Public Perceptions of Youth Crime in Canada and Vietnam: A News Media-Based Discourse Analysis Study

Context and Purpose: Since the 1990s, Vietnam has experienced rapid development. Alongside economic achievements, the country has been confronted with various social problems, including youth crime. Our review of the literature showed that youth crime has increased over time in Vietnam. However, the scholarly works in the field remain underdeveloped. While official crime data have been monitored, they have not been disclosed widely by the government. At the same time, graphic accounts of youth offences such as violence, robbery, rape, murder, and substance abuse have frequently been emphasized in public media. High profile cases of youth offences published in the media have fueled public frustration. As a result, outraged community members have called for stricter actions against young offenders.

The purpose of the paper intends to explore the differences in public perspectives of youth crime reflected through news media from a Canadian-based and a Vietnamese-based online newspaper, namely CBC News and Tuoi Tre/Youth News.

Methods: Using Fairclough’s (2003) and Wodak and Krzyzṅowski’s (2008) principles of discourse analysis for news media, we analyzed selected articles of Tuoi Tre/Youth News (N=13) during the period between 2012 to 2016, and articles of CBC News (N=17) from 2016 to 2018. There are 112 codes emerged from the data. The connections between codes, themes and sub-themes are examined before organizing and offering an interpretation based on selected articles. The analyzing process is conducted by using the qualitative analysis software, NVivo version 11, provided by the University of Calgary.

Findings:  From taking certain aspects into consideration, including internal and external relations, identifications and representations, and social structures; our analysis indicates vast differences in public perceptions of about youth crime and youth offenders between Vietnam and Canada. There are three main clusters of findings we want to emphasize: (1) Conceptualizing youth crime; (2) Using language and attitude toward youth crime and youth offenders; and (3) Approaching youth crime prevention and intervention strategies. Findings showed that while Vietnamese articles present negative attitudes and encourage harsh measures (i.e. policing and incarceration) toward youth offences, the Canadian counterparts engage in positive approaches of conceptualizing and preventing youth crime (including advocating for community-based prevention and intervention strategies and restorative justice).

Conclusions and Implications:  Our findings confirm that public perceptions of youth crime in Vietnam and Canada are precisely reflected through news media. This has a profound effect on conceptualizing and promoting corresponding solutions toward youth offenders. In the context that criminal studies in Vietnam are limited, the paper promotes a practical approach for understanding and support to address the issue.