The question why people with a migration background (MB) become delinquent, is an ongoing issue in society. This issue is also important to criminal policy because offender populations are highly diverse; however, until now criminological theories which systematically consider aspects of migration and culture are rare. Thus, we explicitly studied subjective causes of delinquency among people with a MB from Turkey and Arabic countries. According to the Delphi method we first conducted interviews with forensic experts having a MB themselves. Afterwards 128 forensic experts, who were working as court experts, in prisons or for the probation service, filled out a questionnaire about potential causes of delinquency among people with a MB from Turkey or an Arabic country. As a result, many different variables relating to various aspects of life and different stages of development were rated as risk factors. Thereby, risk factors that are sensitive to migration and culture were evaluated as being just as important as common risk factors that were taken from well-known criminological theories. The present data were used in a principal component analysis that yielded a new approach for explaining delinquency. This approach integrates common risk factors (e. g. a disorganized neighborhood) as well as autonomous factors containing aspects of culture (e. g. traditional honor norms and delimitation from the host society) and migration (e. g. experienced discrimination and conflict of values). A method which combines common risk factors and risk factors sensitive to migration and culture may improve the validity of risk assessments in the future. Furthermore, such an approach might contribute to a culture sensitive adaptation of prevention and intervention methods. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland.

Migration culture Arabic Risk assessment Turkish

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