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What Leads to Juvenile Deliquency?

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Studies have shown in the past, that some of the main underlying factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency are differential association, peer pressure, socialization, age, mental health and drug/substance abuse. All these independent variables in some way can said to either directly or indirectly influence criminal behavior in juveniles. Other factors like demographics, race, and violent / nonviolent crimes are also taken in consideration at a smaller level. In many of the studies one would think that race would be a main variable but most research has chosen to only consider it as a factor and not as a main variable. When looking at Criminal Juveniles most studies define a juvenile who has committed any crime punishable by the …show more content…

Then mapping was done by connecting any group of friends that were named by more than one student. Then to access involvement in at a higher level students were asked to take an online survey consisting of 14 more serious questions involving selling drugs, shooting someone, stabbings, great physical harm etc.. Over all there were over 2000 participants 2% admitted to stabbing someone and 20% admitted to getting into a serious fight. To be a delinquent the respondents had to commit at lease one of the 14 variables. This allows the data to be separated from delinquents to none delinquents. Respondents that were delinquents were labeled as 1 and those who were not were labeled as 0.
The data then was quantified and separated into three groups Group one was mixed group. Group two was delinquents and group three were none delinquents. 56% percent of students were mixed delinquents and non-delinquents. Group two was entirely delinquent 28% the remainder 16% group three resulted off non delinquents.
Although this suggests that most students are mixed we can also see that students are at a higher risk of being more delinquent if they have delinquent friends. Unlike other studies this study used both quantitative and qualitative research method.
In the past mental health has proven to affect adolescents when it comes to committing crimes. A study conducted stated that 69% of males that

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