Juvenile delinquency is influenced by opportunities and situations: the existing evidence has pointed out that variables such as leisure places or poor social cohesion are associated to offenses committed by youths. Considering the opportunity perspective, the current study aims to better understand the influence that situational and contextual factors have on juvenile (12–18 years old) delinquency in a southern European region. Police data from the municipalities of the Basque Country (located at the north of Spain) was analysed using a negative binomial regression, showing that opportunity related variables, such as non-risky leisure and population size, have significant positive effects on juvenile delinquency, whereas risky leisure opportunities, single-parent families or residential instability are not related to juvenile delinquency, suggesting that some predictors well established in the literature could not work as expected in certain cultural and geographic contexts.

青少年犯罪受到机会和情况的影响：现有证据指出，休闲场所或社会凝聚力低下等变量与青年犯下的罪行有关。考虑到机会的观点，本研究旨在更好地了解情境和背景因素对南部欧洲地区青少年（12-18岁）犯罪的影响。使用负二项式回归分析了来自巴斯克地区（位于西班牙北部）各市的警察数据，表明与机会相关的变量（如无风险的休闲活动和人口规模）对青少年犯罪具有显着的积极影响，而冒险的休闲机会，单亲家庭或居住环境的不稳定与青少年犯罪无关，