Psychological and Social Characteristic of Juvenile Offenders

However, social interactions and socialization theories also have been a popular way to reason criminal behaviour. The followers of routine activity stated that if a child learns that for example stealing is one way to get what they want, they will do it again. All they need is motivation, suitable target and absence of guardians. At this point, we might notice a link with the above mentioned reasons (absence of father, or lack of loving treatment in family) which indicates that there is no one commonly accepted reason or special background what predicts criminal behaviour but it is a complex situation effected by a lot of complementary circumstances. In the following, the focus will fall on an analysis of a forensic psychological reports prepared for juvenile offenders and other reports of the characteristic of juvenile offenders. Presenting these results may help us to decide whether the previously mentioned reasons behind criminal behaviour comply or not. I am well-aware of the fact that is far not representative or not even close to decide the discussion about the psychological background of juvenile offenders but might be a good step to start.

2. Empirical researches of juvenile offenders

Psychological reports are commonly requested by juvenile courts throughout the world to assist in determining the most appropriate options for juvenile offenders. The written report is the major vehicle for psychologists to communicate their assessment procedures, findings and recommendations. In 2003, Anthony Thompson and Megan Webster embarked upon to analyse 81 forensic psychological court reports on juvenile offenders. The results have shown that almost all of the young people who were ordered for assessment experienced multiple problem...

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... and delinquency. They concluded that “proportionately more adjudicated delinquent children than public school children were learning disabled,” although self-report data indicated no significant differences in the incidence of delinquent activity.

3. Conclusion

The aim of this short paper was to present different theoretical approaches and then tests them on empirical results and facts. Altogether we saw that there is no one coherent and eternal reason with which one could reason the criminal activity, however, a few factors such as broken family, lack of education and other different circumstances might contribute to criminal behaviour. This topic and further researches are highly relevant and desirable in order to create and maintain an efficient crime prevention system, which reacts to the possible risk factors and divert children from dangerous situations.