Causes of Junvenile Delinquency

This research is important because understanding what makes a juvenile delinquent is necessary to know. Parents can be educated on what is affecting their teen to contribute to delinquent behavior. The family structure has been avoided by many citizens. Educating the public on the family structure can make a different in a teen’s life.

The changes in family values and structure in the United States has helped contribute to juvenile delinquency today. Society needs to recognize problems within the home before trying to find solutions to problems for todays at risk youth in America. Major structural changes inside of the home could adversely affect the raising of juveniles leading to delinquency. Some of the issues I will discuss in my paper are divorce, child abuse, mothers working outside of the home, and single-parent homes. Ineffectively raising a child can cause low

Juvenile Delinquents are being incarcerated at earlier ages as time progresses. The term delinquent speaks of two or more youths, typically amongst the ages of ten and seventeen years old, who are involved in doings well-defined as illegal. The study of juvenile delinquents in inner city Chicago have been studied for many years and the rates continue to sky rocket as juveniles are being locked down by the justice system. Cases of violence amongst juveniles has been increasing rapidly in the past 20 years, juveniles are now linked to severer crimes, and it can be speculated that regardless of efforts of rehabilitation that the recidivism of juveniles relapsing is very great. Thus leading to physiological and mental problems that can be damaging to the youth as

Societies tend to view the youth as the future and hope of a nation. To a certain extent, societies observe the behaviours and potential of the young people to ‘estimate’ the political and socio-economic future of a nation. When there is what societies view as a deviance from the norm when in it comes to young people – often there is what is viewed as a ‘moral panic’. I will be looking at the ‘moral panic’ of youth crime or juvenile delinquency, the role of its ‘moral

This project will focus on the British criminal justice system in the 1950s regarding juvenile behaviour. The research will explore the ways used to prevent juvenile crime, the social and psychological motivation for crime, and the way that the criminal justice system aimed to rehabilitate those convicted of a juvenile offence. To explore these areas an understanding of ‘delinquency,’ and its’ consequences is needed. According to Wirt and Briggs ‘delinquency involves personal suffering as well as a loss to society.’1 This suggests that juveniles are not mindfully delinquent as their actions have repercussions on their

Juvenile offending is a concern in society today. Juveniles account for approximately 19% of the population but are responsible for 29% of criminal arrests (Cottle, Lee, & Heilbrun, 2001). Crime overall has been found to be decreasing throughout the last two decades. The issue is that the rate in which adult crime is decreasing is significantly greater than the rate in which juvenile crime is decreasing. Since the rate of juvenile crime is so high, juvenile delinquents are seen as predators and many believe they lack morals. The way in which media of today’s society constructs juvenile delinquency impacts the views of a community towards their youth and youth offenders. Media presents an inaccurate image of youth offenders as violent predators (Rhineberger-Dunn, 2013). This inaccurate image significantly promotes the myths that juvenile crime is rising, juveniles commit crimes that are primarily violent, and that juveniles are highly effected by recidivism and continue committing crimes into adulthood (Bohm, & Walker, 2013). It has already been stated though that crime rates have been decreasing over the last two decades so the first myth is refuted. The myth that juveniles primarily commit violent crimes is also very off. In most cases, juveniles are involved in property crimes and although there are some violent crime cases, they are very rare. When these rare violent crimes do occur, youth can be tried in adult court. The

Characteristically, juvenile delinquency follows a similar path just like normal adolescent development and children tend to follow delinquent and criminal behavior rather than engaging in it randomly. Research has shown that there are two types of delinquents, those in whom the onset of severe antisocial behavior begins in early childhood, and those in whom this onset coincides with entry into adolescence. With either type, these developmental paths give families, communities, and systems the opportunity to intervene and prevent the onset of antisocial behaviors and justice system involvement (APA, 2017).

It is believed that children are the products of their environment. With their brains often compared to sponges, children tend to mimic the language and the actions of those around them, and absorb those things into their memory. (Briggs, Grella, Allen-Burton, Yarmuth, & Taylor, 2012) There are many studies on the causes of juvenile delinquency, but there is much debate as to who and what is considered the primary factors of influence. This topic is important because juvenile delinquency continues to be a huge problem in the U.S; in 2012 alone, there was approximately 1,319,700 juvenile arrests (Puzzenchera, 2014). The primary group in this research are those adolescents who live inner-cities and reside in low-income based neighborhoods.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the changes in family structure in Texas is connected to Juvenile delinquent behavior. This is important to understand because it is uprooting the problem society has at hand. When bringing to light problems we have with the youth of the society we live in, there is an exposure to the problem and can bring forth resources to parents and young kids so that we may deter delinquent behavior. Dysfunctional families is most likely going to effect and influence a child’s behavior. When a lack of proper manors, or respect for others will reflect on how they see the law. This behavior and mentality would only push them act what they think is normal, and that is to not respect and follow rules of society. (Law)

Many things come to people mind when they hear or see the world “Juvenile Delinquency”. There are probably hundreds of definitions of juvenile delinquency that contain only minor differences, using the same words to describe the same basic

“Delinquent and criminal behavior occurs among young people, as they negotiate the transition from childhood to adulthood in an increasingly complex and confusing world” (World Youth Report, 2003). There are several factors to juvenile delinquency and also ways to possibly prevent it. From early childhood to adolescence, children need to be surrounded with positive role models and environment. A couple of factors to juvenile delinquency that McWhirter, McWhirter, McWhirter, & McWhirter (2013) state are “economic factors, lack of adult bonding, poor parental monitoring, and environmental and cultural factors” (p. 225). Being involved in criminal activities is not something that just happens overnight. McWhirter et al. (2013) shows that because of the factors stated above, children in every stage, from early childhood to adolescence show similar characteristics because of the past experiences they’ve encountered. Middle childhood stage shows that children become rebellious and aggressive at home that lead to them acting in a similar way at school and their co mmunity. Children in late childhood and pre- adolescence stage start receiving negative response from their community, peers and may result in academic failure. All these factors lead to these children becoming involved in gang and criminal activities. The movie character that I chose to cover for this paper is named Jimmy. However, since there is not a lot of information on him in the movie, I have also made his father,

Juvenile offending is a major problem in society. Understanding the risk factors that contribute to the increased likelihood of a juvenile to engage in delinquency is important. There are many factors that can influence the increased risk of juvenile delinquency. These factors include poverty, low socioeconomic status, age (Jarjoura, Triplett, & Brinker, 2002), race, gender (Lucero, Barret, & Jensen, 2015), education (Lucero, Barret, & Jensen, 2015; Jarjoura, 1993), and family structure (Anderson, 2002; Kierkus & Hewitt, 2009). It is important to examine if some risk factors can contribute more than others and to what extent they interact with one another. This paper will discuss three important risk factors that contribute to the likelihood of juveniles engaging in deviant acts. The three risk factors discussed are poverty, family structure, and educational attainment. In addition, this paper will demonstrate how these three risk factors interact with one another, resulting in a higher propensity for involvement in juvenile delinquency.

Juvenile delinquency and the rise of gangs in the youth community is a huge problem in our society today. There are many reasons to as of why the rise of juvenile delinquency is occurring, some of these reasons being wanting materialistic things, higher status/reputation, or for personal problems.  However, there are many theories to explain why they commit crimes or join gangs and their activities. Some of these theories are Strain theory, Anomie theory, Subculture of delinquency, and Differential opportunity theory. These 4 theories help give us a further understanding of the reasoning behind why juveniles commit such criminal activities. It provides us with the motive and mindset of young offenders that commit such crimes. By applying these theories to such a problem, it helps us realize that this is an issue in our society and know what we can do to prevent this from rising even more.

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.

Children need to have a role model in their presence to advocate educational activities, community involvement, and avoiding contact with the law for bad behavior. As Baker states, “Delinquents are made, not born” (1991, Pg. 274). Possible noncriminal behaviors that may affect a juvenile to become delinquent include; child neglect and/ or abuse, termination of parental rights, foster home placements, those beyond parental control, interfamily assault and other criminal acts (Baker, 1991, Pg. 275). Parents must learn to teach family conflict intervention, management problems, favorable parental attitudes and involvement in problem behaviors. At an early age we learn to do what it thought, showed, and have the adult figure set the example in our lives. For example, helping with academic failure, avoid delinquent criminal peers, and guide away from drug use and crime. Adolescent problem behaviors start with the parents, then move into the community, and society must respond by providing alternative programs and institutions to help the problem.