Poverty is not an excuse for crime as morality is the biggest factor, claims Cambridge University study



Just 4 per cent of youths account for half of crimes



This tiny band of delinquents have each committed a staggering 278 crimes by the age of 16

Children commit crime because they lack morals and not just because of the environment they live in, according to a new study.

Cambridge University studied around 700 young people in Peterborough for over a decade and discovered that most adolescent crime is not just youthful opportunism.

In fact, while it is agreed that urban environments trigger some young people to commit crime, it is their morality which is the biggest factor.

Other teenagers remain highly resistant to committing crime - regardless of the circumstances.

New research carried out in Peterborough shows that adolescent crime is not just about youthful opportunism but also personal characteristics



The Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study was carried out by Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.

And it found that rather than crime being widespread among teenagers, a tiny band of delinquents have each committed a staggering 278 crimes by the age of 16, say researchers.

The thugs, who make up less than 4 per cent of the teenage population, are responsible for nearly half of youth offending, they found.

The researchers studied 716 teenagers over five years from the age of 12 to 16 in Peterborough, which was chosen for its average size, crime level and social make-up.



Youngsters were asked about their attitudes to crime and what offences they had committed. The information was cross-checked with police and school records. The researchers found that 3.8 per cent of those surveyed had carried out 47 per cent of the 16,000 offences.



This group of 27 youths had committed 7,523 crimes in five years. The average youth racked up 278 offences between the ages of 12 and 16 – more than one a week.



They were responsible for the most serious property crimes such as burglaries, robberies and car theft, with many of them having criminal records before the age of 12.

The bulk of offences were carried out by a small group who also did the most serious crimes like burglaries, robberies and car thefts



They were also considered ‘highly versatile in their criminality’, regularly committing acts of violence, vandalism and shoplifting.



The researchers found that 60 per cent of the 16,000 offences were committed by a ‘crime-prone’ 16 per cent of those studied, including the hard-core of 3.8 per cent.



They committed an average of 86 crimes each between the ages of 12 and 16.



This group admitted having the weakest morals, being impulsive and short-sighted, and having no self-control.



The 16 per cent most ‘crime-averse’, who were judged to have the strongest values, accounted for only 0.5 per cent of the crimes reported.



A lack of moral compass, rather than the opportunity to commit crime or social background, was revealed to be the most important factor in youths breaking the law.



The research, which is the most comprehensive study of youth crime in Europe, found that teenagers who avoided crime did so not because they feared the consequences or lacked the chance, but because they saw it as wrong. Professor Per-Olof Wikstrom, who led the Cambridge study, said: ‘ 'Many young people are ‘crime-averse’ and simply don’t perceive crime as a possible course of action - it doesn’t matter what the situation is.

The idea that opportunity makes the thief – that young people will inevitably commit crime in certain environments – runs counter to our findings.



‘Rather, only the “crime-prone” become vulnerable to said opportunities when taking part in environments with a moral context that encourages or at least does not discourage crime.’



But Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, a charity that works with disadvantaged children, cautioned against branding some young people as amoral.

