Prevalence of Violent Behaviour Among Juveniles in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Self-Reported Study (ISRD2-BiH)

Abstract

Contemporary criminology has two main surveys which are specifically designed to record an estimate of dark figure of crime (delinquency). These are Victim Surveys and Self-report measures of crime (delinquency). Victim surveys provide us with more detailed information about victims, their characteristics and attitudes, as well as with a better description of delinquents and their operations. Sometimes this kind of studies and also be used to explore the level of fear of crime as well and are, as such, very popular in contemporary criminology. Self-report surveys are instruments through which criminologists ask individuals to admit to various crimes or delinquent acts and those are usually attempting to provide an alternative to official statistics for measuring the extent of crime (mostly juvenile delinquency) in a society. These surveys are extensively being used in Europe, United States and elsewhere. They are most frequently applied for juvenile populations and sometimes they are applied on adults as well.

The second round of International Self-Report Delinquency study (ISRD2) is the first selfreport delinquency study ever conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main goals of the research are to evaluate the nature and dynamics of juvenile delinquency in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to attempt to evaluate its dark figure. We are of the opinion that rates of unreported crime are even higher and that within those unreported offences violent crime doubtlessly has a large share. Violence, as an objective indicator of the state’s failure to control deviant behaviour, is a difficult burden for the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina's civil society. For the needs of this study we have used a number of questions relevant for the approximation of violence among primary school pupils in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delinquent behaviours we focused on are: vandalism, weapons, group fights and assault.