New study shows unstructured time drives teenage delinquent behavior

A study involving more than 58,000 adolescents from 21 countries found that "unstructured free time" – defined as periods without adult supervision or activities guided by educational, cultural, or athletic goals – is strongly associated with delinquent behavior and exposure to violence among young people.

The study was published in May in the journal PLOS ONE by researchers affiliated with the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) consortium, which brings together teams from various countries to investigate, through anonymous questionnaires, adolescents' involvement in crimes and their exposure to violence as victims or perpetrators.

"The study shows that unstructured free time is a very important variable for understanding adolescents' involvement in violence," says Marina Rezende Bazon, a psychologist and professor at the Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters at the University of São Paulo (FFCLRP-USP) who coordinates the Brazilian team in the ISRD.

According to her, the concept refers to the time when adolescents decide for themselves what to do without adult supervision or participation in structured activities.

It's that time when young people wander around without a specific goal, often in contexts of vulnerability and exposure to criminal opportunities."

Marina Rezende Bazon, psychologist and professor, Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters, University of São Paulo

The study analyzed two main types of unstructured free time: at home, which is especially related to internet use, and outside the home, which involves spending time on the streets, in neighborhoods, and in public spaces without supervision.

The analyses showed that the strongest predictor of involvement in crime is association with delinquent peers. However, unstructured free time was a close second as an important, cross-cultural explanatory factor. That is, it was relevant in explaining young people's involvement in crime and situations of violence in all the countries surveyed. "When we combine delinquent peers and unstructured free time, we have a particularly problematic combination," Bazon warns.

Brazilian sample

The ISRD was created in the early 1990s and initially involved European countries. It was later expanded to include all continents. The current study corresponds to the fourth wave of research. Brazil participated by providing samples collected in Ribeirão Preto and Sertãozinho, both located in the interior of São Paulo state.

In Brazil, approximately 1,900 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 completed the questionnaire. The sampling was conducted in public and private schools following a standardized international protocol to ensure comparability across countries.

The questionnaires were administered anonymously on tablets. Rather than asking the adolescents directly if they had committed a specific crime, the researchers used the "self-reported delinquency" method. For instance, they inquired if the adolescent had ever entered a store, taken an item, and exited without paying.

"Adolescents tend to respond quite honestly when anonymity is guaranteed," says Bazon. According to her, decades of international research show that this type of approach produces reliable data and allows for the identification of phenomena that rarely appear in official statistics. "Official data reflect the activities of law enforcement agencies more than the phenomenon of youth violence itself," she explains.

The survey also investigated victimization. For example, adolescents were asked whether they had ever been the target of offenses related to skin color, religion, sexual orientation, or physical appearance, either in person or online.

Among the findings, the increase in female participation in online offenses, particularly those related to other people's physical appearance, stood out. For Bazon, this may reflect changes in the nature of parental supervision. "Girls have always been more closely supervised by their families than boys. But in the online environment, that difference has narrowed significantly," she says.

The researchers also observed that girls are more likely to exhibit behaviors classified as victim-aggressor "overlap," which refers to adolescents who simultaneously experience and perpetrate violence. This group exhibits more severe indicators of psychological distress, family problems, and academic difficulties.

Although the study included students who were currently in school, the authors point out that the most vulnerable adolescents may be underrepresented in the sample because out-of-school youth and those in the socio-educational system did not participate in the research. "If unstructured free time is already an important factor even among students, imagine what it's like for adolescents who have dropped out of school and spend years completely disconnected from conventional institutions," Bazon notes.

The researcher emphasizes that prolonged school dropout is now one of the main indicators of youth vulnerability. "We have adolescents who spend two or three years out of school, with no effective action taken by the safety net to bring them back."

Bazon also points out that juvenile delinquency is not exclusively concentrated among lower socioeconomic classes. "When we examine self-reported delinquency, we find adolescents involved in offenses across all socioeconomic classes. What changes is who ends up being more closely monitored, approached by the police, and institutionalized. That, of course, falls more heavily on the poor."

The ISRD consortium is currently preparing its fifth wave of surveys. Among the planned new features are a deeper exploration of issues related to misogyny, online hate crimes, and adverse childhood and adolescent experiences, such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and living with substance abusers or individuals with mental health disorders.

According to Bazon, such experiences produce what is known as "toxic stress," later associated with mental health problems, academic difficulties, violence, and recidivism. "Youth violence is a much broader and more cross-cutting phenomenon than what's seen only among institutionalized adolescents," she summarizes.

The data as a whole highlight the importance of expanding and improving community-based recreational, sports, and cultural programs that genuinely appeal to young people. This would allow their free time, during hours and on days other than school days, to be filled partially with structured activities. These activities would have socio-educational objectives and be under the supervision of adults or social educators.

"This type of policy, while addressing citizens' rights, has the potential to prevent young people from becoming delinquent. The published study indicates that, on average, a 20% reduction in unstructured free time spent away from home is associated with a 9.6% decrease in the prevalence of offenses and a 7.4% decrease in the incidence of offenses in the total sample," Bazon reports. 

In other words, the less unstructured free time adolescents have, the less likely they are to engage in crime. This would indeed be a policy aimed at prevention and youth development, although its effectiveness likely depends on the quality of the alternatives offered, how these activities are integrated into the community, and the social conditions that shape adolescents' daily lives.

"With regard specifically to unstructured online free time, the discussion becomes even more complex. Prolonged exposure to digital environments without mediation can increase exposure to content, groups, and opportunities associated with risky behaviors, but it also constitutes a contemporary dimension of youth sociability that can't be reduced solely to a criminogenic factor. In addition to training families and guardians to monitor and mediate internet use, policies on digital education, online protection, and platform accountability must be advanced, taking into account the mechanisms through which certain virtual environments may facilitate exposure to models, networks, and opportunities related to violence and delinquency," the researcher adds.

Thus, the study's main contribution may be less about supporting a linear relationship between "more free time" and "more delinquency" and more about demonstrating that the social organization of young people's daily lives is an important area for preventive intervention. The central issue for public policy is not merely occupying young people's time, but creating conditions in which they can develop a sense of belonging and participate in society.