Adolescence And Adulthood And The Factors That Promote Childhood Delinquency Essay

Most people have preconceived notions regarding the relationship between social class and delinquency. A common assumption is that lower-class juveniles are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior than their higher-class counterparts. Criminologists have performed a large number of studies examining the socio-demographic characteristics of delinquents, which often yielded contradictory results. When analyzing the extent and trend of juvenile delinquency in the United States conclusions can be drawn from estimates derived from arrest records, self-reports, and victimization data. Arrest estimates, self-reported information, and victimization data provide different estimates of the extent of delinquency in the United States (Maxfield et

Research has shown a clear connection between certain environments ultimately being high predictors of juvenile delinquency. This leaves us with the question; How does the social environment contribute to juvenile delinquency? Through different scholarly articles and personal observations at my internship at the Brazos Valley Juvenile Justice Center I was able to narrow down generally what social environments and interactions could be high predictors of juvenile delinquency to come.

Risk factors for juvenile delinquency have been identified from multiple studies. These risk factors are different for older and younger juveniles. When focusing on the individual juvenile between the ages of

Aside from the issue of crime in general, juvenile delinquency has become more and more of an issue in our present day society. Due to this unfortunate fact, many theoretical explanations of crime have evolved over the years to help researchers, law enforcement agencies, and society as a whole better understand why juvenile delinquency and crime in general has gotten so out of hand. These crime theories also attempt to explain what leads or increases the likelihood of those individuals who commit crime to do it. Recent statistics reveal that juvenile delinquents are becoming younger and the types of crimes they commit are beginning to be more violent. Criminal offenses such as physical and sexual assault, property crimes, hate crimes, bullying

Our society today is fraught with immense criminal behaviour. The idea that adolescent delinquency creates future criminals has been studied and has determined several biological, psychological, and sociological factors which pervade criminological theories. These theories are inclusive to the single parent poverty theory, the labelling theory, and the social disorganization theory.

In reviewing the reading assignment, developmental theories are known theories that believe that delinquency starts to develop and does not start because of an underlying condition, but at the entire life course (Regoli, Hewitt, & DeLisi, 2014). I do not believe that there is a place for “get tough” on crime initiative within the developmental theory. Get tough on crime approach will only place more juveniles in other facilities, or even in jail with adult offenders. I believe that this is only banned aiding the problem, and will not get to the root cause of why he or she has committed the crime, or continue to commit crimes. In taking the development theory approach, it will look deeper than the person committing a crime, but what is going

We are beginning to see more than often, labeling of juvenile delinquents by members of their society. The term labeling theory explains how labeling tends to applied members of society, whether it is formally or informally, and the type of effect these labeling can have on juveniles and deterrence. Akers & Sellers, (2009), & Bernard, Snipes, & Gerould, (2010), states that the labeling theorists assert that society creates deviance by creating laws, and they tend to agree that the original action of deviance displayed by an offender is not as important as the continuation and escalation of deviance. Labeling theory has more experiential support than deterrence theory. The Labeling theory acknowledges the role that is played by formal/informal social control. Labeling theory is “also recognizes that criminal behavior is not an illness or something that can be treated as “curable” and this theory distinguishes between primary deviance and secondary deviance and acknowledges that these be treated differently” (Baldwin, 2014). Deterrence, on the other hand, suggests that the embarrassment and shame of being caught in a felonious act and then being called a criminal is enough to prevent future criminal acts. When examining “labeling theory it is more accurate when researching adolescences from disorganized neighborhoods or criminal families” (Baldwin, 2014), and deterrence might be more precise “in cohesive neighborhoods than in

Developmental theories focus on the entire life cycle of an individual, rather than one particular time-frame. Interestingly, this developmental process represents the assumption that delinquency has to develop and is not the evolution of an undisclosed condition. Specifically, developmental theories focus on if an individual has committed any delinquency during a certain time frame, the amount of delinquency, and how the delinquency will progress into a delinquent career (Regoli, Hewitt, & DeLisi, 2014). A delinquent career can be described as a pattern of delinquent behavior that an individual portrays within the course of their lifetime (Regoli et al., 2014).

(2) After individual and family factors are accounted for, do ethnicity and/or residence in underclass neighborhoods add to the explanation of delinquency? In order to answer the questions that were posed, a set of measures were used. In their study Peeples and Loeber considered factors such as Age, percentage poor/welfare, Percentage single parent, hyperactivity, and supervision as independent variables. On the other hand, they considered factors such as family poverty, welfare use, families with no one employed, male joblessness, and assisted housing. A cross sectional assessment of 506 Pittsburgh public school boys were used to determine how the listed factors can possibly lead to juvenile delinquency. They also did a follow up six months after the initial assessment. In the sample of schools boys, 290 were African American youths. Peeples and Loeber found that 40% of African American youths lived in poor neighborhoods, compared to 5% of white youths that lived in the same neighborhood. Also, twice as many African American boys had engaged in some forms of delinquency in their life than White boys. Additionally, African Americans and did not differ in terms of the seriousness of delinquent acts or frequency of serious acts. However, African Americans had a higher total frequency of delinquent acts than Whites. The

There are so many issues facing our society today, especially in the criminal justice system. Within the criminal justice system, juvenile delinquency is an issue that I find the most overlooked and it is a problem that is growing, particularly in the poorer areas. The term juvenile delinquency refers to the antisocial or criminal activity under the age of 18 which violates the law. Everyone is affected by juvenile crime, parents, teachers, families and neighbors. It is essential that programs are implemented to help with juvenile delinquents. Although delinquency rates have decreased dramatically, the effect of delinquency still affects the victims of crime, the perpetrators and even the bystanders. There are many interventions that attempt to lower the rate of juvenile delinquency; some are successful while others are waste of resources.

Juvenile Delinquency is participation of illegal behavior by minors. Although it is no single path to juvenile delinquency, the presence of several risk factors often increases a youth’s chance of offending. Risk factors have been defined as those characteristics, variables, or hazards that, if present for a given individual, make it more likely that this individual, rather than someone selected from the general population, will develop a disorder(May 2014). Risk factors predict an increased probability of later offending but it is true that certain protective factors may work to offset risk factors. To determine this, an assessment is given to the juvenile. This risk assessment will configure the type of intervention that will best suit the individual youth needs in order to decrease their risk of offending. The top three key social factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency in the 21st Century are family, peers, and community. In this paper I will focus on the different aspects of each top key social factor and the affects it will have on the juvenile.

Obviously something is going on in today’s society if more and more children are committing delinquent crimes. Sometimes a researcher has to get to what he or she thinks is the root of the problem to figure out what spawns a certain issue. What provokes a child to become delinquent and what makes the child gravitate so easily towards this lifestyle? It is necessary to explore how family life influences juvenile delinquency. Juveniles are more likely to become juvenile delinquents if there is little structure provided for them in their families. Children who are rejected by their parents, who grow up in homes with considerable conflict, or who are inadequately supervised are at the greatest risk of becoming delinquent. Literature

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children,” Mahatma Gandhi. This is very important as we look into the life of a child. The events that are put in place for a child in its early stages, can effect who they will be years to come. The years between 6 and 14—middle childhood and early adolescence—are a time of important developmental advances that establish children’s sense of identity (Eccles). During these times the children are trying to find themselves in school, and in the home, but the three things that are stunting a great childhood are; childhood deliquesce, the care taking and education in the school system, and the child’s home life.

Finding the root causes and factors and understanding the effects of these family-based risk and protective factors is important in preventing adolescents from being involved in illegal, harmful, or inappropriate conduct, and keeping them on track. What exactly provokes a child to become delinquent and what makes the child gravitate so easily towards this lifestyle? With my research study I would like to explore how social risk factors influence juvenile delinquency. Are Juveniles more likely to become juvenile delinquents if there is little structure provided for them in their families? Do social factors in society influence these negative behaviors? What are protective factors that contribute to prevention of juvenile delinquency in adolescents?

In today?s society, there is an alarming new trend of more and more adolescents becoming juvenile delinquents, and at an earlier age than previous years. This trend is mostly male dominant but also contain its female offenders. Researchers have studied a number of reasons, topics, and causes for the increasing trend of juvenile delinquency in adolescents and have come to a wide range of conclusions and presumptions based on their research. In these studies researchers looked at a number of topics and questions; what is the definition of juvenile delinquency? What are the current/ recent youth criminology rates and demographics? What are the origins of juvenile delinquency? What are the parental influences on juvenile delinquency? What are the external influences on juvenile