Study to Investigate the Links between Crimes Committed by Youth Offenders and the Nature of their Migratory Movements

For some time now, the principal Spanish authorities responsible in the fields of education, youth and justice, have observed with great concern and astonishment, a considerable rise in criminal activity, particularly since 1998, whose protagonists are mainly youth offenders of foreign nationality. Given this situation there is a growing concern for establishing and understanding all the processes and factors that affect these individuals and whether, if these are not acted upon with the necessary care and efficiency, they may lead to the emergence and development of this type of crime. Furthermore, whether there is sufficient conclusive empirical evidence to date that can establish, without a shadow of a doubt, the existence, or not, of a significant relationship between said type of crime and the fact that the main protagonists are immigrants, who at the time of committing an offence, were undocumented in Spain. Based on this, this descriptive study will use the analysis and study of the triggers that cause young immigrants to commit offences and will investigate the factors that exert most influence on these individuals, as well as the relationship between these criminal activities and the fact that the protagonists are minors, and at the time of offence, are undocumented in Spain. The results obtained are of interest in order to provide future scientific profiles of immigrant youth offenders. Likewise, they show good prospects for improving the current image of immigrant youth offenders, but they could be improved.