Juvenile Delinquency : Factors That Lead Youth

Researches have continuously tried to explain why people commit crime and engage in juvenile delinquency. Over the past century, many theories have emerged and been adopted as the main contributing factors for why juveniles engage in deviant behaviors. Some theories, such as

Delinquency is not always the result of an unhappy relationship with legal guardians that are responsible for the child’s well-being. Influences of delinquent behavior are also present within the environment [e.g. neighborhood, school, etc.] a child lives in. It is capable of influencing delinquency, but nothing guarantees one-hundred percent that a child will become delinquent. Fabio et al (2011) performed neighborhood-level studies that proved disadvantaged neighborhoods contain a larger generality of violence. Further research led to this conclusion “Boys residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods were more likely to have lower socioeconomic status [SES], poorly educated mothers, unemployed parents, poor housing, and a small house” (Fabio et al, 2011, p. 327). Also, more boys residing in disadvantaged communities had longer participation in violent acts than those in advantaged communities where violence is relatively stable (Fabio et al, 2011, p. 327). Hence, the type of neighborhood a child lives in contributes to the risk factors of him or her becoming a delinquent.

Environmental factors have long been known to increase criminality. Even a little thing like graffiti has now been shown to double criminal activity. Living in an environment where crime exists, is what causes juveniles to become delinquents. Many children that grow up in a home where violence exists, are most likely to follow their peer’s steps and do what they do.

Research suggests that delinquent youth often have multiple socio-emotional and health related risk factors (e.g. a 10-year-old exposed to six or more violent acts is 10 times as likely to commit a violent act by age 18 as a 10-year-old exposed to only one risk factor.) (Herrenkohl, et al, 2000.)

The behavior among juveniles and family problems among their homes is a major issue at hand in our society today. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (2010), in the year 2010, 784 juveniles were arrested for murder, 2,198 for rape, and 35,001 for aggravated assault. The amount of juveniles being involved in violent crimes is very detrimental to all aspects of our society, but environmental factors are a major component of this issue that needs to be analyzed. The question is then is how does instability and turmoil within the family affect the rate of juvenile delinquency amount youth. Dysfunction within the family, negative peer pressure and substance abuse all influence the behavior and action of youth ages

     Some causes for conduct in adolescents are no discipline, unstructured discipline and a broken home. A broken home is one of the factors that can produce a delinquent child. A broken home reduces the opportunity for creating a strong attachment between child and parents and that reduces the parent’s ability to condition the child. Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children engage in criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous delinquent acts or that they have learned criminal behavior through interaction with others.

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.

Much time has been spent trying to understand what causes delinquency. Theories such as Cesare Lombroso’s atavisms, Merton’s strain theory, and the deterrence theory, have been developed to try to find the correlation between cause and effect. There is no single risk factor that will lead an adolescent to delinquency. Risk factors, individually, only contribute a small portion to the increased risk. It is safe to assume that the more risk factors an adolescent is exposed to then their chance of delinquent behavior is higher.

This paper will discuss the effects that families and parents have on their children and parental criminal history in particular. Data suggests that family relations have a substantial impact on juveniles and their criminal paths (Agnew and Brezina 2012). Children who are raised by parents with a criminal history and/or have a parent missing due to criminal involvement are usually more prone to become involved in juvenile delinquency themselves. This paper will discuss and site studies conducted to prove this point and will discuss the four major sociological theories: social learning theory, control theory, strain theory, and labeling theory, to support these findings. This paper will ask the question the effect of parental involvement to a juvenile’s future and ask the question, are juveniles with distance or incarcerated parents more prone to delinquency themselves? If so, how do the four major sociological theories support this statement?

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 New International Version).

The sources of information point out that the factors of juvenile delinquency include, but not limited to, home environment, social status, peer pressure, positive school atmosphere, academic achievement, neighborhood conditions, and substance abuse. These important factors point towards the fact that the adolescents require a positive environment that can help them to the positive development of their behaviors during the maturing

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 can be nearly impossible to narrow down the causes of delinquency in youth as the factors do vary from adolescent to adolescent. There has been extensive research into family factors and how they relate to delinquency. Researchers have looked in several theories and models to specific attributes of gender, socioeconomic status, race, and the family structure itself.

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 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.