What Causes Juvenile Delinquency?

Youth crime is also known as juvenile delinquency, juvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centres. There are a multitude of different theories on the cause of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the cause of youth crime. Youth crime is aspect of crime which receives great attention from the news media and politicians. Crime committed by young people has risen since the mid- twentieth century,

Juvenile delinquents are minors usually between the ages of 10 and 18. They are those minors that have committed some type of act that violates the law. Juveniles are not given the same sentences as adults when it comes to the punishment part. The argument for juvenile delinquents is, if they are born evil or is it part of the environment and or society. Are juveniles who commit a crime really naturally evil as many suggest, or are they their own products of the environment/society they live in?

The family home conditions are one of the reasons why teens have become juvenile delinquency. These are poverty and unemployment, material deficiencies, broken homes, immoral and delinquent parents, lack of parental care and affection and bad example. The poverty and

Some environmental factors are a big factor in a juvenile delinquency. The abuse of a delinquent could cause a child to become delinquent. I wouldn’t say that it is always a factor. Being a victim myself I did not become a delinquent. It is possible that repeated abuse could eventually lead to one snapping and just becoming irrational, angry, and or depressed. Thus leading to the juvenile to retaliate. According to Les Picker of the National Bureau of Economic Research a child that is neglected and abused is a major social problem. (Picker, 2017). According to an article written by Lee Underwood, youth with mental illnesses are higher than the general population (Underwood & Washington, 2016). I believe that schools could be a huge factor in juvenile delinquency. The way a child is treated by faculty, peers, or other school members could cause him/her to rebel and act out. Eventually leading to delinquency.

The risk factors for juvenile delinquents can be based on characteristics. these characteristics include individual characteristics family characteristics here and school influences neighborhood environment and daily activities.

Juvenile Delinquency is a crime categorize mainly based on age. Juvenile delinquency the definition under the criminal law it generally refers to behavior which shall be subject to criminal penalties for people age under 18 being implemented.

Studies have been made to determine the causes of juvenile delinquency. Many of these studies have focused on family relationships. In one study, comparing delinquent and non-delinquent youths showed that over ninety percent of the delinquents had unhappy home lives and felt discontented with their life circumstances. Only thirteen percent of the non-delinquent

In the 1700s laws didn’t discriminate on kids and adults in the criminal justice system.Therefore,children as young as the age of 8 years old were tried in adult criminal courts. Most of the time children or teens are tried in adult court is if charges involve a serious or violent offense,such as rape or murder.Furthermore,In some states there is and automatic transfer law that requires juvenile cases to be transferred to adult criminal court if the offender is a certain age or older (usually 16) . Juvenile delinquency is caused by numerous factors , In order for the issue of juvenile delinquency to be addressed, it is essential to have prevention and diagnostic approaches . The problems of juvenile delinquents are much related to social problems. To survive in life, you almost have to become delinquent. These children are exposed to criminal elements and are vulnerable to prostitution, drug addiction pushing and most street children have become juvenile delinquents either out of necessity because they are poor or through the force of others.

There are many reasons that have been found to be factors of juvenile delinquency, studies have shown that some common factors that can lead to child delinquency and in some cases, can lead to majors and more serious crimes is peer pressure, low income or family poverty, insufficient parental supervision, very little commitment to higher education, damaging events in their life (Loeber, Farrington, Petechuk, 2003).

About 40-80 percent of incarcerated juveniles have one ,at least, diagnosable mental health disorder. Juvenile delinquency is the act of criminal activity of a person under 18. After a juvenile is sentenced to a detention center , this punishment dates back to 1899. In 1899 the Illinois juvenile court act was created with the intention of no longer trying children under sixteen as an adult in order to avoid adult prisons. Adult prisons weren't providing the children with the rehabilitation they need, the act wanted to focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment when it came to children. Detention centers should not focus on punishment because cChildren's brain's are not yet fully developed, they have poor decision making skills, and the detention center should focus on reforming and helping the child instead of concentrating on punishment.

In order to understand the points of view on the causes of juvenile delinquency, juvenile delinquency itself must be defined. Juvenile delinquency is criminal, or illegal behavior that a minor participates in. The age of what it considered a minor varies from state to state. But a minor could be as low as 13 or under, to 18 or under; after the age that is considered a minor they could then be tried as an adult. So, what causes a child to become a juvenile delinquent? There are five views that help to explain why. The first is the life- course view. The basic principal of this is that even as a young child, as young as 2 and three, relationships begin to form that will affect the child’s entire life course. The next is the latent trait or propensity view. The main point of this view is that the propensity for a child to commit a crime is always there but the opportunity comes and goes. The third view that causes delinquency is the trait view. There are several parts to this view including biological and psychological. The fourth view is socialization, that the social development can affect delinquency. Finally, the feminist view. There are typically two points of views; liberal and critical feminism. Juvenile delinquency may be caused by something different for every child but these five views gives a good idea of some of the main causes.

Family is a very important asset to people's lives, if family becomes unstable so will the people involved. When crisis occurs in a family, children have no power or choice other than to suffer the consequences, When trying to fight back it's likely to land on them, setting for emotionally disturbed children. A study of children with “antisocial behavior’ was taken, the percentage of further displaying variety of problems due to parents thought to be associated with criminality include , exclusive drinking (36 percent), poor work habits (21 percent) , non- support or neglect (26 percent), physical cruelty (20 percent), which can be a bad influence toward the teens living with them. Parents are guardians have a big influential impact on a child's personalities and h=behaviors which can cause anger influences decisions if observed by their peers. Parental behaviors are a big problem contributing to a teen but, a pattern of “ do

Juvenile delinquents are children/adolescents that are between the ages of 10 and 18 and have committed any illegal act that violates the law. These acts aren't usually referred to as “crimes” as they would be for adults. These “crimes” are committed by minors and are called “delinquent acts.” These delinquent acts are believed to be caused by a number of factors that include the minors brain development, environment and social interactions. Peer groups are a very strong influence that can cause delinquent behavior in many adolescents. When friends commit crimes, adolescents often pick up the behaviors and rarely see the consequences that follow after the crime is committed. Peer group rejection can also be the cause of juvenile

Juvenile crime had a strong uprising when conditions within the society got worse. Research over the past few decades on normal child development and development on delinquent behavior has shown that individual, social, and community conditions and interactions influence behavior(McCord). This says that in bad environments in the community the children that live there are more likely to be an individual with juvenile delinquency. “‘Clearly, genes affect biological development, but there is no biological development without environmental input,” Bock and Goode” (McCord, 66). This quote says that environmental interaction develops kids, so kids that interact with a bad environment can end up in a worse position than other kids [what other kids? Kids from a good environment? - JMH]. The age can influence whether or not a child will be a juvenile delinquent. Studies of criminal activity by age constantly find that rates of offending begin to rise in pre-adolescence or early adulthood(McCord). This says that juvenile crime usually starts when the children are teens or entering their puberty years. This can be a big deal because that age is usually when kids are influenced more easily. “The percentage of boys who self-reported serious delinquent behavior rose from 5 percent at age 6 to about 18 percent at age 16 for whites and 27 percent for blacks at age 16.” Loeber (McCord,68). This says that delinquent behavior and crime rose for each race at the age of 16. The family influence also plays a big role for a child if the child is going to be a delinquent or not. When families have difficulties with the task laid on them, the product often is a juvenile delinquent.(McCord) This says that parents with no care in how their child ends up will have their child become a juvenile delinquent.

Over the years experts have given us many theories on the causes of juvenile delinquency, including one's economic background, parents level of education and abuse in the home, gangs organizations, repeated neighborhood delinquents, increased availability of weapons and new technology violent games have something to do with the growing of our young people getting in trouble