School administrators must make daily decisions concerning discipline and crime prevention within the walls of the school. When students begin acting out and bullying other students and/or faculty, it is up to school administrators to control students behavior. Controlling the behavior of students can be difficult but is necessary in order to keep the school in check. School plays a significant role in shaping values of youth since so much of an adolescent’s time is spent in school. In addition, some relationships may exist between delinquent behavior and what is happening in classrooms. Today, more than ninety percent of school-age children attend school, which means that school has become the primary instrument of socialization between youth. Due to young people spending more time in school, adolescence is …show more content…
Three independent views are prominent on the association between school failure and delinquency. The views include that school is a direct cause of delinquent behavior, school failure leads to emotional and psychological problems that are the actual cause of antisocial behavior, and school failure and delinquency share a common cause, which is personal and social problems. Personal problems can include a dysfunctional family, psychological irregularities, and low self-control. Youths with personal problems often bring them to school and some lack verbal skills that are prerequisites to educational success. Personality structure can also be a key factor to school failure because students with low self-control are more likely to be delinquent and fail in school. Then, social class problems include lower-class adolescents more likely to drip out of school and lower economic status often requires students to work part time in order to help out their family, which takes away time spent on homework (Siegel & Welsh, 2016,
According to Price & Kunz, (2003) family structure is a major factor in explaining delinquency. The research aimed at finding a link between cohabiting and other family types with delinquency (Price & Kunz, 2003). They made an important finding that adolescents from cohabiting families are at greater odds of engaging in non-violent delinquency compared to those from biological-parent families. The findings contradict the findings of other studies that show that that youth from broken families are likely to engage themselves in delinquent activities. For example, in one longitudinal study by Juby and Farrington, (2003) they found out that children especially boys who were from non-intact families portrayed negative behaviors compared to those that were from intact families (Juby & Farrington, 2001). Moreover, Prince & Kunz, (2003) performed a meta-analysis involving divorce and juvenile delinquency. They also made a finding that children from divorced homes have a high rate of delinquency compared to those from intact homes.
Students that have been labeled “delinquent” need help in beating the odds to become successful adults. As C. Ogletree discusses article, Total Reform for a Broken System, a program needs to be created that includes family involvement and support to create concrete goals and means for students to achieve them, in the aim of becoming successful students throughout each school until graduation. It is a great goal for school institutions to strive in changing students’ behavior for the better, giving them a fair opportunity in education. Not to single out those of low-income homes, race, or learning disabilities. It should be the goal to get to the heart of misbehavior that is introducing so many students into the juvenile justice system. School institutions need to be place of supportive and structured learning from day one. Students enter school as young children, for the first time away from parents, relying on educators to guide them throughout their day. School Institutions should look for a positive approach that emphasizes on individual strengths to promote learning. The restorative circles program is having been introduced into school systems as an alternative to the zero tolerance policies. It creates an involvement of communication between all parties in any issue. Whether it be good or bad, it offers support for students to discuss issues and ideas, opening a line of communication between parents, teachers, and students, which will be key a student’s
There are many crimes committed by teenagers every year. Crimes that are committed by teens each year are mainly assault, bullying, gang violence, and physical fights. According to National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, about 1 and 9 murders are from kids that are under 18 (Center, 2001). In 1998, there were approximately 2,570 among youth aged 10-19. Every day there are at least 7 children murdered in the United States (Center, 2001). Statistics say that between 16%-32% female teenagers have committed a crime before the age of 17. Also 30%-40% male teenagers have committed a violent crime before they turned 17 (Center, 2001). Teenagers that commit crimes are the ones who were abused or bullied as a...
Voelkl, K. E. (1999). Schooling and delinquency among White and African American adolescents. Urban Education, 34, 69-88.
Schools that experience crimes and drug abuse are mostly found in disorganized neighborhoods. Schools attempt to ensure safety between students in staff by using mechanical devices but as we see that don’t always help. Research shows that many of the perpetrators of school crime have been or are victims of delinquency themselves. The focus of delinquency entitled “Does school crime reflect neighborhood delinquency?”
Bullying, often dismissed as a normal part of growing up, is a real problem in our nation's schools, according to the National School Safety Center. One out of every four schoolchildren endures taunting, teasing, pushing, and shoving daily from schoolyard bullies. More than 43 percent of middle- and high-school students avoid using school bathrooms for fear of being harassed or assaulted. Old-fashioned schoolyard hazing has escalated to instances of extortion, emotional terrorism, and kids toting guns to school. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of all incidents of school violence begin with verbal conflicts, w...
Many in the juvenile justice field have tried to understand the cause of juvenile delinquency. There are many different theories describe the cause and effect of variables and how they react. However, through much research, we have concluded there is not just one single path or journey that determines the fate of the juvenile. There are many different risk factors that build in order to increase a youth's chance of becoming an offender. This is kind of like a domino effect. Risk factors are described as the characteristics that present themselves to determine if the individual or youth will become a delinquent. These factors may include; home life, income status, gender, and social. It can either be one or all that play a part in the way the
Thompson, W. E. and Bynum J. E. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency: A sociological Approach Eighth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
Thompson, W. E. and Bynum J. E. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency: A sociological Approach Eighth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Walker, Hill M. et al., “ The path to school failure, delinquency, and violence: Casual factors and some potential solutions,” Intervention in School and Clinic. Nov 1999. First Search. Feb 2007
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.
There has been a mass increase of juvenile delinquency in the United States, which has made a notable change in our society as a whole. It also directly affects parents, teachers, families, the perpetrators themselves, and of course, the victims. Law enforcement agencies in the United States have made an estimated 2.11 million arrests of minors. These perpetrators who were arrested have either been placed in confinement or they are under court supervision. Juvenile delinquency is described as illegal or immoral behavior, generally among young people under the legal age of eighteen. In order to reduce these high rates of delinquency, parents, and other adult figures, must first ask themselves, what is causing this? What external and internal
...drama going on in their lives. With the help of the teachers and the bullying awareness program after school, the adolescents will become comfortable in a school environment.
There is no one certain theory, regarding juvenile delinquency, that can completely distinguish all the determining factors that makes youth turn to crime; although, the study of all these theories and ideas can bring criminologist one step closer to uncovering the truth about juvenile delinquency. Only the further understanding of juvenile delinquency can help the prevention of future juvenile offenders. This paper will focus on the individual factors of delinquency, as well as the social elements, and provide an explanation of how the combination of the two elements may cause children to engage in criminal activity.