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African American Disadvantages

Decent Essays

Effects of Disadvantages of African American Youth that Lead to Delinquency Stemming from Exposure to Violence According to the Sentencing Project, African American juveniles are more likely to be arrested for committing violent offenses than Whites (Rovner, 2016). These violent offenses that lead to an arrest are behavioral outbursts that stem from the environment of African American households. Subsequently, these environments then affect how an adolescent conducts themselves, sometimes causing violent outburst in their future. Delinquency among African American youth arises from societal disadvantages presented from a young age. Those disadvantages include exposure to violence which lead to the lack of behavioral skills. Non-cognitive …show more content…

The lack of basic skill then creates a huge divide between African American children and White children growing up with pre-determined factors. This then renders into those youths not graduating high school. According to a Policy Analyst Mary Clare Amselem (2014), “…public schools serving low-income communities—fail to develop [fundamental] skills leave their students with the option of dropping out or graduating with a meaningless diploma”. White students have a significantly higher graduation rate than African Americans. Programs that have been implemented to help combat these delinquency and violent problems are family strengthening, mentorships, and positive reinforcements in school. School programs will help foster growth for disadvantaged African American juveniles since they are getting exposed to violent behaviors and not receive the proper support they need from their home. Most of these current approaches have worked on the target groups, but I believe there are still ways that we can help and support other struggling groups at a …show more content…

Walker-Barnes and Mason (2004) concluded that lower parental control correlates with the delinquent getting involved with violent and illegal offenses, while high levels of parental control and attachment do the opposite. Children subjected to both harsh or relaxed style of parenting often struggle, end up joining gangs, selling drugs, and doing other illegal and violent things to make money and feel comfortable. The school to prison pipeline then increases as these children do not focus on school. The policies in place suspend the children from school and keep them home after offending (Nelson and Lind, 2015). Education and knowledge become secondary to these delinquent African American

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