Firstly, what does it mean when someone uses the term juvenile delinquency? Juvenile delinquency can also be referred to as juvenile offending is when a young person under the age eighteen who in which has repeatedly committed a crime or offense. In the United States and other countries, juvenile crime is one of the most serious problems. The reason why juveniles commit crimes is sort of complicated and difficult to explain. There have been several disparate theories to better help with understanding juvenile delinquency. All of these theories are categorized and are placed under three different groups: biological, psychological, and sociological theories.
Biological theories all are based on the concept that people are prearranged to commit crimes. An Italian criminologist, Cesare Lombroso created Positive Theory or Positivism which is the major biological theory. The positive theory stated that people are born criminals and are not made. The positive theory also explained criminal behavior by centering on the biological and psychological factors. Cesare used the corpse of criminals who were executed to compare physical features to determine were criminals different from non-criminals. His conclusion was that criminals shared facial features. Sheldon a criminalist idea was that people behaved differently because of the different body types. He believed that a physically fit human was more likely to commit a crime than an out of shape or over weight human.
XYY theory is another biological theory that has come into consideration. The XYY theory disputes that an abnormal chromosome are found in violent male criminals. This theory states that this abnormality in individuals is associated with criminal activity and aggressivene...
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...w up committing crimes. (McDavid and McCandless, 1962)
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Juvenile Justice: A Guide to Theory, Policy, and Practice Eighth Edition (2013), Steven Cox, Jennifer Allen, Robert Hanser and John Conrad, Chapter 1, Sage
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The first well known study of crime and criminals is that of one who is often referred to as the ‘father of criminology’, Cesar Lombroso. Lombroso’s argument was based around the Darwinian theory of human evolution and his theory argued that criminals were a throw back to an earlier period of human progression. In other words, they were less evolved humans, with visible physical features such as large ears and big lips. His theory suggested that criminals were born and not made therefore, where genetically prone to criminality. Merton’s argument was to the contrary.
Cox, S. M., Allen, J. M., Hanser, R. D., & Conrad, J. J. (2014). Juvenile Justice A Guide to Theory, Policy and Practice (8th ed.). Sage publications Inc.
Up until the 19th century, Classicist ideas dominated the way in which people looked at crime. However during the late 19th century a new form of “scientific criminology” emerged, called Positivism (Newburn, 2007). Positivism looked at the biological factors on why someone would commit a crime, this involved looking at the physical attributes of a person, looking at their genetic make-up and their biochemical factors.
Thompson, W, & Bynum, J. (1991). Juvenile delinquency. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
There has always been alarm and despair over escalating juvenile crime. In the 1950s there were reports about the mushrooming problems with youthful gangs in the big cities. In the 1960s we began to hear about a surge of juvenile crime in areas that had been regarded as virtually crime free. In the suburbs as well as the inner cities, youngsters were dropping out of school, using drugs and committing crimes. In the 1970s and 1980s, juvenile court dockets became increasingly jammed with criminal cases. According to the Department of Justice, the percentage increases in arrests from 1985 to 1994 have been greater for juveniles than for adults. During 1994 alone, 2.7 million juveniles were arrested. During the latter part of this century, juvenile courts that customarily provided social services in order to rehabilitate rather than punish lawbreakers were faced with an onslaught of children who were not simply wayward youths, but hardened repeat offenders. The 1980s witnessed an increasingly desperate outcry for courts to take more extreme measures to contain juvenile crime, which is assuming ever more serious forms.
The biological approach does not explain all people, what about the people with these characteristics that do not resort to crime, or what about other people who commit crimes who do not possess any of these characteristics. I believe like many criminologists Lombroso was looking for a solution to solve criminal behavior and came up with the theory of physical traits linked to criminal behaviors based on some similarities with no real way to test the theory. I think there are many different reasons why people commit crime, such as opportunity, mental illness, family influence, low economic standing and drug dependence. Theories based on these characteristics in my opinion better describe why people resort to criminal behavior over having certain physical
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.
There are more contemporary biological theories that have since developed. However, most are still nearly impossible to prove true; for example, the genetic theory of crime in fraternal and identical twins. This study is supposed to provide evidence that those who are born with the same genetically heritable trait are more prone to crime than fraternal twins or siblings because of the ...
Bridges, K. M. Banham . "Factors Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 17.4 (1927): 531-76. scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.