Investigation of the relationship between violence tendency and self-esteem in children drifted to crime

Aim: In this study, the relationship between self-esteem and violent tendencies in children who are dragged into crime is examined and the effect of self-esteem and violent tendencies on driving to crime is measured to reveal perspectives on the causes and prevention of problems. Material and method: The relational (correlational) screening model was used in the research. The sample of the study consists of 144 children who were dragged into the crime in the 12-18 age range who were tried in the Juvenile and juvenile severe Criminal Courts of the Ministry of Justice Diyarbakir Courthouse between the dates of 20 November 2018 - 20 July 2019. The 'Personal Information Form', 'Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale' and 'Violence Tendency Scale' were used to obtain research data. The SPSS 22.00 program was used to examine the data. The percentage and frequency tests were performed while the demographics of the children who were driven to the crime were examined and standard deviation, Independent-Sample T-Test, and one-way ANOVA analysis were applied to determine the relationship between the demographic status of the children and the RSE and VTS scores. The significance level of the study was considered to be p< 0.05. Results: According to the data obtained, 89.6% of the participants were male and 10.4% were female. 64.6% of children had high self-esteem and 84.7% had moderate to high violent tendencies. Conclusion: In the research, a significant relationship was found between the academic status of children who were dragged into crime or substance use cases, educational status of parents, exposure to physical violence in the family, family type, parental attitudes, family income, the level of violence and crime in redundancy. It was also found that there was a statistical relationship between the children's self-esteem levels and their exposure to physical and verbal violence in the family and their history of substance use in the family. In light of this data, recommendations have been made to prevent children from being dragged into crime. Keywords: child, crime, self-esteem, violence