Socialization Of Juvenile Crimes In The United States

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

There are numerous researches about social strain theory and criminal offending. Robert “Merton states that the study of social strain believes that individual tend to respond to the gap between society’s values and their own

Over 1/3 of the 11,000 index crime arrests were juveniles under the age of 16.

Throughout time, society has seen its fair share of crime from miniscule crimes to the most serious types of offenses like murder and rape. Violence can come from all shape and sizes from women, men, children, mentally ill, etc. An increasing problem in recent decades include juvenile violence. Juveniles can commit violence for an infinite amount of reasons like parental abuse, being bullied in school or peers, mental illness, and other outside factors. Juvenile are in a period in their lives where countless aspects can influence the way they think, act, and even speak. Criminological theories have been created and tested to factor why juveniles partake in crime and why do they tend to be influenced to continuously break the law. Theories

In 2012 a ten year old boy in Southern California murdered his friend with a kitchen knife by repeatedly stabbing the friend in the chest. The suspect was said to have anger issues and a mental illness that he was medicated for. The boy, charged with felony assault and murder, was tried in a Juvenile Court and later sentenced to juvenile rehabilitation. Depending on the crime and age of a defendant, the Juvenile Justice System decides whether or not to put the case in the hands of the Juvenile Court and try them as children. Due to the defendant's unusual young age he was tried as a child,. Often times fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen year olds are tried as adults, when they should not be.

The United states, has more Violent juvenile crimes, due to the access of guns, drug trafficking gangs, Death squads, –Drug lords and Juvenile gangs. What makes, America different is the way in which measures are conducted in the courtroom as well as the sentencing process. To start every country, has their own definition of what qualifies for juvenile crime and the age range.

Paper presented as a part of a Congressional Research Briefing entitled “Juvenile Crime: Causes and Consequences,” Washington, January 19, 2000. Address correspondence to the author at the Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, or at lds@vm.temple.edu.

From a development standpoint, the attraction children have to violence is considered an adolescent trait. This stems from a developmental need to take a risk and have a sense of invincibility (Prothrow-Stith). Most children receive guidance from teenagers. What kind of examples are today’s teens setting? Could they set better examples if the justice system did not allow them to get away with so many violent crimes? There are several factors we will review in this essay on why children who commit certain crimes should be tried as adults. First, we will review what causes juvenile crime and violence; secondly, what factors contribute to gang-related juvenile crime; thirdly, why more juveniles should be tried as adults and; finally, choices decisions and consequences

People may wonder the reasons as to why so many juveniles are being found committing as many harmful crimes that they are in today’s society. There is a list of reasons that the ACS Distance Education organization has listed to being factors as to why juveniles may be committing crimes or becoming more susceptible for it. In their lists they name peer pressure, peer involvement in problem behavior, lack of supervision, criminal parents, lack of discipline, family income, drug or alcohol abuse, mental illness, family conflict, opportunity for crime, and poor education. There may be several other reasons that juveniles are becoming active in crime but these are the main ones that stick out (ACS, 2014). Teens can often find themselves interacting with the “wrong crowd” and find themselves engaging in acts that may be new to them that are also illegal. If a juvenile allows themselves to interact and engage in those activities then they will begin to duplicate what they see and commit the same criminal acts. Parents and

Juvenile delinquency is a social issue in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, is when “a violation of the law is committed by a juvenile and is not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Juvenile Delinquency). The juvenile system is different from the adult system in many way and most juvenile delinquents are from the age of ten to the age of seventeen (Juvenile Delinquent). Once the delinquent or anyone is at the age of eighteen, they are considered to be an adult. Therefore, in the justice system they are tried as an adult. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, peer influence, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. Teens are greatly influenced by the interactions and surroundings they are around. Their behaviors can result from the parent and/or their peer influences. Parents play a great role in the child’s life and a teen’s peers also play a strong role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not insight. This research will examine links between the social environment of teens and how it influences the teens actions and behavior which leads them to commit an offense.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s cities up north were growing because of the industrial changes as well as the influx of immigrants and African Americans migrating from the southern states. Due to the Industrial revolution in major U.S. cities like Chicago were eager to hire new workers since the economy was running on all four cylinders “So we saw some of the largest waves of immigration the U.S. has ever seen, mostly from European countries like Germany, Ireland, Poland, and then Italy, Eastern Europe, and in-migration of African Americans from the rural south up to the north and northeast for these manufacturing jobs.”(Cullen 2014). Since the change in industry brought new jobs to Chicago, it also brought a new generation of crime.

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

The rapid onset of delinquency followed by a steep decline with age illustrates the intimate relationship between age and crime. In the US in 2005, youth under 18 accounted for 60% of all violent crimes and 26% of all property crimes. However, by the early 20s, the number of offenders decreased by over 50%; by 28 about 85% of former delinquents desisted from offending. This may be explained by the profound changes occurring in the adolescent brain which, when combined with the social and hormonal changes, provide a more plausible explanation for the rapid onset and subsequent decline of

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 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.