello et al., 2003; McLeod and Nonnemaker, 2000). Many studies have shown that poverty-related stress can have serious repercussions on a child’s upbringing and development due to lack of family integration as consequences of inevitable life circumstances such as anxiety, depression, discrimination and hostility (Wadsworth et al., 2008). ‘Family stress caused by problems with the fulfilment of the family economic function, affects the way parents fulfil their parental role’ (Banovcinova et al., 2014), which clearly

explains the reason why parents who encounter serious financial constraints tend to have delinquent children. Parents who feel emotionally insecure themselves often have difficulty coping with the many responsibilities of parenthood, and this is clearly manifested in the way in which they bring up their children. Family conflict, increased irritability, poor supervision, harsh discipline and erratic punishment are but some of the more common occurrences in families threatened with financial crisis (Guajardo et al., 2009). This clearly explains why children who come from poor families are more likely to drop out of school, associate with deviant peers and participate in antisocial activities.

Given the negative impact of poverty on children, this study intended to investigate the consequences of poverty and how it affects the behavioural and character development of children. Since most studies in this field conducted by local researchers are quantitative by nature – that is, they have the tendency to emphasize the statistical relationships between poverty and delinquency – a more in-depth analysis through the actual worldviews of the juvenile offenders pertaining to this chronic social phenomenon is necessary, and we aimed to fill this gap in the present study via a holistic qualitative approach as this could provide for a deeper insight into their real-life experiences.

Research objective and methodology

Research objective

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of poverty on the character and behavioural development of the Malaysian children. This study explored these effects on three major crimeenhancing themes that were strongly related to poverty, namely, miserable family conditions, school failure and association with deviant peers.

Methodology

Research approach and research method. The research approach was qualitative. This approach enabled us to gain a deeper insight into the phenomenon under investigation based on the experiences of the juvenile offenders in a natural setting. It

also provided a more thorough understanding of the phenomenon under investigation, hence getting the voices of the juvenile offenders heard. Here, we wanted to understand the effects of poverty on the character and behavioural development of the children while they are experiencing difficult family conditions, failing at school and associating with deviant peers. This study followed a case study method, where the cases were multiple in nature. Our main objectives for using this method were the contradictory behaviours, beliefs, opinions, emotions and relationships of individuals (Mack et al., 2005), which contribute greatly to a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

Sampling and respondents’ profiles. A purposeful maximum sampling was used for the selection of participants to generate a rich and descriptive picture of their lived experiences for this study. Six participants (four Malay boys, one Chinese boy and one Indian boy) between the ages of 13 and 17 years from Sekolah Tunas Bakti Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were selected from a population of 99 juvenile offenders, who were incarcerated in a juvenile prison in Malaysia. This method of sampling was used for the purpose of heterogeneity so as to create a more diverse picture of the phenomenon under investigation.

Data collection methods and instruments.This study used multiple qualitative data collection methods such as observation, in-depth case interview and document analysis. An unstructured guideline was developed for in-depth case study of the children. Two separate sets of checklists were prepared for observation and documentation survey. The in-depth case interviews with the children were conducted in an informal conversational manner in a quiet room in the institution/school. An audio tape recorder was used to record all information and then transcribed verbatim in full length so as to capture every word (including pauses and repetitions) that came from the mouths of the participants. Notes and reflection were also jotted down during the interviews for the purposes of accuracy and transcription. For those interviews that are originally conducted in Bahasa or Chinese, every attempt was made by the researchers to translate them into English without losing their originality. This study recorded children’s behaviours using observation guidelines. This study used ‘Web of

Science’ and ‘Scopus’ search engines for literature reviews that included journal articles, books and conference proceedings.

Discussion

This qualitative case study reported six young offenders’ (between the ages of 13 and 17 years) delinquent character and behavioural development with a broad view of how poverty could influence their life trajectory in Malaysia. This study used three major crime-enhancing themes that were strongly related to poverty: miserable family conditions, school failure and association with deviant peers. According to the experiences of six young people, the study found that difficult family conditions, school failure and association with deviant peers due to the poverty of their families were strongly related to the development of their delinquent behaviours.

First, our study showed that the difficult family conditions created various forms of deprivation in the families. Due to the parents’ low qualifications and skills, they did not have good jobs and were sometimes jobless. All six participants in our study mentioned that they could not fulfil their needs during their school time, and as a result they were involved in stealing. Our study findings were similar to a couple of studies such as those by Burrell and Roosa (2008) and Clarke-Stewart et al. (2000). If poverty can have such drastic effects on poor children from intact families, then it is most likely that children from poverty-stricken single mother families are more likely to fare worse in life (Burrell and Roosa, 2008). In actual fact, it is not just the divorce itself but rather the mother’s education level and income that affect the well-being of the children after a divorce (Clarke-Stewart et al., 2000). This is because many single mothers lack necessary qualifications and skills, thus rendering it difficult for them to secure proper employment. A couple of studies also found that maternal job loss can have serious repercussions on children’s behaviour (Hill et al., 2011; Kalil and Wightman, 2011) particularly in single mother families.

Second, our study showed that children’s failure at school was dir ectly related to their parents’ poverty. Our study established a link between children’s lower test scores and dropout with poverty. We found that the dropout children looked for work

in order to help their parents and to fulfil their individual needs. The stress of poverty jeopardized children’s educational attainment since many poor parents did not place any importance on their children’s academic performance due to the lack of time spent monitoring them, nor could they afford to pay for their tuition fees and revision books. In actual fact, some of these poor parents were only too glad that their children had stopped attending school and were helping to support the family. Socio-economic factors are therefore related indirectly to children’s academic achi evement through parents’ beliefs and behaviours (Davis-Kean, 2005). Studies have shown that constant parental monitoring and assistance with homework greatly enhance their children’s academic achievement (Lowe and Dotterer, 2013; Patall et al., 2008; Van Voorhis, 2011), but the opposite seems to be true for children who lack guidance in their studies.

Third, this study proved that poverty pushed the children to associate with their delinquent peers. This is because poorer children limited their peer groups to similar socio-economic classes. Our study showed that children were involved in some criminal activities such as stealing, robbery and burglary in order to fulfil their individual needs. However, bad group association was seen as a fundamental factor in youth crime since juveniles who ventured into crime were not entirely alone but were members of various peer groups. According to the World Youth Report (2003), the statistical data in many countries showed that delinquency was largely a group phenomenon and that between two-thirds and three-quarters of all juvenile crimes occurred in groups. These peer groups are well known for their high levels of social cohesiveness, hierarchical organization and a certain code of behaviour based on the rejection of adult values and experience. In these peer groups, influences often take place through face-to-face interactions by way of a number of ‘proximal processes’ (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998). Through peer associations, a child may be encouraged to skip classes, play truant from school, visit cyber cafes, smoke, take drugs or participate in illegal activities. Deviant behaviour is not uncommon to many of these peer groups and may even have an important role to play in some of these groups as a means of survival. When poor children cum school failures get together,

there is a great likelihood that they may resort to some kind of criminal activities such as burglary, theft or robbery in order to make money to buy the things that their parents cannot afford to give them.

Conclusion

Despite a number of limitations such as a small number of sampled children, narrow focus and lack of generalizability, the study gave a snapshot of the factors of poverty that exacerbated children’s delinquent behaviours. Poverty can lead to severe financial constraints, family stress and hardship, strained parent–child relationships, family conflict, parental divorce, school failure and association with bad company (Kalil and Wightman, 2011; Oreopoulos et al., 2008), all of which can have adverse effects on the children. These factors are clearly exhibited in the lives of our respondents. Given these crime-enhancing factors, any child can easily be tempted to commit a crime. Our respondents are only ordinary young people who are trying to live up to the expectations of their peers. Since they cannot do so through legitimate means, they have to resort to illegitimate ways to fulfil their dreams.

Whenever juveniles commit an offence, people ask ‘What’s wrong with our society?’, ‘Who is to blame?’. Although previous researchers have looked into the effects of poverty on juvenile delinquency, they have failed to look into the fact that poor parents not only lack proper parenting skills, but they are also less concerned with their children’s well-being and academic performance due to their inability to cope with life’s demands. As such, they have contributed a great deal towards their children’s misery, failure at school and delinquent pathways.

In order to prevent juvenile delinquent behaviour, the impact of poverty-related factors must be counteracted in some way. This study could enable policy-makers to rethink the present economic situations of the poverty-stricken Malaysian families and come up with plans to tackle the issue. Since poor parenting can have serious repercussions on the children, they should be sent for parenting skill courses so as to improve their ways of managing their children. Schools should be also play a role in the prevention of crime and delinquency through intervention programmes such as

extracurricular activities, in order to keep the children busy with meaningful activities at school and protect them from the negative effects of outside influences.

中文译文

贫穷与犯罪：对马来西亚部分青少年犯的定性研究

摘要这项定性案例研究探讨了马来西亚青少年犯饱受贫穷之苦的声音，并揭示了他们的困境。本研究的目的是在三个主要的助长犯罪的因素——家庭条件困难、学业失败以及与离经叛道的同龄人交往上，研究贫穷对儿童犯罪特征及行为发展的影响，以便更广泛地了解贫穷如何影响他们的生活轨迹。采用有目的最大变异抽样方法，从马来西亚吉隆坡Sekolah Tunas Bakti Sungai Besi选取了6名13-17岁的少年犯。数据收集采用了包括观察、深入案例研究和文献分析在内的多种数据收集方法。结果显示，由于贫穷导致的三个主要助长犯罪的因素与儿童犯罪和行为发展密切相关。从这项研究中获得的知识将进一步有助于了解青少年犯的现实生活经历，特别是那些正在遭受极度剥夺的人，并希望所获得的洞察力有助于预防和控制马来西亚的青少年犯罪行为。

关键词：青少年犯罪，离经叛道的同龄人，少年犯，马来西亚，家庭条件困难、贫穷、学业失败

引言

与贫穷和经济不利有关的发展风险已有充分的记录，但解释贫穷与儿童发展之间关系的过程尚未被彻底探索（Bradley和Corwyn，2002；McLoyd，1998；国家儿童健康与人类发展研究所早期儿童保健研究网络，2005）。社会经济地位一直是解释青少年犯罪行为的一种手段（Bjerk，2007；Leiber等，2009）。文献表明，儿童时期的贫穷和社会经济地位低下是一直与药物滥用、犯罪和不法行为有关的强大危险因素（Bjerk，2007；D'Onofrio等，2009；Galloway和Skardhamar，2010）。一般来说，我们不能否认这样一个事实：缺乏财政资源是一些人为了生存而求助于非法手段的最大原因之一。经济困难往往导致精神、情感和物质上的

匮乏，所有这些都可能加剧儿童的反社会行为。

Agnew等人（2008）认为，经济问题与违法行为之间的关系是非线性的，只有经济问题的经历才与较高的违法行为相关。他们发现，社会经济地位与经济问题之间的关系只是中等大小。富人越来越富有，穷人却被关进了监狱（Reiman 和Leighton，2013），这一事实确实产生了影响，因为人们不能否认一个痛苦的事实，即当一个孩子出生于一个贫穷的家庭时，他或她可能不得不面对一个黯淡的未来。在为生存而斗争的过程中，有些人可能会茁壮成长，但他们中的许多人最终会成为命运和环境的牺牲品。我们不能否认这样一个事实：导致后期损害的风险因素在贫困家庭的儿童中更为常见，长期贫困并生活在贫困集中地区的家庭中更为频繁（Schorr和Schorr，1989：29）。毋庸置疑，如果父母的教育水平低和/或职业地位低，或者失业，孩子更有可能生活得不好。然而，应该指出的是，贫穷不仅限于一个方面，如收入，而是体现在生活的所有领域，如住房、教育、健康（Deleeck和VandenBosch，1992：3）以及日常活动。

文献综述

这项研究支持三个主要概念：贫穷、犯罪和少年犯。贫穷超越了收入水平不足的传统定义。换句话说，收入水平不是贫穷的唯一决定因素。贫穷是一个多维度概念（Akindola，2009）。英国贫穷问题的主要权威人士 Peter Townsend将贫穷定义为，当某人的资源严重低于平均个人或家庭所支配的资源时，他们实际上被排除在普通的生活模式、习俗和活动之外（Seymour，2009：15）。根据Booth 的说法（引自Fried和Elman，1971），“穷人”指的是那些经济能力可能足够，但几乎不足以过上体面的独立生活的人；“非常贫穷”指的是那些按照这个国家通常的生活标准，经济状况不足以满足这一要求的人。犯罪是青少年在社会上不受欢迎的行为或举止。青少年犯罪一般是指儿童不能履行社会要求他们承担的某些义务。这可以归咎于各种因素，从儿童的胚胎发育到功能失调的家庭、破败的学校、赤贫、同伴关系、自我控制能力低下或这些问题和其他问题的任何组合（Joshi，2013）。青少年犯罪行为是指18岁以下的人违反刑法的行为（Houston 和Barton，2005）。这些违法行为从不太严重的行为，如滥用校规、旷课、逃学、吸烟和破坏他人财产，到更严重的犯罪，如偷窃、抢劫、滥用药物、强奸和持有

武器（Choon等，2013）。根据马来西亚的法律，“少年犯”一词是指犯了刑事罪行并被法院判令的年轻人（Maznah，2007）。马来西亚教育部指出，学校中的违法行为包括违反刑法和学校规范。在马来西亚，两种形式的身份犯罪是可以识别的，即父母无法控制和面临道德危险（Hussin，2007）。根据1995年的《监狱法》，青少年或少年罪犯被界定为“21岁以下的囚犯”（Kassim，2006）。学校当局可能会对学生的不端行为（如故意破坏、打架、吸烟和旷课），以及轻微的不当行为（包括对他人的不尊重、不礼貌、不适当或凌乱的学校服装或外表），以及携带禁止带到学校的物品（如手机）进行处罚（Choon等，2013）。

由于贫穷可能导致各种犯罪活动，人们不能否认这一事实，即贫穷与青少年犯罪直接相关（Prochnow和Defronzo，1997），因为贫穷不仅导致紧张的生活条件，而且还造成有利于反社会活动的情况。早期对社会经济地位与青少年犯罪关系的研究表明，这主要是一个低社会阶层的问题。定义为“未满18岁的青少年的行为，如果由成年人实施，将构成犯罪、扰乱治安罪、轻微的扰乱治安罪或违反任何其他刑事法规、法令或条例”（新泽西司法部，2012），在影响儿童发展的四个主要环境中，即家庭、学校、同龄群体和社区，犯罪与贫穷密不可分。

以前的研究表明，与生活在暂时贫困中的儿童相比，生活在持续或长期贫困中的儿童的认知和社会发展更加不利，身心健康也较差（Costello等，2003；McLeod和Nonnemaker，2000）。许多研究表明，由于焦虑、抑郁、歧视和敌意等不可避免的生活环境而缺乏家庭融合，与贫穷有关的压力会对儿童的成长和发展产生了严重的影响（Wadsworth等，2008）。“因家庭经济功能的履行问题导致的家庭压力，影响了父母履行其职责的方式”（Banovcinova等，2014），这清楚地解释了为什么遇到严重经济困难的父母往往会有违法的孩子。在情感上缺乏安全感的父母往往难以承担为人父母的许多责任，这一点在他们养育子女的方式上表现得很明显。家庭冲突、烦躁不安、监管不力、管教粗暴和惩罚不当，是受金融危机威胁的家庭中的一些常见现象（Guajardo等，2009）。这就清楚地解释了为什么来自贫穷家庭的孩子更有可能辍学，与离经叛道的同龄人交往，并参与反社会活动。

鉴于贫穷对儿童的负面影响，本研究旨在调查贫穷的后果以及贫穷如何影响儿童的行为和性格发展。由于当地研究人员在这一领域进行的大多数研究本质上

是定量的，也就是说，他们倾向于强调贫穷与犯罪之间的统计关系，因此有必要通过对与这一慢性社会现象有关的青少年犯罪者的实际世界观进行更深入的分析，我们的目的是通过一种全面的定性方法来填补目前研究中的这一空白，这有助于深入了解他们的真实生活经历。

研究目标和方法

研究目标

本研究的目标是研究贫穷对马来西亚儿童的性格和行为发展的影响。本研究探讨了与贫穷密切相关的三大助长犯罪的因素的影响，即家庭条件困难、学业失败以及与离经叛道的同龄人交往。

方法

研究方法和研究方式。研究方法是定性的。这种方法使我们能够根据青少年罪犯在自然环境中的经历，对调查中的现象有更深入的了解。它还使人们对调查中的现象有了更透彻的了解，从而使少年犯的声音得到倾听。在这里，我们想要了解贫穷对儿童的性格和行为发展的影响，同时他们正在经历家庭条件困难、学业失败以及与离经叛道的同龄人交往。本研究采用了案例研究方法，案例具有多重性质。我们使用这种方法的主要目标是个体的矛盾行为、信仰、观点、情感和关系(Mack等，2005)，这对更好地理解所调查的现象有很大帮助。

样本和受访者的个人资料。本研究采用有目的的最大抽样来选择受访者，为这项研究生成一幅丰富的描述他们生活经历的画面。来自马来西亚吉隆坡Sekolah Tunas Bakti Sungai Besi的6名受访者(4名马来男孩、1名中国男孩和1名印度男孩)是从被关押在马来西亚少年监狱的99名少年犯中挑选出来的。采用这种抽样方法的目的是为了使数据具有异质性，以便对所调查的现象作出更多样化的描述。

数据收集方法和工具。本研究采用了观察法、深入个案访谈法和文献分析法等多种定性数据收集方法。为对儿童进行深入的个案研究，制定了一项非结构化的指导方针。为观察和文件调查准备了两套单独的检查表。对儿童的深入个案访谈是在该机构/学校的一个安静的房间里以非正式对话的方式进行的。使用录音机记录所有的信息，然后逐字逐句地进行完整的转录，以便捕捉来自受访者口中

的每个单词(包括停顿和重复)。在访谈过程中，为了准确和记录，还会记下笔记和反思。对于那些最初用印尼语或汉语进行的采访，研究人员尽一切努力将其翻译成英语，同时又不失其原味性。本研究使用观察指南记录了儿童的行为。本研究使用“Web of Science”和“Scopus”搜索引擎进行文献综述，其中包括期刊文章、书籍和会议录。

讨论

这项定性案例研究报告了六名青少年罪犯(年龄在13至17岁之间)的犯罪特征和行为发展，并广泛阐述了贫穷如何影响他们在马来西亚的生活轨迹。这项研究使用了与贫穷密切相关的三个主要助长犯罪的因素：因家庭贫穷而导致的家庭条件困难、学业失败以及与离经叛道的同龄人交往，与他们的不良行为发展密切相关。

首先，我们的研究表明，贫穷的家庭条件在家庭中造成了各种形式的约束。由于父母的资历和技能较低，他们没有好的工作，有时会失业。在我们的研究中，所有六位受访者都提到，父母在上学期间不能满足自己的需要，因此他们参与了偷窃。我们的研究结果与Burrell和Roosa（2008）以及Clarke-Stewart等人（2000年）的一些研究相似。如果贫穷能对来自完整家庭的贫困儿童产生如此严重的影响，那么来自单亲母亲家庭的贫困儿童更有可能生活得更糟（Burrell 和Roosa，2008）。事实上，不仅离婚本身，而且母亲的教育水平和收入也影响离婚后子女的幸福（Clarke-Stewart等，2000）。这是因为许多单身母亲缺乏必要的资格和技能，难以找到合适的工作。一些研究还发现，母亲失业可能会对儿童的行为造成严重影响（Hill等，2011；Kalil和Wightman，2011），尤其是在单亲母亲家庭中。

其次，我们的研究表明，孩子在学校的失败与父母的贫穷直接相关。我们的研究确定了儿童考试成绩较低和辍学与贫穷之间的联系。我们发现，辍学儿童寻找工作是为了帮助他们的父母，以及满足他们的个人需求。贫穷的压力损害了子女的受教育程度，许多贫穷的父母不重视他们孩子的学习成绩，因为他们没有时间监督孩子学习，也负担不起学费和书本费。事实上，这些贫穷的父母中有些人非常高兴，因为他们的孩子不再上学，而是在帮助养家糊口。因此，社会经济因

素通过父母的信仰和行为与儿童的学业成绩间接相关（Davis-Kean，2005）。研究表明，父母的持续监督和协助家庭作业极大地提高了子女的学业成绩（Lowe 和Dotterer，2013；Patall等，2008；VanVoorhis，2011），但对于缺乏学习指导的孩子来说，情况似乎恰恰相反。

第三，本研究证明贫穷促使儿童与犯罪同龄人交往。这是因为贫穷儿童将他们的同龄人群体限制在类似的社会经济阶层。我们的研究显示，儿童参与了一些犯罪活动，例如偷窃、抢劫和入室盗窃，以满足他们的个人需求。然而，与不良群体交往被视为青少年犯罪的一个基本因素，因为冒险犯罪的青少年并不完全是孤身一人，而是与各种同龄人群体一起。根据《世界青年报告》（2003年），许多国家的统计数据表明，青少年犯罪在很大程度上是一种群体现象，所有青少年犯罪中有三分之二至四分之三是以群体形式发生的。这些同龄人群体以其高度的社会凝聚力、等级组织和基于拒绝接受成人价值观和经验的某种行为守则而闻名。在这些同龄人群体中，影响往往是通过许多“近端过程”的面对面互动来发生的（Bronfenbrenner和Morris，1998）。通过同龄人聚会，可以鼓励儿童逃课、逃学、上网、吸烟、吸毒或参与非法活动。越轨行为在其中许多同龄人群体中并不少见，甚至可能在其中一些群体中作为一种生存手段发挥重要作用。当贫困儿童和失学儿童聚集在一起时，他们极有可能诉诸于某种犯罪活动，例如入室盗窃、盗窃或抢劫，以赚钱购买他们父母买不起的东西。

结论

尽管有一些局限性，例如抽样的儿童数量少、关注范围窄和缺乏普遍性，但本研究还是简要概述了加剧儿童犯罪行为的贫穷因素。贫穷可能导致严重的财政困难、家庭压力和困难、亲子关系紧张、家庭冲突、父母离婚、学业失败以及与坏公司的联系（Kalil和Wightman，2011；Oreopoulos等，2008），所有这些都可能对儿童产生不利影响。这些因素在受访者的生活中清晰地体现出来。鉴于这些助长犯罪的因素，任何儿童都很容易受到诱惑而犯罪。我们的受访者只是普通的年轻人，他们正在努力实现同龄人的生活期望。因为他们不能通过合法的方式来实现，所以他们不得不诉求于非法的手段来实现他们的梦想。

每当青少年犯罪时，人们都会问：“我们的社会出了什么问题？”，“谁应该

受到指责？”虽然以往的研究人员曾研究贫穷对青少年犯罪的影响，但他们没有考虑到这样一个事实，即贫穷的父母不仅缺乏适当的养育技能，而且由于他们无法应付生活的需要，他们也不太关心孩子的幸福和学业表现。因此，他们在很大程度上造成了孩子们的痛苦、学业失败和不良行为。

为了防止青少年犯罪行为，必须以某种方式消除与贫穷有关的因素的影响。这项研究可以使决策者重新思考马来西亚贫困家庭的经济现状，并提出解决这一问题的计划。由于不称职的父母会对孩子产生严重的影响，应将他们送去参加育儿技能课程，以改善他们管理孩子的方式。学校还应通过课外活动等干预方案，在预防犯罪和违法行为方面发挥作用，以使儿童忙于在学校开展有意义的活动，并保护他们免受外界环境的负面影响。