Adolescent trangression behaviour: gender differences

This chapter examines the antisocial behaviour of young people in South Australia in order to develop a profile of adolescent transgressors, particularly with regard to the three most commonly occurring Australian adolescent offences recorded in official crime statistics – namely drug taking, stealing, and fighting. Common amongst groups of adolescent youths are teenagers considered to be low-level or 'experimental' offenders who show specific patterns and ages of initiating offending. A purpose-built questionnaire was pilot-tested with a sample of 30 male and female students aged 15–17 from mixed socioeconomic backgrounds, and changes were made to items based on respondents' feedback. On completion, all participants placed their questionnaires in envelopes that were sealed so that no one at the school or detention facility could see an individual's responses. Twenty respondents were removed for responding in a socially desirable manner, and they were excluded from all further analyses. Subsequently, the sample size for all remaining analyses comprised 492 respondents.