School careers and delinquent involvement : a retrospective investigation into the schooling experiences of habitual offenders

Abstract

This paper investigates the schooling experiences of young people who pursued a criminal career and consequently became habitual offenders. The data presented are part of a larger grounded theory project on criminal career development among Maltese male youth. The narrative approach adopted in the study allows one to explore offenders’ school careers from their perspective and adopts an inductive design. While the direction of the link between schooling and juvenile delinquency remains complex and contested, exploring the role of the school in delinquent development has important implications for intervention. This paper shows how school experiences have important implications for the development of delinquent careers and are an important contingency in relation to early onset of delinquency. Participant’s negative school experiences and adjustment, engagement in truancy and labelling within the school context are some of the key themes which emerged from the students’ narratives. Although not conclusive, the data from this study implies that dissatisfaction with the educational experience combined with other contingencies, may set the stage for more serious delinquency in and out of school.