Connecting the Dots: Juvenile Delinquency, Poverty, Education & Prevention

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For years there has been a debate about what leads to juvenile delinquency. Two reasons repeatedly come up during the debate; Education level and poverty. The differences and similarities with these two reasons makes one see how this deduction came to be however; upon closer inspection one can notice how it isn’t one risk factor over another that causes delinquency but a combination of those factors. A child can come up in a rundown neighborhood with little to no money to spread around, but and doesn’t live anywhere near a good school within his district. Just by hearing this information, many people would think that this child has a very high chance of becoming a juvenile delinquent because of the said problems however; few take into consideration the psychological and biological risk factors in combination with the above said sociological problems or to put it more bluntly, you have to consider ones family.

At a quick glance, the above mentioned kid is doomed to a life of delinquency before he even has a chance to realize it. There are thousands of kids like it and yet, not everyone becomes a criminal or young delinquent. In order to know why one becomes a delinquent, you must look at their actions and the reasons behind it and other things such as if they had a friend with them at the time or not. This would fall under the scope of the social learning theory.

The Social learning theory talks about how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior. Most only see how this can be applied one way but this can be applied to every aspect of one’s life.

In a video that aired on popular television show 60 Minutes, children who came from poverty lived normal lives. Children who ...

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...gh circumstance and with so many things being labeled delinquent; the chances of it being learned behavior are higher if we were to only use the sources provided in this essay.

In summation, It is not the individual risk factor of a person that will determine if they are a or will be a juvenile delinquent, but a combination of the factors which include psychological, sociological and biological risk factors associated with the topic. Education and poverty does have an effect on juvenile delinquency but only when in combination with at least one other risk factor. criminal behavior can’t be linked to one single thing but to a combination of things and only through an examination of can one be certain of the likelihood of criminal behaviors to be present in an adolescent as well as observance of the social norms that govern whether an act is delinquent or not.

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