Reasoning And Justification For Drug Abuse

There are three main integrated theories that explain delinquent behaviors committed by juveniles. They are the General Theory of Crime, the Social Process Theory, and the Interactional Theory. After researching each theory, I believe that Terence P. Thornberry's Interactional Theory best explains why children commit crimes. This essay will explain in great detail the Interactional theory and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.

One of the major sociological theories of delinquency is differential association (Doob 169). The idea is that some people have learned their ways from undesirable people who they were forced to associate with and that this association warps their thinking and social attitudes. Differential association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals (Doob 169). In addition, sending a deviant person, who has been associated with criminal influences, to prison would just make the problem worse (Fox 61). "Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might

juvenile delinquency is most likely to have a negative impact on society. The second characteristic is that if the hostility towards “youths” increases, they will eventually become “folk devils” therefore creating a division (Cohen 1973:16). The third is a form of consensus although concern is not nationwide; there should be global acceptance that the youths pose a threat to society. The fourth characteristic is formed up of disproportionality and the action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group. The final characteristic is instability; moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly due to a lack of public interest or other rising news reports (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994:57).

This theory has a different focus than typical theories; in this theory, conformity is emphasized, specifically, with the focus being on the reasoning behind why people conform and obey society’s rules, instead of why people deviate from norms. This theory operates under the basic assumption that delinquent behavior occurs because of a person’s bond or tie to society being weak or non-existent. There are four elements that make up this bond: attachment to others, commitment, involvement, and belief. Thus, the stronger the bond’s element, the less likely a person is going to engage in crime; likewise, the weaker the element of the bond is, the more likely a person is going to commit crime. Also, all four identified elements are said to be connected and interdependent, so a weakness in one element will more than likely lead to weaknesses in the other elements. In other words, these elements control a person’s level of conformity; crime control stems from one’s ties to conventional society. This theory also assumes that people are born naturally selfish; however, this is not a born tendency or trait. Rather, this means that the motivation for crime in society is evenly spread out since everyone has the same inclination for crime. Similarly, under this theory, the way people are controlled by society through these bonds is

The city of Philadelphia is home to some of the richest and most influential history the United States has to offer, but it’s also home to a very large crime rate. Heroin and opioids have been largely abused for continuous decades in cities like Philadelphia throughout the world and the law needs to come down with harder sanctions to combat this issue. This is largely in part because crime simply leads to more crime. Another reason why more rigid law structure needs to be centralized around heroin and opioid abuse is that previous addicts from all sorts of backgrounds rarely maintain remission, but end up relapsing. In fact, heroin is one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Not to mention, basic necessities within the city, such as public space for its residents, have transitioned to heavily policed areas due to drug use. The conjunction of all these issues demands for more firm and rigid laws which will help to diminish drug use in America.

I would first off like to thank you for this incredible opportunity. I know that you and your staff are committed to finding the best possible outcomes for the citizens of this great state and am honored that my suggestions could be considered.

Each day it seems America slips further away from the true meaning of individual liberty. I’m sure you have been raised to think that you grew up in the land of the free, but I question what the true definition of freedom is. Now don’t get me wrong, I agree that other countries may not have as much freedom as we do in America but that’s not my argument. The problem is that “The land of the free” isn’t so free anymore. It seems we go against the constitution more often every year. The drug war is a great example of us loosening our grips on the constitution because of the precise fact that it takes away individual liberty. Using drugs is most certainly not anything I would advise, but if it was my choice to make for you then you wouldn’t truly

Although juvenile arrest rates have declined by 65% from 1996 to 2014 (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2015), juvenile delinquency is undoubtedly still a concern for practitioners, communities, and policy-makers in the United States. Seeking explanations of adolescent delinquency is a continuing quest by the social sciences to aid prevention and intervention efforts. Several quests have narrowed in on Social Bond Theory (Hischi, 1969), a foundation in the social sciences to explain deviant behavior, which has stemmed considerable research. This study is also concerned with perceived social expectations, as it is likely youth take their social relationships into consideration before engaging in certain acts. However, research on perceived social expectations and delinquency is sparse.

This paper takes a closer look at the social learning’s of society’s subculture that displays delinquent behavior. Using differential association I explain the learned behavior through the social environment such as role models, peer influence, and poverty stricken families. Delinquency is not biologically nor psychologically but is learned just as a person learns to obey the law. The study design is to help further the notion that criminal behavior is learned and not inherited due to genetic structure.

Matsueda takes a different avenue and specifies a theory of delinquency based on unified framework of symbolic interactionist view of the self as a reflection of the appraisals of others. He (1) identifies a broader range of individual-level mechanisms of social control, (2) specifying group and organizational processes for controlling delinquency, (3) conceptualizing classical criminological theories as special cases of a general interactionist framework, and (4) testing the interactionist model empirically against specific hypotheses drawn from competing theories.

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

For as long as we have been a nation there have been criminal elements. Criminal elements are nothing new and often time’s criminal behavior is part and parcel with substance abuse. When people think of substance abuse the images that come to mind are often the work of fiction and have little to no resemblance to what the individual users adheres to. Meriam Webster’s defines substance abuse as a noun, “Overindulgence in our dependence on an addictive substance, esp. alcohol or drugs “(Merriam). Being a criminology major, I often ask myself why? Why do people gravitate towards substances and why individuals chose to follow the addictive path? Once we determine the why we can do what we criminologist do best, formulate a theory. I think understanding the societal factors of substance abuse and the correlation you can make between certain recurring themes will help better determine what pressures are in place that could influence ones’ decision making either way. The thing with criminology theory and especially socio-construct theory is that almost all areas have been covered, not trying to re-invent the wheel, but taking a different approach will still help better understand the issues at hand. The research will try to look at, what has been done and what those results show as well as what needs to be done moving forward.

For any professional working in the substance abuse treatment field, they will very likely come across situations and be presented with dilemmas relating to personal beliefs, judgments, and values. Drug or substance use and abuse have been a controversial and heated topic around the world for centuries. Drug abuse, in a way, is a facet of human culture that has been present for a great deal of human history in general. Every culture handles the issue of drug abuse differently. The history of how a society views persons with addictions is intermeshed with emotion, misperceptions, and prejudice that directly affects the care of drug abusers. This is a kind of awareness that drug users and those who provide drug treatment or rehabilitation should have. They may be susceptible to treating patients different because of their own personal views or because of the culturally normative views of that particular society. Just like teenagers may be automatically considered dangerous or irresponsible, it is fairly normative in a health care setting for a patient to be perceived negatively just because that person is a known drug user. Because of the highly charged emotional nature of the substance abuse treatment field, providers should possess the tools to explore ethical dilemmas objectively. By doing so, and by examining their own reactions to the situation, providers can proceed with the most ethical course of action. Ethical practice is

On the other hand, theorists have taken a different stand point to explain criminal and delinquent behaviour. Firstly, Edwin Sunderlands (1939) theory of differential

Alcohol and illicit drug consumption are all too prevalent today in high schools, colleges, and all across the globe. Students seeking to fit in or forget about the repetitiveness of school and homework have a tendency to experiment. Drug addiction is known by the scientific community to be a psychological condition based on excessive, obsessive, and compulsive actions. Once that regular user crosses the line into addiction their only concern is their self and their life revolves around the getting, using, and finding ways and means to get and use more. Most people start using drugs and alcohol occasionally, which is a voluntary decision,