Youth violence on the decline

In recent years, youths in the canton of Zurich have committed acts of violence or been the victims of violent acts less often. These are the results of a representative survey of ninth grade students, conducted for the third time by the Criminological Research Unit at ETH Zurich's Chair of Sociology. The researchers have thereby confirmed trends already seen in police statistics: youth violence has not only fallen with respect to the offences registered by the police, but also in terms of violent experiences that youths themselves report.

All forms of violence declining

Using replication studies that are unique in Switzerland, researchers led by Denis Ribeaud from the Criminological Research Unit chronicled the evolution of youth violence as well as juvenile delinquency since 1999. In cooperation with schools throughout the canton of Zurich, they surveyed some 2,500 students in the ninth grade (aged 15 to 16) last year using a standardised questionnaire in class. Prior surveys were conducted in 1999 and 2007.

Researchers detected a decline in all forms of violence examined in the study, with the most distinct decrease observed in theft and blackmail, followed by assault. Bullying in schools also appears to occur less frequently. In contrast, cases involving sexual violence against minors declined the least. The study showed the profile of sexual offenders has changed since the first survey in 1999, shifting from adult perpetrators within the family environment to offenders of a similar age who typically meet their victims when they go out. Girls are almost exclusively the victims of sexual violence.

Less violence in public spaces

In recent years, things appear to be more orderly on the streets, in public transport, as well as bars and clubs. Researchers observed that violent offences have declined the most sharply in public spaces; accordingly, violence between strangers has become rarer. ETH researcher Denis Ribeaud explains this by the increased police presence in certain areas, as well as successful prevention work in the canton of Zurich. "Another reason for this could be that youths have changed their leisure time patterns and now spend more time at home compared with a few years ago", Ribeaud says.

This could also explain why not only violent acts but all other forms of juvenile delinquency, including vandalism and theft, have decreased in recent years. A study from the World Health Organization (WHO) also recently confirmed that youths in Switzerland consume less addictive substances. (external pageHBSC Studycall_made).

Perpetrators become vicitims  

Although Swiss youth are more seldom the victims of violence, particular victims suffer from more acts of violence over the long term and violent offenders are increasingly at risk of becoming a victim of violence themselves since 1999. Overall, violence is concentrated more and more in violence-prone milieus, where the roles of victim and perpetrator increasingly blend together. Young men with low levels of education and immigration backgrounds are overrepresented in these milieus. It is here where ETH expert Ribeaud sees potential for more prevention efforts: "Measures focused on intervention and the prevention of violence could be more strongly focused on these high-risk groups."

Examination of dating violence and cyberbullying

For the first time in 2014, researchers studied dating violence. 18% of girls in relationships suffered from sexual violence and around a quarter of youths in relationships reported that they were subject to physical violence by their partner in the previous year. However, the most common form of dating violence consisted in monitoring the partner’s contacts to other people. Girls are more frequently perpetrators of light forms of physical violence than boys. "There could be room for action in this area as well in terms of prevention work", Ribeaud explains. "Intriguingly, the study shows that both sexes are more inclined towards violence in a relationship when they adhere to traditional gender roles, namely when the man is in a dominant position in a relationship."

The researchers also studied for the first time the phenomenon of cyberbullying (bullying carried out through digital media). As the study shows, bullying is still the most common form of violence experienced during adolescence, even if the trend is indeed declining. Today, cyberbullying is as about as widespread as traditional bullying and is often carried out by the same perpetrators.

A comparison with older youth

For the first time, some 900 11th grade students (aged 17 to 20) took part in the 2014 survey, which allowed researchers to compare the different age groups. In contrast to ninth grade students, those in the 11th grade were slightly more likely to be victims of violence, especially within a public context. The main reason for this difference is probably that older youths go out more frequently.

The current study (as well as those in 1999 and 2007) were largely funded by the canton of Zurich's Department of Education. Additional sponsors of the study were the canton of Zurich's Department of Security, the canton of Zurich's Department of Justice and Home Affairs, as well as Switzerland's Federal Social Insurance Office.