White paper on crime 2011 Part7/Chapter6/Section2/3
Association with delinquent friends is a problem commonly observed with juvenile delinquents and young offenders, and is a major risk factor in many offenses.
The fact that associating with delinquent friends was closely related to the occurrence of delinquencies and offenses seemed to be the reason of the high complicity rate of juvenile delinquents (Fig. 7-2-1-1-12) and the high complicity rates with theft and violent offenses in the special research (Fig. 7-3-2-8, Fig. 7-3-2-9). In addition, the special research revealed that among the problematic behavior after being discharged, association with delinquent friends accounted for the largest number (Fig. 7-3-3-3-6), those with problem of associating with delinquent friends tended to also have other problematic behaviors, including drug use, violent acts, and debt, etc. (Fig. 7-3-3-3-7), and many started association with delinquent friends before being admitted to juvenile training schools, although a large number of them also began associating with them after being discharged (Fig. 7-3-3-3-9).
In addition, the survey of the attitudes of juvenile delinquents and young offenders revealed the tendencies for many of them to have merely superficial relationships with their friends and without constructive relationships, the percentage of those that were satisfied with their family life to be lower with them than that with general youth (Fig. 7-4-2-5), and those with a history of commitment to a juvenile training school to have a stronger sense of being alienated at school than those without a history of protective measures (Fig. 7-4-2-6).
In order to break associations with delinquent friends, providing them with guidance on living a sound life that is based on work or education and avoiding delinquent friends, while also providing support in the creation of a comfortable zone in thus avoiding feeling isolated, are therefore necessary. Those that repeated delinquencies/offenses had their interpersonal relationships limited to associating with delinquent friends and limited opportunities to find a sound social model within their local community. Providing them with support to establish constructive interpersonal relationships in place of associating with delinquent friends and to expand interpersonal support networks by helping them experience various relationships with others through social participation activities and social contribution activities (See Section 5, Chapter 1, Part 3 and Subsection 4, Chapter 5 of this part) in enhancing a sense of self-efficacy within the local community, acquiring desirable attitudes as a working member of society, and also establishing new interpersonal relationships at their living base of school/work, etc. is therefore considered desirable.