The purpose of this paper is to support the notion that males are more prone to becoming a juvenile delinquent than females are. Various research studies have been conducted that support this statement to an extent. In the field of sociology, it is taken into account that not only does psychological difficulties affect delinquency, but more importantly societal influences. A behavior is only seen as delinquent once it goes against the norms of society. Society often does not take into account the underlying issues behind the juvenile delinquent, only prosecuting them and portraying an example for society to follow. Juvenile delinquency is “all public wrongs committed by young people between the ages of 12 and 20”. These public wrongs can According to the study mentioned, the engagement of fathers “has been linked to higher academic achievement, improved social and emotional well-being, and lower rates of delinquency, risk taking, and other problem behaviors”. (Cobb-Clark et al. 328) Rather than just focusing on the father being present, the researchers noted the quality of the actual interaction between father and child. In the case of males, fathers may act as a role model for how they should act and achieve their future. If this is not present, where will they go and what will they do? On the other hand, if the father is present but a criminal himself, the child may either follow the same path or use it as an example to (Nelson et al. 29) Through primary attachments, such as to parents, adolescents feel the need to comply with the rules of society. The child is deterred from delinquency due to the fact that he or she does not want to bring hurt to those they hold close. In a study conducted by Stacey M. Nelson and Stephen Rubin, the relationship between the level of attachment to parents and juvenile delinquency is explored. It is inferred that if a child lacks a healthy attachment to their parents, they will be involved in adolescent delinquency. The study looks at both male and females, from ages 13 to 18. The participants completed various surveys in relation to attachment. The results were inconclusive; it was not clear if attachment had anything to do with juvenile delinquency. According to the charts provided by the research, males were more affected by the attachment to either mother or father. With a low attachment rate comes the higher chance of juvenile delinquency. The researchers supposed that maybe we are all born delinquent; it is our relationships in life that determine whether we will increase or decrease in
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.
Juvenile delinquency is a problem these days, despite a recent drop in arrests. Roughly 2.5 million juveniles are arrested every year for different crimes in America. About 100,000 of those are violent crimes, however those statistics are slightly inaccurate since only half of juvenile crimes are reported (Juvenile Justice Basic Statistics, 2011). Creating interventions to assist at-risk youth means preventing them from starting on a path to crime is a priority. Juvenile justice system researchers and professionals must gain a better understanding of the contributing elements that cause delinquent behavior.
The differences in behind gender and juvenile delinquency are strikingly apparent. To start it has been proven that females have a significantly higher emotion IQ than males. Females are far greater at controlling their emotions than males. Young boys need supervision and guidance from their mothers. Aggression is a trait that is more evident among males and combined with the fact that males are less apt to be concerned fitting in groups favoring independence more than females, exacerbates an inherent problem.
Hinton, W., Sheperis, C., & Sims, P. (2000). Family based approaches to juvenile delinquency. The Family Journal, 11(2), 167-173.
The role of a father is more than just another parent at home (Popenoe, 1996). Having a father, the male biological parent in a child’s life is important because it brings a different type of parenting that cannot be replicated by anyone else (Stanton, 2010). Fathers who are present and active in a child’s life provide great benefits to a developing child (Popenoe, 1996). Having a father brings a different kind of love. The love of the father is more expectant and instrumental, different from the love of a mother (Stanton, as cited in Pruett, 1987).
Many parents believe they have little influence on their children’s lives. This is simply not true. At the ages of 10 -12 if the child does not have a strong bond with at least one parent, he or she might start to find that bond elsewhere, which can be negative. Studies show that securely attached adolescents are less likely to be involved in drinking, drugs and sexual behavior. Also, attachment relates to the belief bond. If the child is in a situation where he or she is tempted to commit a delinquent act, even though his or her parent is not physically there, the parent will psychologically be there is the belief bond is strong. This causes the child to question the activities he or she is faced with. So having strong attachments with parents will motivate children to making the right
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?
The Criminal Law state at the age of 7, any young child that are engaged in a criminal behavior can be prosecuted in the Family Court of Law. Additionally, juveniles can also be arrested for curfews violations, refusal to obey parents, running away, skipping school, and underage alcohol consumption. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that roughly half of all youth arrested are charged with theft, simple assaults, drug abuse, disorderly conduct, and curfew violations. OJJDP statistics confirms that theft is the greatest cause of youth arrests. (Martin, 2011) When they are prosecute and after the judge made there verdict, they become Juvenile Delinquent. A Juvenile Delinquent is a youth between the age of 7 and 18 who commits the act of a crime. The law also follows a specific term placement, which is:
... relationship does not affect the adolescent’s behavior, but his academic performance. However, it is proven that adolescents from single parent family are more likely to develop deviant behaviors, and one of the main reasons is that the parent is unable to establish a strong bond with the adolescent, as this bond can be used as a shield, deflecting them to be less willing in engaging criminal behaviors. Other factors, such as poor neighborhood conditions, can also result in poorer parenting, which affects the adolescent’s behavior. Also, children who have suffered child abuse are generally filled with more violence, resulting in their aggressive behaviors due to a accumulated anger. Hence, we can conclude that parenting is the main cause for juvenile delinquency as it has the most influence and direct impact for causing an adolescent to develop delinquent behavior.
A primary shaper of the juvenile and their actions is the environment in which they grow up in. Family environment has the potential to have a major effect on the outcome and behaviors of the juvenile (Myers 430). Family has such a huge effect because it is the earliest source of interaction the juvenile experiences. According to Louise Gerdes, “72 percent of jailed juveniles
Thompson, W. E. and Bynum J. E. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency: A sociological Approach Eighth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Hinton, W., Sheperis, C., & Sims, P. (2000). Family based approaches to juvenile delinquency. The Family Journal, 11(2), 167-173.
Studies indicate that positive parenting, including normative development, monitoring, and discipline, clearly affects whether children will become delinquent. Adequate supervision of free-time activities, whereabouts, and peers are critical to assure that children do not drift into antisocial and delinquent patterns of behavior. Surprisingly, little is known about normative and moral development with the family as they relate to delinquency. Single-parent families, and in particular mother-only families, produce more delinquent children than two-parent families. Research indicates that parenting practices account for most, but not all, of the ...
The four bonds are imperative in determining a person’s conformity or deviance to society. When bonds are weak, Hirschi saw that a person becomes “free” to engage in delinquency (Williams & McShane, 2010). The first bond, which is attachment, deals with the relationship one has with parents, friends or school and clubs. Attachment is the most important bond because a strong tie to parents or institutions will help prevent deviance. Attachment is also important because the other bonds are thought to build on attachment.
Juvenile delinquency is one of the major social issues in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is when “a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Merriam-webster.com). Although we have one justice system in America, the juvenile system differs from the adult juvenile system. Most juvenile delinquents range from as low as the age of seven to the age of seventeen. Once the delinquent or anyone turns the age of eighteen, they are considered an adult. Therefore, they are tried as an adult, in the justice system. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. In addition, there are a variety of effects that juvenile justice systems can either bad effects or good effects. Finally there are many different solutions that can reduce juvenile delinquency. As a result, juvenile delinquency is a major issue and the likeliness of it can be reduced. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency there has to be an understanding of the causes and the effects.