Juvenile Delinquency And Its Effects On The Outside World

The contributing factors to juvenile crime may include poor education performances, poor upbringing, substance abuse, disadvantaged socioeconomic status, low school

“The so-called traditional family, with a male breadwinner and a female who cares for the home, is a thing of the past” (Siegel, Welsh, & Senna, 2003, p. 194). This particular type of family structure can no longer be considered normal. Sex role changes have created a family in which the mother now plays a greater role in society and the economic process. The number of households that have children living with both parents has substantially declined. “Early social science researchers asserted that the “broken home” was the single most important factor in understanding delinquency” (Burfeind & Bartusch, 2011, p. 185). Less than half of the children born today will live continuously with their mother and father throughout their childhood. A disturbed home environment is believed to have a significant impact on delinquency. Family is the contributing unit towards children’s values and attitudes that mark the paths throughout their lives.

Juvenile delinquency has become a controversial issue within the Criminal Justice system. In the United States, juvenile delinquency refers to disruptive and criminal behavior committed by an individual under the age of 18. In many states, a minor at the age of 16 to 17 ½ can be tried as an adult. Once the individual reaches adulthood, the disruptive and criminal behavior is recognized as a crime. However, the criminal justice system has divided juvenile delinquency into two general types of categories that has brought upon controversial issues of inequality and corruption. Yet, putting young individuals in juvenile detentions facilities seems to open the door for them to commit more crimes in the future. Therefore, under certain circumstances juveniles should be tried as an adult.

The authors, in Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: Early Intervention and Comprehensiveness as Critical Factors., use determine factors of different programs, and to see what works and what does not. In this way, the most successful programs can continue to be implemented and improved. They looked at poor child-rearing practices, poor parental supervision, criminal parents and siblings, low family income, large family size, poor housing, low intelligence, and low educational attainment to determine cause of delinquency behavior in juvenile.

Juvenile delinquency is very prevalent especially among adolescents because studies have shown that during the time of adolescence that is when delinquency tends to increase and once adolescence has passed at about 17 years of age then it tends to decrease (Adolescent Delinquency, 2002). There are many factors that can contribute to the increase of delinquency during adolescence, some of the factors can be personality, mental disorders, genetics, economic status, environment, family, and culture among others, also to understand better the causes of juvenile delinquency the social control theory is the best theory to explain juvenile delinquency as a whole (Adolescent Delinquency, 2002).

The purpose of this paper is to determine if there is a link between the influences in a minors’ life and the delinquent behavior they are committing. Juvenile delinquency is the habitual committing of criminal acts or offenses by a young person, especially one below the age at

James Lehman, an author who dedicated his life to troubled juveniles once said, “I believe that the kids who are labeled “good” are children who know how to solve their problems and manage their behavior and social life, and the kids who are labeled “bad” are kids who don’t know how to solve those problems.” Every day, kids are committing illegal acts of varying severity. Some are involved in petty robberies, others involved in murders and rape. These juveniles become the responsibility of the juvenile justice system which is tasked with the duty of properly helping and punishing these kids. However, this is precisely the issue, do we punish these juvenile offenders? Or do we help rehabilitate them into law abiding citizens?

The question still remains as to the correlation between behavioral variables such as drugs, gang violence, unstableness of families, etc. and how they are important tools when explaining deviant behavior. These tools are often developed into theories in order to attempt an explanation and prevent initial and/or future deviant behavior in juveniles. All causation theories will be explained through the content of this research paper because no single theory is sufficient in trying to explain why juvenile delinquent behavior exists. However, this paper will significantly highlight on the psychological theories. Next, certain treatment and prevention interventions will be addressed as it relates to the attempts of controlling delinquency.

In the United States, juvenile delinquency is becoming a major problem in the communities across the country. Because of the actions that these juveniles engage in on a regular basis, taxpayers across the country are having to shell out hundreds upon thousands of dollars to rehabilitate these children in order to help them make better choices. This leads citizens to wonder what factors actually cause juveniles to live a life of crime rather than success. In short, there are three main factors that often cause children to live a life of crime. These three factors are social influences, psychological characteristics, and academic potential.

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

Through an understanding of causes of juvenile delinquency society may come to deal preventively with delinquency; certainly treatment of the offender needs to be based upon an understanding of the causal mechanisms that have produced him. In this paper we'll describe three theories of juvenile delinquency such as Social Learning Theory, General Strain Theory and Behavioral Theory and discuss appropriate preventive programs based upon these theories.

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).

Applying this theory to family structure has been done by looking at single-parent households and comparing delinquent behavior of adolescents from those families to those of two-parent households. Researchers have repeatedly found that youth from single-parent families are more susceptible to delinquent behavior (Boutwell, & Beaver, 2010; Demuth, & Brown, 2004; Hoeve, Stams, van der Put, Dubas, van der Lann, & Gerris, 2012; Mack et al., 2006; Schroeder, Osgood, & Oghia, 2010). This is due to missing half of the parental unit which makes single parents unable to provide proper control, supervision, and socialization; whereas two-parent households are better equipped to provide guidance and have more opportunities to monitor, supervise, and respond to behaviors of their children (Mack et al., 2006).

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.

The greatest asset a nation has is in the form of children which form a major portion of its population. So they should be allowed and provided opportunity to become robust citizens, and to grow up physically fit, mentally alert and morally healthy, being sufficiently endowed with skills and activations needed by the society. Equal opportunities for development to all children during the period of growth should be provided for reducing inequality and ensuring social justice, which in turn would serve as an effective tool to curb delinquency in juveniles. Children are expected to be obedient, respectful and imbibe virtues and good quality in them. Due to various reasons children do not follow settled social and legal dictum. Juvenile delinquency, as a legal concept is of recent origin. Juvenile delinquency is an integral part of criminology. The two cannot be separated since one of the reasons for crime and its continuance into adult life is the ineffective control and treatment of juveniles. Juvenile delinquency is a big breading centre of criminals. The word delinquency is derived from the Latin word “delinquere” meaning de i.e. away and linquere i.e. to leave thus, meaning to leave or to abandon. Originally, the word had an objective meaning as it referred to parents who neglected and abandoned their children. In present day, it is used and applied to those children who indulge in wrongful and harmful activities.