Risk Factors to Juvenile Deliquency

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Recommended: The causes and consequences of juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is an ongoing issue in today’s society. On some of the last juvenile delinquency statistics recorded in 2009, approximately 1.9 million underage individuals were reported being arrested in the United States alone (Ryan, Williams, & Courtney, 2013). The US Census Bureau recorded nearly 313.9 million individuals were presently living in the US in 2012 (U.S. Census, 2012). When statistics are compared 1.9 million juvenile delinquencies sounds minimal to the 313.9 million individuals in society. However, 313.9 million isn’t categorizing what number of the individuals are juvenile, young adults, middle-aged adults, or older adults. The rate of individuals classified as juvenile delinquents in the United States is alarming when considering how many underage individuals there are in the US total.
Several studies indicate certain risk factors contribute to juvenile delinquency (Childs, Frick, Ryals, Lingonblad, & Villio 2014; Ibabe, Jaureguizar, & Bentler 2013; Lee, Onifade, Teasley, & Noel 2012; Shader 2001; Tremblay, & LeMarquand 2001; Wasserman et. al, 2003). Determining risk factors can also affect the probability of recidivism. The assessment of risk factors is necessary to formulate prevention programs and approaches (Shader, 2001). A thorough assessment of society’s juvenile generation and what risk factors contribute to certain behaviors may alleviate some crimes committed by this generation and ultimately develop approaches for future generations. The more knowledge society has about juvenile risk factors and the ability to attend prevention programs, society should see a decrease in crime rates amongst the juvenile population. If the juvenile population is assisted during youth, then the chances of being ca...

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...-cohesive family relationships (Wasserman et. al, 2003).
Routinely, risk factors are identified through cross-sectional study designs, however longitudinal and quasi-experimental designs have been used by researchers studying risk factors (Day, Wanklyn, & Yessine, 2014). A cross sectional design study is the equivalence of taking measurements or data of a particular time and analyzing for findings. The potential problem with studying risk factors with a cross-sectional design is that only a certain timeframe is measured, leaving room for misinformation and making it hard to positively identify the causes and effects. Longitudinal design are studies performed over an extend period of time. Often time’s longitudinal studies offer more insight to risk factors being studied and are able to explain things in depth because there is a significant amount of data recorded.

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