Data Sources for Crime and Youth Violence Analysis
Understanding Crime and Contextual Factors
You may notice other interesting features in the analysis, such as population sources, local resources, and occupational structure. This also includes the approach to their economic situation, especially concerning households (e.g., households with unemployed members). The composition of households has been established as a risk factor, for example, in single-parent households.
By combining two variables relevant to our study—household structure and unemployment status—we can approach a very concrete reality of our study’s subject context.
Key Variables and Data Considerations
Some communities offer municipal-level data on income, service availability, vehicles, and so on. Such data should be taken with caution but offer a close approximation of the reality in these places. Here, we assume the hypothesis that context influences conduct.
Identifying Research Sources
This section lists sources that deal more or less directly with the research object. Identifying such sources becomes much easier with a better understanding of the specific field of study.
Analyzing Judicial Statistics
Conviction Rates and Demographics
Judicial statistics provide data on convicted individuals, categorized by age and sex, from total provincial hearings in Spain. It is interesting to establish whether conviction rates are higher among youth than among adults. It is unacceptable to include children under 10 years among the judicially condemned population. Therefore, the best approach is to establish conviction rates per thousand individuals within specific age groups. Observations can also be made among convicted individuals by sex.
Violence, including that involving youth, often shows a link to one sex. It is important to note that not all violent acts are processed through the courts, and not all crimes are directly linked to violence.
Specific Crime Categories and Recidivism
The next step may be to obtain a snapshot of major violence-related crimes committed by young Spanish people, specifically those categorized as robbery with violence and injuries.
One can investigate convicted recidivists by age and observe the prevalence of recidivism in crimes against property.
Juvenile Court Data
Another source would be the juvenile courts, which allow for analysis at the provincial level. Many offenses committed by minors may be related to violent crime. For example, data might show 1 homicide, 10 violations for damages, and 76 lesions. These data would, in principle, conclude the review of judicial statistics. These data must always be taken with caution, considering the discrepancy between recorded violent crime committed by juveniles and actual violent acts by young people.
Additional Data Sources for Youth Violence
National and International Statistics
The Statistical Yearbook of the Interior Ministry regularly provides specific data on juvenile delinquency.
Beyond the borders of this autonomous region and even the country, statistical sources from other nations directly address youth violence, though their unit of analysis is often deaths caused by violence.
The INE (National Statistics Institute) provides distributions of deaths by cause and detailed age groups.
Youth Perspectives and Surveys
One may also consult the views of young people through the National Youth Institute and the Sociological Research Center, which regularly conduct polls on Spanish youth.
Summary of Data Source Types
This analysis covered various types of statistical sources:
- Contextual Data: Sources providing background information for investigation.
- Direct Research Object Data: Sources directly related to the research subject, such as judicial statistics.
- International Data: The possibility of leveraging international statistical sources.