This study was conducted to examine delinquency and victim among multi-cultural families adolescents. Specifically, first, theories and previous studies at home and abroad have been considered as long as they are related to such harm in juvenile delinquency involving those with multi-cultural family background, in an effort to gain research implications. Second, we conducted a survey for the youths from multi-cultural families and youths at large to make a comparison in terms of characteristics and relevant factors of doing harm or being harmed in delinquency. We went through whether the peculiarity of the juveniles from multi- cultural families has something to do with the harm they suffer or cause in delinquency. Third, we targeted the youths with multi-cultural background and those engaged in the relevant institutions when implementing interview survey, which gave a glimpse at the characteristics of the harm the youths with such family background suffer or do in delinquency. To begin with, interviewing those working to support the teenagers from multi-cultural families yielded specific findings on the characteristic damage of the juveniles from multi cultural families and relevant factors, the effects of damage, measures to support victims, and so on. Among the teenagers with multi-cultural family background, in turn, those put on probation and held in juvenile corrections facilities were interviewed. This was to grasp the factors likely to be related to multi-cultural family juvenile delinquency and to examine the features of delinquency. Fourth, some measures were proposed to prevent the youths with multi-cultural background from doing or suffering harm in delinquency.
For research on the harm the youths from multi-cultural families suffer or cause, existing discussion was reviewed, based on which our questionnaire was composed, so that how these youths are affected in terms of harm from delinquency and which factors are concerned can be revealed. The target of questionnaire survey included 800 students of elementary, middle, and high schools with multi-cultural family background and the same number of their counterparts at large nationwide, and the survey was implemented from July third to August 17th in 2012. The interview survey was conducted on seven employees working for the institutions in contact with the youth from multi-cultural families and 13 juveniles with such family background who were put on probation and held in juvenile corrections facilities.
Summary of major findings from the questionnaire study is as follows:
First, in general, the youths from multi-cultural families appear to be socially and economically disadvantaged compared to those from general families. A smaller share of the teenagers in question lives with their birth parents, and a by far larger portion of them lives with their foster parents. Their fathers tend to have a lower level of education and occupation than those of their counterparts from general families. The uation made by the teenagers with multi-cultural family background presented a lower value for the living standards of their household. Family characteristics also do not take on a new aspect. The youths with multi- cultural family background engage in family activities to a lesser extent as a homey atmosphere fails to prevail at their home. These teenagers are less closely monitored by their parents and feel lower attachment to them. The comparison among elementary school students with different family backgrounds led to the finding that those from multi-cultural families have parents in more violent conflict and are more likely to be neglected and abused verbally and physically than the children with general family background. In terms of psychological properties, mainly elementary school students exhibit similar pattern of difference. Multi-cultural children have lower self-esteem while they feel a sense of depression to a greater extent. And the belief in normative acts is lower when adolescents come from multi-cultural families. As for anger, students of elementary school and middle/ high school alike show a higher level if their family is multi-cultural. Elementary students from multi-cultural families feel a greater fear of being bullied or rejected among peers, assaulted, and robbed of money or other goods than their counterparts from general families.
As for prospects for the future, the youths with multi-cultural family background tend to be more pessimistic. In particular, elementary students with such background are strongly negative in assessing the hope for the future, the possibility of entering college, and the prospects for success. Subjective uation on one's grades in school was made to compare the effect of different family backgrounds among teenagers, and those from multi-cultural families were found to show poor grades. Elementary students from such families also like schools less than those from general families, and the students of all ages with multi-cultural family background show weaker willingness to work hard while attending school than the general youths. While more negative uation on the fairness of teachers and counseling availability is dominant on the whole among the youths with multi-cultural background, middle and high school students with the same background rate the fairness of teachers more positively. The urge to quit school is felt more by elementary students from multi-cultural families than those from general families, and the reasons cited by such students for the urge include discrimination, unfairness, teasing, and bulling, taking a larger share than those cited by their counterparts from general families. The teenagers from multi-cultural families have lower attachment to friends while their close friends are more likely to show a propensity for delinquency.
Among the youths from multi-cultural families, 62.8% of them have the identity as Korean. There do not seem to be problems with the friendship with the youths from general families, thoughts about their foreign parents, and so on. However, as much as 28% of them have been teased or discriminated, or experienced others' talking in whispers.
Second, to investigate the factors related to actual conditions of damage from delinquency, chi-square tests and t-tests for a difference in mean were conducted. The results showed that elementary students with multi-cultural background have more experience in being bullied or rejected among peers, and falling victim to delinquency than their counterparts with general family background. On the contrary, middle and high school students reveal the opposite pattern as those from multi-cultural families experience less damage from delinquency than the adolescents from general families.
In Tobit regression models to analyze the factors of harm caused from delinquency, the variable of multi-cultural family did not have an effect on elementary students when the variables related to family, school, friends, and psychological properties were controlled. This is the evidence showing that the greater harm from delinquency is resulted not from their multi-cultural background itself but from its relevant factors like the major characteristic family, school, friends, and psychological properties. Unlike elementary students, the variable of multi-cultural family has a consistent effect on middle and high school students even when the relevant variables are controlled, presenting the result that the students with multi- cultural background experience less harm than those with general family background.
We compared the factors affecting the experience of harm after separating them by family background of the youths. Those from multi-cultural families suffered more bullying or peer rejection when their parents were in more serious conflict, they felt a weaker attachment to friends, and their friends displayed a stronger propensity for delinquency. Interestingly, teenagers with multi-cultural family background tend to fall victim to bullying or peer rejection if they do well at school. Moreover, lower standard of living and physical abuse from family members led to greater harm suffered from others' delinquency.
Examining the characteristics unique to the youths with multi-cultural family background brought little statistically significant results. Just more harm was suffered by the middle and high school students from multi-cultural families who thought of themselves as Korean, implying that these youths with clear identity as Korean are highly likely to actively hang out with many friends around them, along with greater chances of falling victim to delinquency of other friends.
Third, we found out that middle and high school students with multi-cultural family background commit more status delinquency than those from general families. For elementary students, such discrepancy in family backgrounds is not shown. Also in the case of minor delinquency, teenagers from multi-cultural families tend to commit more than their counterparts from the average family and this trend is more salient among elementary students. The youths from multi-cultural families also account for the greater portion among those to be blamed for serious delinquency. As cyber delinquents, juveniles with multi-cultural background have more experience of posting malicious comments on the Internet than their peers with ordinary family background.
In addition, we found a correlation between suffering harm and doing harm in delinquency, regardless of the family background of the teenagers involved in delinquency.
Our regression models for analyzing delinquent factors revealed that the variable of multi-cultural family was not statistically significant for middle and high school students. In the basic model to analyze the factors affecting status delinquency by elementary school students, the variable of multi-cultural family was statistically significant, but such significance disappeared upon controlling relevant variables. By the way, the variable of multi-cultural family regarding serious delinquency by elementary school students maintained statistical significance in a relatively consistent manner in most models. This serves as evidence that their family background characterized by cultural multiplicity itself can be an important cause in serious delinquency by elementary school students. Meanwhile controlling the variables of attachment to friends and delinquent friends eliminates statistical significance of the variable of multi-cultural family, so peer relationship appears to require particular attention in accounting for serious delinquency by elementary school students. As for cyber delinquency, the variable of multi-cultural family did not produce a significant effect in any of the models.
Among the factors influencing delinquency, what the youths from multi-cultural families and general families have in common as statistically significant one is the variable of delinquent friends for status delinquency and minor delinquency, and the variable of anger for minor delinquency.
And aside from these, factors influencing delinquency by the juveniles with multi-cultural background include monitoring by parents and attachment to school for status delinquency, physical abuse for minor delinquency, and monitoring/ surveillance by parents as well as physical abuse done by them, delinquent friends, and anger for serious delinquency as variables. For cyber delinquency, the effect of being verbally abused was also found.
Assessing the effect of variables related to multi-cultural families resulted in the finding that the better command of Korean their foreign parents have, the less likelihood of status delinquency the elementary school students from multi-cultural families exhibit. If middle and high school students with multi-cultural background are ashamed of their foreign parents, and they experience harassment and bullying, discrimination on account of their family background, these raise the likelihood of status delinquency. The same goes for minor delinquency as the experience of bullying or discrimination had an effect on both elementary school students and the older students of middle and high school from multi-cultural families. Looking at another result presented here, it also indicated that this experience might increase the probability of cyber delinquency by elementary school students from multi-cultural families. Therefore, the experience of being made fun of or discriminated appears to be an important factor in explaining juvenile delinquency with multi-cultural family background.

Based on our questionnaire study and interview as well as the review on the previous studies, we have proposed measures to prevent the youths with multi-cultural family background from suffering harm or doing harm in delinquency. Such measures are divided into social policy and criminal policy. The former is composed of general measures and supportive measures for the teenagers from multi-cultural families and such families. The steps belonging to the latter are supportive measures to be taken at the police phase, effective treatment for juvenile delinquents with multi-cultural family background, and ways to support victims of juvenile delinquency with such background.