Afiliação de adolescentes e jovens a facções criminosas: fatores psicossociais de risco e proteção.

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to explore and evaluate the influence of the psychosocial factors of risk and protection on the affiliation of adolescents and young people with criminal factions. A wide range of antecedent variables was analyzed, distributed in risk factors (community exposure to criminal factions, negligent parental socialization, time of family coexistence with faction members, victimization by peers, the influence of antisocial peers, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, emission on antisocial behaviors, and sub-functions of human values of experimentation and realization) and protective factors (social support, school commitment, the influence of prosocial peers, self-efficacy, self-control, religious commitment, and sub-functions of human values of normative and interactional) in the face of the affiliation of young people to criminal factions. To this end, it was used a sample of 252 participants constituted of three groups: youth affiliated to criminal factions (n=91), youth not affiliated to criminal factions and in conflict with the law (n=79) and youth not affiliated to criminal factions residing in high social risk community contexts (n=82). The participants aged between 12 and 19 years (M=16.32; SD=1.74), the majority being male (69%), heterosexual (80.2%) and brown (56.7%). This is a non-probabilistic sample, with participation conditional on signing of the Free and Informed Consent Form and the Assent Form. Data were collected at the Socio-Educational System Inpatient Centers and at public schools in communities classified as high risk, after the authorizations and consideration of the proper ethical procedures. Participants responded to a booklet consisting of Criminal Faction Affiliation Measures, Community Exposure Scale to Criminal Factions, Perceived Social Support Scale, School Commitment Scale, Parental Perception Questionnaire, Scale of Aggression and Peer Victimization, Antisocial Peer Influence Scale, Prosocial Peer Influence Scale, Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist - Civilian Version, Scale of Antisocial Behaviors, Adapted Version of the Brief Self-Control Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Basic Value Survey, Scale of Religious Beliefs, Scale of Religious Practices and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, chi-square tests, analysis of variance and multinomial logistic regressions were performed. The results show that, specifically the risk factors: influence of antisocial peers, emission of severe antisocial behaviors, and experimentation value subfunction; and the protection factors: influence of prosocial peers, self-control, and interactional value subfunction acted as predictors of the affiliation of young people to criminal factions in the local scenario. However, the predictive potential of the other analyzed variables was not observed. The results were discussed based on the literature and directions for future researches were presented. In despite of the existence of some limitations, it is emphasized that the objectives of this study were satisfactorily achieved, presenting significant information about the affiliation of adolescents and young people to criminal factions in the local context.