Jongerengeweld in Brussel. Op zoek naar een contextuele verklaring

Abstract

Objective: This contribution examines the role of contextual factors in explaining youth violence in Brussels. In particular, the role of the school context is analysed. The analyses are framed within the theory of social disorganisation and test the role of inflow versus socialisation processes. The hypotheses test the impact of the school context through social bonding, routine activities and tolerance towards violence on violence among youth.

Methods: The authors use multilevel logistics analyses with the chance to act violent as the dependent variable. The analyses are controlled for age, gender, educational track and SESfactors.

Results:
• There are significant differences between schools on youth violence
• Individual SES-factors do not contribute to differences between schools on youth violence
• Muslim youth who do not follow strictly their belief rules have a bigger chance to be violent (compared to non-Muslim youth).
• School SES-factors contribute partly to differences between schools on youth violence. A significant difference is found regarding the household financial situation. The effect of the household financial situation explains the effect of Muslim religiosity.
• The analyses indicate a significant relationship between tolerance towards violence, delinquent peers, unstructured routine activities and the chance to be violent.

Conclusion: This paper shows that differences in violence between schools in Brussels can be attributed to different factors, both related to inflow and socialisation. First, the school composition plays an important factor. Schools with a higher inflow of boys, Muslims who do not strictly follow their religiosity and pupils from a deprived family situation score higher on violence. The relationship between these factors can partly be explained through unstructured routine activities, delinquent peers and a tolerance towards violence. However, the relative high residual variance at school level indicates that other, not tested mechanisms are equally important.