Markus Kaakinen

This study investigates whether unstructured spare time is a significant correlate of self-reported offending among adolescents in multiple countries. Drawing on survey data from 58,425 13-to-17-year-olds in 21 countries in Europe, North America, and South America, we examine whether time spent in unstructured out-of-home and at-home activities, as well as structured time at home, is associated with offending prevalence and incidence. Using multivariate models that control for key criminological predictors, we find that unstructured out-of-home spare time is a robust and consistent correlate of self-reported offending. Its estimated association is larger than that of most classical predictors. While structured spare time at home is associated with lower levels of offending, unstructured spare time, particularly out-of-home, is strongly linked to both prevalence and incidence of crime involvement. Country-specific analyses reveal that this pattern holds across most national samples. Simulation analyses suggest that modest reductions in unstructured out-of-home spare time may be associated with lower levels of adolescent offending. These findings indicate that unstructured time environments constitute a cross-culturally robust correlate of adolescent offending, with potential relevance across dispositional and opportunity-based explanations, and with implications for how prevention frameworks conceptualize adolescents’ everyday environments.

Rising youth gang involvement in the Nordic countries has become a growing concern, particularly due to its association with crime and other problem behaviours. This study is the first to examine the prevalence and risk factors of street gang involvement among adolescents from nine cities in five Nordic countries. Using comparative, cross-national probability city samples from the fourth wave of the International Self-Reported Delinquency Study (ISRD4), the analysis includes data from 9039 adolescents aged 13–17 from Denmark (n = 1094), Finland (n = 2037), Iceland (n = 3007), Norway (n = 1559), and Sweden (n = 1342). Based on the Eurogang measurement, the findings highlight significant differences in gang involvement across cities, with Stockholm exhibiting the highest prevalence of youth gang involvement (16%). These differences persisted after adjusting for individual-level risk factors. Adolescents involved in gangs reported higher levels of peer delinquency, pro-delinquency attitudes, lifetime assault, as well as lower levels of parental control and self-control. In contrast, family strain and perceived discrimination were associated with street gang involvement only at the city level. The study discusses the implications of these findings for policy and prevention strategies, emphasising the need for targeted interventions to curb the rise of gang involvement among youth in the Nordic region.

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan nuorisojengien jäsenten rikoskäyttäytymistä sekä Robert Agnew’n yleisen paineteorian mukaisten riskitekijöiden kokemisen yhteyttä nuorisojengien jäsenyyteen. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään kansainvälisen nuorisorikollisuuskyselyn (ISRD-4) Suomen otosta, joka on kerätty Helsingin ja Turun kouluissa vuonna 2022 (N=1 913). Tarkastelemme paineteoreettisina selittäjinä koettua ryhmäsyrjintää, nuoren perheen taloudellista tilannetta, haitallisia lapsuudenkokemuksia sekä rikoksen uhriksi joutumista. Nuorisojengien jäseniä verrataan sekä muihin rikoksia tehneisiin nuoriin että niihin nuoriin, jotka eivät olleet tehneet kyselyssä mitattuja rikoksia. Tavoitteena on tarkastella, liittyykö nuorisojengien jäsenyyteen muusta nuorisorikollisuudesta poikkeavia piirteitä. Aineiston nuorista 5,3 % on Eurogang-määritelmän mukaisen nuorisojengin jäseniä ja lisäksi tehnyt vähintään yhden mitatun rikosteon kyselyä edeltäneen vuoden aikana. Nuorisojengien jäsenten tekemiä tyypillisimpiä rikoksia ovat omaisuusrikokset (76,9 % jengien jäsenistä). Sen sijaan väkivaltarikokset ovat harvinaisempia (39,0 %). Kun nuorisojengien jäseniä verrataan rikoksia tekemättömiin nuoriin, voimakkain yhteys jengijäsenyyteen on rikoksen uhriksi joutumisella. Sen sijaan koetun ryhmäsyrjinnän yhteys nuorisojengien jäsenyyteen ei ole tilastollisesti merkitsevä. Mikään mitatuista paineteoreettisista riskitekijöistä ei ole erityinen nuorisojengien jäsenille vaan samat riskitekijät korostuvat myös niiden nuorten kohdalla, jotka ovat tehneet rikoksia mutta eivät ole nuorisojengien jäseniä.

Early-life adversities contribute to adolescent criminal behavior, but whether such adversities are linked only to specific crime types remains unclear. Drawing from a developmental and life-course criminology perspective and the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) framework, this study compared the effects of early-life adversities on youth criminal behavior across different crimes. Using the register data of Finnish children born between 1987 and 2000 ( N = 835,512), a series of negative binomial regression analyses were conducted to study the associations between adversities experienced during childhood (0–14 years) and involvement in crimes during adolescence (15–20 years). The crimes studied included violent crimes, frauds, other property crimes, driving under the influence, traffic crimes, sexual offenses, drug-related offenses, and vandalism. Our findings suggest that ACEs—as measured by parental hospitalization due to substance abuse or mental health problems, parental conviction for a violent crime, parental death, parental unemployment, and parental receipt of social assistance—are linked to all types of criminal behavior instead of specific offenses, with parental violence and parental receipt of social assistance having the strongest associations. The accumulation of ACEs, we found, increased the likelihood of committing each of the studied crimes. Our findings demonstrate how ACEs can disrupt a child’s development in ways that are associated with a broad range of criminal behavior later in life and how crime distribution mirrors socioeconomic disparities. Additionally, our findings highlight the importance of trauma-informed interventions and general crime prevention strategies in addressing the long-term effects of early-life adversities on criminal behavior.

Background. Religion has long served as a salient identity marker and a basis for social conflict, often making visibly religious individuals vulnerable to targeted violence. Despite growing scholarly attention to hate crime, few studies have examined how religiously motivated victimization and behavioral adaptation unfold across national contexts, particularly among young people. This study applies Routine Activity Theory to explore both risk exposure and post-victimization adaptation. Aims. This paper investigates religious hate crime victimization and subsequent adaptive behavior in four countries using a routine activity approach. We examine how various aspects of religious life and routine activities, such as identity visibility, public practice, and social networks, are associated with variation in the risk of experiencing religiously motivated threats or violence. Second, we assess the strategies reported by victims that may reflect efforts to manage perceived risk. Methods. Based on survey data from 4122 young adults, we compare risk and adaptation patterns across multiple national and religious contexts. Results. More visible religious expressions and public engagement are associated with a higher likelihood of victimization, while networks of co-religionists are linked to lower risk. Victimization is also associated with greater likelihood of risk reduction behaviors such as avoiding risky situations, carrying weapons, or relying on co-religionists for safety. Conclusion. The analysis contributes to Routine Activity Theory by highlighting associations between religious routines, identity markers, and perceived target visibility, as well as potential behavioral responses following victimization. Findings are consistent across countries, suggesting robust patterns of risk and adaptation with implications for theory, policy, and victim support.

Background and Aims: The evidence concerning the relationships between loneliness, gambling to escape, and problem gambling is mixed. This study aimed to investigate how loneliness relates to gambling to escape and gambling problems using a longitudinal approach. Method: This population-based, longitudinal study included five time points, with data having been collected between April 2021 (T1) and April-May 2023 (T5). Participants were 18–75-year-old Finnish residents. Only those who had taken part in the study at each time point (T1–T5) and had gambled at least once a month at some point in the follow-up period were included in the study ( n = 612; 54.58% male; M _age = 51.85 years). Loneliness was measured with the UCLA 3-Item Loneliness Scale, and gambling to escape was measured with three questions concerning negative escapism taken from the Motivations to Play Inventory. Problem gambling was measured using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). Random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling was used to analyze the relationships. Results: Gambling problems predicted future loneliness on a within-person level, but loneliness did not predict future gambling problems. Also, gambling to escape predicted future gambling problems on a within-person level. On a between-person level, loneliness, gambling to escape and gambling problems were positively correlated. Discussion and Conclusion: Gambling problems may predispose individuals to future loneliness. However, the relatively small effects observed indicate that individual differences play a significant role in this regard.

Crime motivated by hate toward social groups and identities is a major social problem. Due to the rise of interethnic, ideological, and religious tensions, the criminal policy relevance of this crime has increased. One compelling question for hate crime researchers has been whether hate crime is different from general crime. In this study, we draw on the most recent available comparative European dataset, the third sweep of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study ( N = 34,871), to explore the extent and correlates of hate crime offending across sampled urban youth populations from 17 European countries. We find that 2.5% of 12–16-year-olds reported involvement in a hate crime. Country rates range from 0.7% to 6.5%, with the lowest figures observed in Western Europe and the highest figures observed in Southeast Europe. The individual-level risk factors of hate crimes tend to be the same as in other offending, thus supporting general rather than specific causation. However, some evidence suggests that some risk factors were particularly strongly associated with committing hate-motivated crimes: disorder in neighborhood, risky routines, discriminatory attitudes, low self-control and propensity to feel shame, lifetime delinquency, male gender, and hate crime victimization. Country-level differences in the studied individual-level risk factors only partly explained the differences between urban youth populations in the prevalence of hate crime, thus indicating national-level contextual effects that should be further explored in future research. As our data are based on city-level samples rather than full national populations, these findings should be interpreted as reflecting differences between urban areas in different countries rather than nationwide patterns.