CHAPTER- 2
2.1 NATURE AND EXTENT
Juvenile Delinquency refers to a violent or non- violent crime committed by persons who are (usually) under the age of eighteen. There is a debate about whether or not such a child should be held criminally responsible for his or her action. There are many different inside influences that are believed to affect the way a child acts both negatively and positively.
It is extremely difficult to assess precisely the extent of the problem in any part of the country since available statistics are full of pitfalls and therefore no indicator of the true extent. This is because of the fact that a large number of such acts remain undetected or unreported. Nevertheless, it has been observed that delinquency rates are
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Researchers show that a good percentage of adult criminals committed their first offence in their childhood, long before their first conviction. They could manage to escape notice by committing the first offence, which encouraged them to commit further offences till they were apprehended, tried and convicted. However not until we know the causes of delinquency, can measures for its prevention be suggested.
It has been popular to attribute deviant behaviour to a single cause or factor, such as physical, psychological, environmental etc. There are many different inside influences that are believed to affect the way a child acts both negatively and positively, some of which are as follows : -
Abandonment
The term abandonment has the multitude of uses, which can generally be broken into legal, and extra legal uses. Abandonment in law is the relinquishment of an interest, claim, privilege or possession. In the context of juvenile delinquency child abandonment is recognized as a juvenile delinquency, which comes into the category of neglected child. In this case the child is usually not physically harmed directly as part of the abandonment, distinct from this widely recognized crime of
A juvenile is a person under the age of 18. If he or she commits an offense that is considered a crime in the law of a state, including theft, assault, drug abuse, disorderly conduct, and curfew violations, that person is labeled as a juvenile delinquent. Similarly, if a juvenile commits an offense that is considered a crime in the juvenile code, including running away from home, truancy from school, and disobeying the lawful orders of parents or legal guardians, that person is also labeled as a juvenile
Generally, it started as a plan by Sandy Fonzo and her husband to teach their son Edward Kenzakowski, 17 years-old at the time a lesson. Sandy Fonzo and her husband notice that Edward had been hanging out with the wrong crowed. Despite him have a clear record and excelling in school, as well as sports, such a wrestling, they feared he might or did not want to see him ruin his chances at a scholarship (Ecenbarger 2012). Thus, the devised a plan, and her husband planned paraphernalia on Edward’s truck, meanwhile tipping off the cops. They were hoping that their son who receive probation, meanwhile getting imitated by tough Judge Mark Ciavarella when in front of him. Like a little bit of a tough
This paper looks at the different theories of criminal behavior that explain why people commit crimes. It goes deeper to analyze the specific theories in a bid to determine why a person may commit a certain crime and another person under the same circumstances may not. The paper focuses on key factors that motivate unruly behavior among people and why such factors are present in some people and not in others. In doing so, the paper leans more on children in order to determine how delinquency behavior is progressively imparted on them as they undergo developmental trajectory.
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:
Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased juvenile delinquency? Simply put, we must create a means of measuring juvenile’s level of risk and in turn, form an effective rehabilitation program that will decrease their risk level for future recidivism.
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
Under the law depending on the state and with some expectations, being punished for a felony isn’t that simple. Prisoners not only serve their time in jail for the crime that they have committed, but many of them would also lose their rights and opportunities upon their release. For example, they lose their right to vote, their right to bear arms, public social benefits, certain employment opportunities, and are prohibited from certain areas because of their criminal record. This law can be problematic, especially for young people as they are young and are still learning from their mistakes. Yet, there is a possibility that a crime that they have committed when they were younger could still affect them through adulthood.
The United states has been facing a crucial problem with juvenile delinquency, Juvenile and delinquency can have different meanings depending on the state and laws. The term juvenile can also be replaced with adolescent, youngster, and minor. Anyone under the age of 18 is legally not considered as an adult. Delinquency refers to an action taken by a juvenile that would be considered a crime if an adult committed that action. A juvenile could be charged for performing an act that is illegal for their age. Juvenile Delinquency is a relevant social issue in the united states that is significantly and has historically been affected by the social welfare system, polity, and the family structure.
In England, conforming to the Civitas’s Crime report Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010) the youngest age that someone can be prosecuted is as young as ten years old. It is also mentioned that trailing, patrolling and applying penalties on young offenders costs almost four billion pounds annually. The numbers of first time offences committed by a young person has decrease over the years; according to the Youth Justice Statistics (2014) youth crime is down by 63% since 2002. In regards to the offences themselves, nearly every offence category has decreased in reoccurrence with exception to drug offences declares Civitas’s Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010). The same report states that theft and handling remains the highest volume category taking up 21% of all youth crime. It is shortly followed by violence against a person, 19.5%, and criminal damage, 11.9%. It can be concluded from both aforementioned reports that crime in the UK is decreasing. Contrariwise to this, youth reoffending rates are soaring concludes Civitas’s Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010).
In Criminology, a behaviour that is not considered to be a norm in society is known as deviance. This may differ throughout the world as some cultures have a different interpretation of norms (Phofl, 1985). The bulk of deviant behavior will be looked as discontentment from those in society or even punishment from the system. Deviance can fall into many classifications such as addictions and delinquency. We will look at deviance and about how and why people are deviant. Some theories support the idea of deviance being biological while others refute this and believe the idea of it being caused by your social construction.
Juvenile delinquency is committing criminal acts or offenses by a young person, generally involving people under the age of eighteen. That is what this research proposal is about. For my research proposal my research question is what can cause or deter juvenile delinquency in first time offenders? I feel that this is an important question to be asking, because in our society there is too much juvenile delinquency and if we can use this research to figure out what can cause and deter this phenomenon then we could sincerely help a lot of adolescents.
The controversial debate of whether or not humans are innately evil has been endlessly debated especially when offensive behaviour is exhibited (Bernet et al. 2007). It has generally been agreed upon that distressing experiences during a persons’ childhood will cause them to commit a spectrum of heinous crimes (Jaffee et al. 2005). Such childhood experiences could be drug, domestic violence or education related (Krohn et al. 2001). However, it is also argued that even from young ages children will steal items of their desire as humans are born with a craving for possessions (Dyl & Wapner, 1996). Such desires may have been a contributory factor as to why thousands of children every year initiate offensive behaviour and as such come in contact
Juvenile delinquency is a serious problem and leads to negative outcomes for youth, families, and society as a whole. Adolescents under the age of 18 who are arrested for committing a criminal act are processed through a juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system is grounded on the principle that the youth have different needs than adults. During adolescence, youth are forming their identities and still developing mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally. Due to their early stages of development, juveniles who violate the law should be treated differently than adults.
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.
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.