Who is to Blame? Youth Crime and Attribution of Responsibility in Urban Mexico

Youths represent a large fraction of the victims and perpetrators of violent crime across the world. Understanding how youths make judgments about crime and the actor(s) responsible has important implications, as patterns of blame attribution are associated with perceptions of criminal behavior acceptability. Focusing on youth crime in urban Mexico, we explore which factors con- tribute to youths blaming a peer perpetrator vs. their government and society for a specific crime. We conduct a vignette experiment with nearly 3,000 Mexicans aged 16–29 to determine whether the perpetrator’s socioeconomic background, gang involvement, the type of victim, and crime severity influence blame. We also conduct a series of focus groups with at-risk youths. We find that the socioeconomic status of the perpetrator and the nature of gang involvement influence assessments of blame for both the perpetrator and government/society. We also find the respondent’s socioeconomic well-being and their neighborhood security affect blame assessments