Societal vulnerability and adolescent offending: The role of violent values, self-control and troublesome youth group involvement

The present study aims at testing the relationship between societal vulnerability and self-reported offending using the Belgian data of the second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2). Societal vulnerability is a much-discussed covariate of adolescent offending. We test the hypotheses that violent values, self-control and troublesome youth group involvement are key mechanisms that mediate the relationship between societal vulnerability and offending. We found an indirect path of societal vulnerability for offending through violent values, self-control and troublesome youth group involvement, but there remains also a direct impact. The implications of these findings for policy and future studies of offending are addressed.