A critical issue, perhaps most injurious to our futures, involves the criminal tendencies of our youth. Juvenile delinquency is without a doubt one of the most crucial topics that we face in our society today. Children and teens do not only shape our future, but will also pave the footsteps for future generations. What prompts this criminal behavior? And why is the proportion of delinquents in society seemingly increasing? As we will see, many factors play a role in molding personality; these factors include gender, family, and schools. Although gender does not necessarily seem like a contribution to delinquent behavior, studies have shown otherwise. Three types of gender differences play a role in behavioral outcomes and they are Socialization, …show more content…
This “circle” may include family and friends. Over the years, the constituents of a typical household have evolved. Extended families are increasing and the probabilities of a child growing up with one or no parent are more likely to happen now than they did years ago. Studies have found that families with both parents involved in a child’s life are less likely to have delinquent juveniles than families with one or no parent as long as the parents displayed healthy communication and lifestyles among themselves and their children. Furthermore, extended families seem to have a healthier lifestyle than that of nuclear families. The main point focuses on the idea that the happier and healthier a family is, the less likely the children will grow to commit offenses. Bad parenting falls under this idea. Parents who abuse, neglect, and communicate poorly with their children will more likely raise a child who will be involved in criminal acts. Household abuse also tends to work in a cycle. If a child is abused then he or she will more likely be at risk of abusing his or her future children. Studies also show that parents who are involved in criminal offenses are more likely to have juvenile delinquents because children learn from their parents. Thus, abuse and delinquent behavior correspond with each other. Additionally, if the child has a delinquent sibling, that also …show more content…
Nowadays, education in the United States is a mandatory obligation for children until a certain age. This requirement forces youth to maintain a state of “adolescenthood” for a longer period of time. For that matter, teens may rely on help from one another rather than older role models. This idea takes us back to peer groups and peer pressure. Secondly, dropping out of school has also been linked to delinquent behavior although it is not entirely proven. Some studies have linked dropouts to antisocial behavior as well as having a history of poor performance in school. These factors along with other emotional and psychological issues seem suggest a correlation between delinquent behavior and schooling. Finally, bullying in schools, which stats show occurs in 25% of public schools across the nation, is a major precipitating factor. A survey showed that 10% admitted to carrying a weapon at least once to their school. A high percentage of these bullies live in poverty stricken neighborhoods with high unemployment rates. This idea corresponds with the effects of family on their children along with their environmental
Initially, taking a course on juvenile delinquents did not interest me. But during these ten or eleven weeks of school, I have became to fulfill a better understanding as to why these type of kids choose to do some of the things they do. Our textbook, Juvenile Delinquency, by Robert Agnew and Timothy Brezina, focuses solely on what causes and controls juveniles to act out and commit these crimes. When reading this textbook, I became aware that most of the crimes such as burglary, theft, larceny, rape, gang violence, property damage, and etc. were mainly committed by male juveniles. And although this textbook doesn’t state it directly, I feel like most of the information obtained was based on male juveniles. In one of the earlier chapters, I remember reading something about how female juveniles are more closely supervised than males, and that although the rate for female juveniles is increasing, it still isn’t as high as the rate of male juvenile delinquents. So I proposed this research question: Why are females more closely supervised than males if there is a higher rate for crime with male juvenile delinquents?
Literature has found that antisocial behavior such as delinquency peaks in adolescence, beginning in early adolescence and decreasing around late adolescent ( Moffitt 1993). Male adolescents are more likely than female adolescents to be involved in delinquent behavior ( Moffitt and Caspi 2001; Moore and Hagedorn 2001). In majority of family homes males are brought up to be protective and tough while females are brought up to be lady like and not so rough.
According to the National Institute of Justice, recidivism refers to a person repeating criminal behavior after receiving sanctions for the behavior (National Institute of Justice, 2014). Juvenile admission into the criminal system has increased dramatically. Children are repeatedly coming to detention centers, and researchers believe that lack of supervision is a part of the recidivism. This paper will discuss the repetition of juveniles in the criminal system and how neglect of adolescent contributes into recidivism (Ryan, &Courtney, 2013). The question is, why do young children keep returning to Jail, and how do juvenile recidivism is affecting society?
Abstract: Adolescence is a time of hormonal imbalances and drastic shifts within a youth’s life. One of these shifts tends to be delinquent behaviors. Many studies have examined the factors influencing the pull towards criminal behavior and it has been found that there are many environmental factors and mental factors that have contributing factor in this time of life. These factors include peer relationships, social standing, economic level and neurological imbalances. What is concluded is that if these variables have a negative impact on an adolescent, then criminal behavior is sure to follow. However, there are many ways that these negatives can be changed into a positive if addressed in the right way.
According to them, school bonds act as a protective factor against violent and nonviolent offending (Laub et al., 2001) . For Tim and Lionel, harsh parental discipline and witnessing domestic violence disrupted the youth’s educational trajectories and weakened their attachment to school. As a consequence, they routinely misbehaved in school, subsequently led to the rejection of the youth by their teachers and peers. This rejection weakens the attachment of the youth to the school, and ultimately, lowers their performance in school. Thus, lack of attachment and low commitment to school, loosens social control exerted by school and led Tim and Lionel to delinquency (Salvatore & Taniguchi, 2012). Since Tim and Lionel were not accepted by others in school, they were not ‘bound’ by the school rules and felt that it was acceptable to commit deviant acts like
Crime is often associated with a very particular cliché, as it seems to be committed in the heart of impoverished minority communities. However, we can see this is not the reality of the situation as crime can be seen across all demographics, even amongst juveniles. Age and sex, rather than class and race better represent the distinction between a criminal and noncriminal. (Agnew 2012). Defined differently according to the state, a juvenile is an individual who is under the age of 16 or 17 years old and therefore when a minor violates criminal law they are labeled a juvenile delinquent. There are many social institutions such as media that play into the production and reproduction of criminality and what it means to be a juvenile offender. However, these stereotypes are frequently misleading as they paint a very different image without a clear understanding, “for example, girls accounted for 21 percent of simple assault arrests in 1980 versus 34 percent in 2008. Steffensmeier et al. note that such arrest data have led some researchers and people in the news media to conclude that girls really are becoming more violent.” (Agnew 2012: 80). This paper will look at female juvenile offending, as there are differences when compared to their male counterpart, while assessing explanations as to why there is a difference. While, also looking into the juvenile justice system and its role in the treatment of female juvenile offenders. Concluding with what can be done and what are some protective factors for at risk girls. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the difference gender makes in violent juvenile offending.
The influence of peers and their acceptance of delinquent behavior is significant, and this relationship is magnified when youth have little interaction with their parents (Steinberg, 1987).” (Shader, n.d.) Along with home life and life in the communities, there is also school life where these individuals are greatly affected. Children who lack support from their families and friends often face a hard time supporting and motivating themselves whenever it comes onto school aspects. There are changes in the way a student behaves and participates in the classroom and this reflects on their work ethics. After work ethics diminish, truancy begins to develop. Truancy behavior develops based on the following reasons, “lack of interest in education and alienation from school, falling behind academically in school, fear of violence on the way to school or at school, lack of parental support for education, drug and alcohol abuse, working long hours while attending school, resulting in chronic exhaustion, lack of, significant consequences for failure to attend school, and also problems at home that require supervising younger children or helping dysfunctional adults.” (Truancy, n.d.) These factors influence truancy which leads
Empirical research indicates that delinquent peers constitute one of the most powerful predictors of delinquent behaviour ( Jensen, 1972;Matsueda 1982; Benda, 1994; Warr, 1996; Warr, 2002). Data suggests that the effect of delinquent peers on delinquency is stronger among males than among females (Johnson, 1979, Simons et al.,1980, MacDonald & Piquero 2005).
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.
Between communities, school, peer groups, and socializing institutions influence delinquency for many different aspects and reasons. (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). For instance, the family that a juvenile is born into decides their economic status political views, and which schools and institutions they are privy to. The overall health and function of a family can be a leading factor into whether or not a child enters into the juvenile justice system. They help to shape a child's moral, values, personality, and
For years, there has been a debate about what leads to juvenile delinquency. Two reasons repeatedly come up during the debate: education and poverty. The differences and similarities between 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 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.
Chapter four is about the topic of social structural causes of delinquency. Areas covered are theories such as disorganization theory, cultural deviance theories, and many more. It also includes information to structural explanations and the contribution they play in juvenile delinquency.
A good parent/child relationship has a positive impact on the resistance to delinquent behavior. Two researchers, West and Farrington, sum it up by concluding in their research that, “the fact that delinquency is transmitted from one generation to the next is indisputable.” (West and Farrington, 1973, p.109). They also conclude that poor parenting is linked with delinquent behavior. Parental interaction and supervision, or lack of, also contributes to delinquent behavior.
One factor contributing to antisocial behavior in children is family relationships, which are explained in two perspectives. The first suggests that harsh, inconsistent
The author examined that extent to parenting practices rise to different adolescent personalities which can lead to delinquency. ”In contrast to conforming youth, delinquents tend to define situations in a manner that justifies aggressive and antisocial behavior” (Kuei,L, Gene, B, YI, C, Ronald, S 2007 P 4). Essentially, if parents do not care about their kids, don’t know where they are all of the time, there could be a big reason why they are associating with the wrong group of people and getting involved in crime and aggressive behavior. Also could affect them becoming antisocial if they hang out with the wrong group of people, they may not socialize with other people that might not be as “cool” as them. Another important area that can be looked is how an adolescent interacts with others and how important that area is in a child’s life. In the article “Anticipating Early Fatality: Friends, Schoolmates and Individual Perceptions of Fatality on Adolescent Risk Behavior”, it explains how a child’s social life is one