Young Offenders' Images of Self and Surroundings: A Semantic Enquiry

Abstract

In the context of Scots urban crime patterns, territorial and indiscriminate, considerable emphasis has currently been placed on physical environment. Although the opinions of magistrates, social workers and various celebrities have been freely forthcoming, a systematic study of the young Glasgow offender's view of his physical and emotional background has been singularly absent. Investigators in the past have attempted to show that when housing is improved, social problems such as delinquency automatically decrease; yet, as early as 1939 Wood commented that it was a popular fallacy that substandard housing was the direct cause of delinquency and crime and that its elimination would result in a crimeless world.