Adolescents Deviant Behavior

Adolescence is a time where adolescents grow and mature at a rapid rate. It is also a time where adolescents are more vulnerable to taking risks, such as using and becoming addicted to illegal substances, due to raging hormones. Whether or not an adolescent chooses to engage in drug use and abuse depends on their home environment and those they choose to associate themselves with. Adolescents are confronted with an enormous amount of pressure to participate in risky behaviors by their peers. According to Broderick and Blewitt (2015), “risky behaviors are behaviors that constitute a departure from socially accepted norms or behaviors that pose a threat to the well-being of individuals or groups” (p. 389). One such risky behavior is drug use and addiction. Some adolescents use cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and prescription drugs in order to get “high”. Adolescents who engage in drug use are likely to become addicted, and thus, their addiction will negatively affect their brain development.

Adolescence is a critical time of development. During this period there are significant changes in brain development, emotions, cognition, behavior, and personal relationships. It is during this time that most major mental health disorders appear, many of which carry over into adulthood. Behavior patterns such as substance abuse also often develop during this time and may continue throughout adulthood. Many adolescents struggling with mental health issues begin to exhibit symptoms such as acting out at home or in school, showing a decreased interest in activities that they previously enjoyed, or bringing home poor grades. Others ultimately are charged with offenses ranging from status

Many teenagers between the ages of 12-18 are exposed or already on their way to addiction to substances that are not good for our mental or physical health. Many teens experiment with drugs but aren’t addicted. According to addictioncenters.com “teen drug abuse can have long term cognitive and behavioural effects since the teenage brain is still developing.” A study also shows that half of all new drug users are under 18. This is because our brains are still seeking the “thrill” and temptation of substances. Other common reasons are curiosity, peer pressure, stress, emotional struggles and wanting a escape. Thankfully drug use among teens, despite popular opinion are significantly decreasing. The teenage brain is very immature. By doing drugs as a teen you are at a greater risk for being an addicted adult.

Despite all of the efforts put fourth in attempting to better educate and stop drug use in America studies show that drug use by juveniles has substantially increased within recent years. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) juveniles as young as eighth grade are using drugs such as marijuana on a daily basis. Unfortunately, most of these juveniles have also experimented with alcohol at this age as a gateway drug to start using marijuana and so forth. (NIDA) There are many aspects that could impact why children so young are getting access to these drugs. The NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow states that, “Marijuana use not only places teens at risk of addiction but also impairs their memory, judgment, and ability to learn.” These drugs are now so easily accessible at such a vulnerable and impressionable age that it could have devastating impacts on the juvenile’s future in the criminal justice system. Important factors that go alongside in drug abuse with juveniles would be peer pressure, family factors, and lastly emotional problems they are experiencing in their young years of life.

Teens are intelligent. They can be influenced due to the immaturity of their brain, though. According to National Geographic, their immature brains can make them susceptible to impulse, pulling them towards bad people. When they are into a drug and it is connected to a person, a young addictive prone mind can be gravitated toward bad people. This is when a parent or guardian should step

In adulthood, though, they will be expected to achieve independence and make choices about school, work, and personal relationships that will affect every aspect of their future. For some young people, the usual challenges of adolescence are compounded by difficult family situations, overcrowded classrooms, disintegrating neighborhoods, or exposure to alcohol or other drugs. Without support and guidance, these young people may fall victim to behaviors that place them, and others, at risk. In our society, those behaviors include dropping out of school, running away from home, joining gangs, and using alcohol or drugs or becoming involved in other law-breaking behaviors. Some youth may become despondent, leading to academic problems, social isolation, or self-destructive behavior. (http://www.ncfy.com/supporti.htm)

People may wonder the reasons as to why so many juveniles are being found committing as many harmful crimes that they are in today’s society. There is a list of reasons that the ACS Distance Education organization has listed to being factors as to why juveniles may be committing crimes or becoming more susceptible for it. In their lists they name peer pressure, peer involvement in problem behavior, lack of supervision, criminal parents, lack of discipline, family income, drug or alcohol abuse, mental illness, family conflict, opportunity for crime, and poor education. There may be several other reasons that juveniles are becoming active in crime but these are the main ones that stick out (ACS, 2014). Teens can often find themselves interacting with the “wrong crowd” and find themselves engaging in acts that may be new to them that are also illegal. If a juvenile allows themselves to interact and engage in those activities then they will begin to duplicate what they see and commit the same criminal acts. Parents and

Some teenagers go through a depression stage with confusion and loneliness, some even consider harming themselves or taking drugs to cope with the depression. Some teenagers go through a period of stupid, reckless behavior. Some teenagers go through a period when drug addiction overrules their lives. When teens get peer pressured into taking drugs they think it will be cool, but throughout their addictive period they get involved with bad people. Research has shown that it take about 11 seconds after a teen takes a drug and they can be addicted. Teenagers have very high chances of addiction. Young people grasp things very quickly and can easily get addicted to things quicker, because their minds are constantly growing and it speeds up their learning process. According to the article, "Experts Link Brains' Immaturity, Juvenile Crime", Juveniles are more vulnerable and susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. This peer pressure often comes from a persons closest friends. During the development of a teen brain it matures and grows. People overcome challenges in adulthood by remembering choices they made during their teenage years and what those choices led them

The current study is a correlation design. This design will be used to find if there is a relationship between childhood conduct problems or deviance and adult deviance. Deviance for childhood will be defined as any psychological issues, conduct problems in school, such as physical fighting or lashing out in anger to teachers or peers, deviance for adults will be defined as any form of a criminal record and any form of a psychiatric record.

i remember walking in a bathroom a couple of times in my high school freshmen year and seeing kids doing and taking drugs. i asked my self how could anyone do that to themselves and I believe that their hurt by something other than drugs. that influences every one and they have been influenced by someone older like a parent, older sibling , and/or a friend . You don't just one day every just pick one random day to influence your self to do something like that, you have to be influenced by someone or something.Thats why i think we should have a program to inform and possibly prevent teenagers from doing such terrible things to themselves.

Many of the results I found on the basis of why the youth are more prone to starting drugs and altering their future in a negative manner were not surprising. I knew that teenagers have brains that are still developing therefore, their impulses are more out of control “because the cellular adaptations associated with addiction processes occur in the same regions of the brain as those undergoing preferential maturation during adolescence, adolescence should be viewed as a period of particular vulnerability to the effects of rewarding drugs and to the development of future drug-related problems” (Centre on Substance Abuse, 2007, p. 35). Also, it’s not surprising how high of an influence the youth experience around his or her peers because all

Juveniles have been making the choice to involve them in criminal activity in society. Many factors that cause for this behavior are low self-esteem, hanging with the wrong crowd, peer pressure, and bad role models. There are programs that help youth changes the way they think and help them make the right choices. These programs are also designed to help with the rate of juvenile activity. The types of services and programs that are to the youth and families help with the changes being made. The two different programs that will be discussed are:

"Statistics prove that 30% of teenagers have shoplifted at least once due to peer pressure. Over half of teenagers will experiment with alcohol. About 40% of teenagers have tried drugs," states Jeanie Lerche Davis author of Teenagers: Why Do They Rebel. The fact there is a new found freedom gives these adolescents opportunities to get pushed into doing the wrong thing. It begins with one person who is more rebellious than others to create the domino effect. When a child is a toddler, they are impressionable, they follow the lead of the adults in their lives. If they hear their parents say a curse word they will repeat it. Teenagers are impressionable in a very similar way and they’re stuck in the middle of learning who they are and who they want to be. If one friend shoplifts, they can easily get pressured into it, the same goes for alcohol and drugs. These things become cool, and when you're a teenager that's all that matters. In reality though doing these “cool” things are actually incredibly harmful, leading these teenagers down a wrong path.

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 1994) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,

The social environment of teens holds an enormous influence on how the teens act and behave. Teens are easily influenced by their surroundings and they look to others for guidance. Their behavior results from that of the parent and peer influences. Parents play a particularly influential role in their child’s life and it is up to them to make sure that they are leading their sons or daughters in the right directions. A teen’s peers also play a large role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not around. A teen’s social environment, consisting of family and peers, plays a vital role in their life, therefore becoming the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency.