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An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng

The overall aim of the study was to explore factors that could be associated with criminal behaviour of youth offenders diverted in the life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre, so as to contribute towards a better understanding of their profile. Ther...

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Main Author: Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
Other Authors: Gxubane, Thulane
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Social Development 2021
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
author2 Gxubane, Thulane
author_browse Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
Gxubane, Thulane
author_facet Gxubane, Thulane
Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
author_sort Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
collection Thesis
description The overall aim of the study was to explore factors that could be associated with criminal behaviour of youth offenders diverted in the life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre, so as to contribute towards a better understanding of their profile. Therefore the study explored the participants' family backgrounds, the circumstances surrounding the committal of their offences and their responses to the offences they were diverted for in the life skills diversion programmes. An exploratory-descriptive type of a qualitative design was adopted in this study. A semistructured interview schedule was used as the research instrument for conducting in-depth face-to-face interviews with the participants. The study had one set of target population; who were 18 youth offenders (both male and female) between the ages 14-17 attending life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre. The profile of the participants seem to indicate that most of them had absent fathers and therefore lacked male figures who could act as role models. The study found that biological fathers of most participants were either deceased, whereabouts unknown, not involved in their financial maintenance or those who had stepfathers, had a bad relationship with them. The findings indicated that the participants' mothers were unavailable and therefore most participants were taken care of by their grandmothers. However, it seems most grandmothers often failed to supervise their grandchildren properly and as such it created an opportunity for the participants to be mischievous with no consequences for their behaviour. It was also found that violence in the family also contributed significantly to the aggressive criminal offences of some of the participants. Lastly, the study showed that the influence of drugs and negative peer pressure also played a significant role in the participants' involvement in criminal behaviour.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:05.102Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
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publisher Department of Social Development
publisherStr Department of Social Development
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32691 An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild Gxubane, Thulane Social Development The overall aim of the study was to explore factors that could be associated with criminal behaviour of youth offenders diverted in the life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre, so as to contribute towards a better understanding of their profile. Therefore the study explored the participants' family backgrounds, the circumstances surrounding the committal of their offences and their responses to the offences they were diverted for in the life skills diversion programmes. An exploratory-descriptive type of a qualitative design was adopted in this study. A semistructured interview schedule was used as the research instrument for conducting in-depth face-to-face interviews with the participants. The study had one set of target population; who were 18 youth offenders (both male and female) between the ages 14-17 attending life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre. The profile of the participants seem to indicate that most of them had absent fathers and therefore lacked male figures who could act as role models. The study found that biological fathers of most participants were either deceased, whereabouts unknown, not involved in their financial maintenance or those who had stepfathers, had a bad relationship with them. The findings indicated that the participants' mothers were unavailable and therefore most participants were taken care of by their grandmothers. However, it seems most grandmothers often failed to supervise their grandchildren properly and as such it created an opportunity for the participants to be mischievous with no consequences for their behaviour. It was also found that violence in the family also contributed significantly to the aggressive criminal offences of some of the participants. Lastly, the study showed that the influence of drugs and negative peer pressure also played a significant role in the participants' involvement in criminal behaviour. 2021-01-27T05:58:39Z 2021-01-27T05:58:39Z 2020 2021-01-26T18:31:47Z Master Thesis Masters MSocSci http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32691 eng application/pdf Department of Social Development Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Social Development
Gule, Thembelihle Goodchild
An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
thesis_degree_str Master's
title An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
title_full An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
title_fullStr An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
title_full_unstemmed An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
title_short An exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first-time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng
title_sort exploratory study on the factors that contributed significantly to the criminal behaviour of the first time youth offenders enrolled in a life skills residential diversion programmes at walter sisulu child and youth care centre in gauteng
topic Social Development
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32691
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