Juvenile Delinquency and High School Drop Out Rate - Dissertation Example

Juvenile Delinquency and High School Drop Out Rate Abstract Delinquency is a minor crime committed by young people, minors, juniors or juveniles. Juvenile delinquency, therefore, involves criminal activities or offends perpetrated by children. In reference to the American Society of Criminology (1970), a juvenile delinquent is an underage person or a minor who performs a crime. This research study paper is about the relationship between school failure, children’s self-esteem and their school and academic performance. Additionally, the paper focuses on the relationship between child juvenile delinquency and school dropouts. In order to achieve its objectives, the paper defines juvenile delinquents and the types of crimes that they commit. Additionally, the paper discusses the roles of homes and schools in children’s delinquent activities. Children are most often influenced by their relationships both at school and in their homes (Doggett, 2014). It is; therefore, more than obvious that their relationships and associations influence their daily behavior and attitudes. In schools, socialization plays a significant role in the children’s associations and relations. The paper again discusses the role of socialization and status in schools that, in turn, influences children’s behavior, which may lead to delinquency. Nonetheless, to achieve the purpose of the paper, the study also focuses on the role of school achievement in educational success and the correlation between economic disadvantage and educational success. These two factors have great influence on a child’s attitude that can also affect their behavior and social relations (Doggett, 2014). To sum the study up, the paper focuses on detailed reasons why kids drop out of school; and the correlation between school failure and delinquency. Children who fail in school are more likely to develop negative attitudes that may lead them to committing delinquent activities. The paper finishes with suggestions for prevention of for reducing the school dropouts. It is wise that children must be protected and prevented from committing crime and criminal activities (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Introduction Raising children is not an easy task (Doggett, 2014). In the modern society, juvenile delinquency is at all-time high. However, it is the most lightly punished act committed by minors globally. All children have an exclusive interest that can help shape their behavior. Children are not born shunning the world or hating their surroundings. This research study paper aims to uncover if school failure affects children’s self-esteem, and in turn affect their school and academic performance. The paper further studies the relationship between child juvenile delinquency and school dropouts. Juvenile delinquents are typically made; ordinarily they come from an already bumpy and questionable background (American Society of Criminology, 1970). Many juvenile offenders frequently break the law. Delinquents originate from both affluent and poor families, and nearly as many captures are made in rural communities or areas as in cities and their suburbs. Studies show that delinquencies lead to higher school drop outs (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). The primary question that this paper will revolve around is whether delinquency starts at home or is learned at school, and whether it causes high school drop outs. Who are Juvenile Delinquents? According to American Society of Criminology (1970), a juvenile delinquent is an underage person who performs a crime. However, the crime is perpetrated based on the children's behavior. The behavior or attitude of a juvenile delinquent is often rough, wild, and careless. They rarely get punished for their criminal or delinquency acts that they commit. Being that they are young, they should not face adult penalties or punishments, even if they perpetrate the same crime as an adult (Doggett, 2014). Almost every state in U.S has Juvenile Delinquents. Their influence for committing these crimes come due to social interaction, lack of parental control or home play and from the school play. Saminsky (2010) acknowledges that Juvenile Delinquents are always negatively influenced by their environments such as poverty, educational success or economic disadvantage. There is no discrimination or despise of Juvenile Delinquents (Saminsky, 2010). What are the Crimes of Juvenile Delinquents? Delinquency is a minor crime; which is perpetrated by young people, minors, juniors or juveniles. The crimes of juvenile delinquents often include minor robbery, peer assault, school dropout, drug and substance abuse, gender abuse and few cases of homicide. Minors commit these crimes almost every day. Some of the delinquents or minors feel as though these crimes are not only easy to commit, but also very common among their friends, peers and surroundings (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Some of the offenses of juvenile delinquents may result from bullying, drug abuse, peer pressure, gangs, teachers, and household or family abuse. Shockingly, the delinquents commit the same exact of crimes that, adults are often sent to prison for committing. In some states or nations, depending on the particular crime, minor offenders could be charged, in court, as adults depending on the circumstances (Doggett, 2014). What role do homes play in delinquency? Parents and family have a great influence over children and their behaviors shape those of their children as they grow into adulthood. Many, if not almost all parents, have knowledge that parenting is a complex task and activity with no easy answers (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). No child comes with a parenting manual or tips on how and essentials to raise children. Parents learn and mimic how to raise and nature children from how their parents raised them and things they have experienced. Parents with more than one child often learn from the way they raised and brought up their previous children. Parenting is always like trial and error, trying different observation methods and parenting styles until one finds out that a particular style is almost the best fit for raising their children (Doggett, 2014). Family structure and attitude is significant to all people in the society; children included. Numerous studies have outlined that dining together as a family, four to seven times a week, significantly lowers children’s risk of experimenting with drugs” (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Keeping people in positive environments is a key to the right path of life. Families that are not engaged and not involved in their children’s lives and experiences have the possibility of their children becoming tangled with crime (Doggett, 2014). In such a situation, nothing is being provided to the children or adolescents in their family to support them in positive growth. These adolescent children will view their parents' actions and behavior and will mimic the behaviors. Mimicking and copying of behaviors is a pure natural instinct of children, and people in general, and everyone has done it, once or more, in their lives. When parents present wrong behavior to their children e.g. drug and substance abuse, children will copy and begin practicing such behaviors (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Additionally, parents must monitor their children’s social relations including usage of social media. Children today are currently all over this media frenzy (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). In this digital society, many youths are influenced by the countless websites or magazines and online socialization and documents. Facebook, Instagram, whatsApp and Twitter are some of the major social media sites for children and people of all ages. Much of Facebook is active with children under the age of 18. With so much instant connection, the risk of cyber bullying skyrockets. Internet bullying can hurt others and also make some turn to violence or even self-inflicted violence (Doggett, 2014). Without parental monitoring and regulation children may acquire bad social influence and behaviors from friends and social media relations. Such influence may lead to bad actions that may likely extend to the ordinary relations of the child with his her peers (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Parents must be involved in their children’s daily activates and know what is going on in their lives. Showing them the distinctions between right and wrong or even placing them in the needed prevention classes can be one of the best structures from a parental perspective. Studies show that juveniles with two parents involved will have a significant decrease in becoming a juvenile delinquent wrapped in the judicial system (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). However, it is hardly possible to foresee whether a child will be a delinquent or not regardless of the current societal way of life. The younger generation needs guidelines just as; the elder generation had in place. People who came from a troubled past must understand what was missing and try to structure the needed foundation to pass on to their children and make them better people who can construct positive images in the community (Saminsky, 2010). Otherwise, homes without proper childcare are more likely to lead to delinquent children who are violent, bullies, drug abusers and disrespectful (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Homes with more parental quarrels can lead to bitter children who view the world as a quarrelsome place. To such children, violence is the only possible way of solving problems or issues with their peers (Saminsky, 2010). Likewise, children brought up in respectful homes that value character and humility are likely to grow up law abiders, humble and respectful. What role does school play in delinquency? Schools mix children of all kinds with teachers of different types as well as other people with different habits. A child’s environment and the actions that take place within the environment, for example, schools, have a major impact on his or her behavior (Saminsky, 2010). Academic failure, dropout, and exclusionary discipline practices have been identified as the fundamental elements in a “school to prison pipeline” (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). While there are strong bodies of research on the risks of schools for child delinquency, few studies have endeavored to understand the variables within schools that intensify or counteract these risks (Doggett, 2014). The school failure hypothesis, Smith (1998), argues that social rejection following weak academic achievement breaks down self-confidence. Hence, if given decent psychological and environmental encouragement and incentives, a child may engage in delinquent behavior (Smith, 1998). Studies constantly report that there is a strong correlation between school failure and school dropout and school misconduct and delinquency. Additionally, studies show that the youth with learning disabilities has higher rates of school dropout and risk of dropping out of their school than their normal or prosperous counterparts. Additionally, academic difficulties and failure in school precede delinquency in minors, which then lead to school drop outs (Doggett, 2014). What role does socialization and status play in schools? As children grow up, there are many environmental influences on their socialization. Schools are the basic levels of children socialization (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). According to Smith (1998), in schools, children socialize with their peers and relate with one another, which influences their habits and behaviors. Phillips and Kelly (2006) denote that peer relationships produce a significant role in the development of children’s self-concept and have a strong impact on how children view their roles and purpose in our society. Notably, the perpetuation of gender biases and stereotypes often begin in the homes and then further fueled by peer groups (Saminsky, 2010). In schools, children’s peer groups are based on their status. Status can encompass economic, academic, gender or age. The status of the children influences the type of peers they get involved within schools. Bright students associate with bright students while affluent students associate with affluent students and most often some despise poor students (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Because of the status differences, students tend to develop different ways of adapting to the inequality they experience in schools. Needless to say, girls associate with girls and when they face harassment from boys their attitudes change and may adopt delinquent behaviors such as drug abuse. Through peer grouping, children begin to incline to violent and mischievous ways of responding to the status-inequalities they face in schools. The responses may eventually lead to school drop outs (Doggett, 2014). Saminsky (2010) acknowledges that the children from affluent families, for instance, always have high self-esteem in comparison to their counterparts from less fortunate families. Such children tend to use their family’s might to harass their peers and teachers (Saminsky, 2010). Most often, such children engage in many delinquent offends such as drug abuse, school absconding, and bullying. Eventually, their bad habits and behaviors lead them to school dropout (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Additionally, Phillips and Kelly (2006) acknowledge that most children from affluent families do not do their assignments, are rude and do not follow either societal laws or school regulations. They always move against the societal requirements and meet the law head-on resulting to their academic failure and school dropout. However, not all rude students come from affluent families; some children from a poor background develop violence as a way of protecting themselves from intimidation by rich kids. What role does educational achievement play in educational success? A number of early-childhood results contribute to children's ultimate school readiness. There is evidence that suggests that possibly important early-childhood results vary by family structure. Studies also reveal that reading to children supports their literacy development that further extends to educational achievements (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). The family structure dictates educational achievement of children. Children raised in achieving families tend to be determined to achieve or surpass the family records. They feel obliged to perform and achieve well in school compared to children raised in families that do not value educational success (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Educationally-achieving children grow with determination to succeed academically. From their families, they learn the benefits of educational achievement and success. Because of their determination to prosper, such children are less probable to partake in criminal activities. On the other hand, less-achiever-children at certain points might decide to drop out of school due to constant failures (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). The less achiever child may drop out of school due to frustrations for perpetual failure or loss of self-confidence from consistent peer pressure and mock from peers (Doggett 2014). Saminsky (2010) highlights that when school is not encouraging, and failure is always around the corner, children begin to develop ways and means of hiding their frustrations. They are likely to identify with peers in their similar case (Saminsky, 2010). Through peer pressure, it is more probable that such children will engage in bad influence such as breaking windows or joining bad clubs. Furthermore, they must find something, in school or away from school that occupy their time as they begin to lose taste of educational achievements. To these children, criminal engagement is always just a distance away (Saminsky, 2010). They do not know the benefits of educational achievement and cannot know that sweetness of educational success. The correlation between economic disadvantage and educational success No one earnestly argues the fact that students from economically disadvantaged households perform less well in school, averagely than their peers or fellows from more economically advantaged backgrounds (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). This economic disadvantage and the educational success correlation have been plentifully documented, remarkably by the prominent 1966 Coleman Report. New research conducted by Sean F. Reardon of the Stanford University hints the educational achievement and success gap between children from affluent- and low-income families over the past 50 years. Reardon found that the gap now far exceeds the difference between white and black students (Saminsky, 2010). Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that more than 40% of the difference in normal reading scores and 46% of the disparity in normal math scores across U.S is related to disparity in child poverty rates. International research also tells the same story. Poverty or economic disadvantage leads to uncountable dropouts. Children for fewer income families tend to fend for their education and may eventually give up (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Due to their disadvantaged state, they may develop low self-esteem and develop certain delinquent activities or behaviors towards other students like bullying, window breaking or drug abuse (Doggett 2014). Reasons why kids drop out of school Although school completion rates have constantly grown during much of past three decades, the problem of dropping out of school persists. School dropout interferes with the efficiency of the educational system and the most forthright and substantial route to individual educational success and goals for young people (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). Causes of school drop outs can be classified to pull, push and fall out factors. A student is pushed out of school when hostile situations within the school environment lead to penalties, eventually resulting in the dropout. Students can be pulled out due to factors inside the student that may divert them (students) from completing school. Falling out of school happens when a student does not show momentous academic progress in schoolwork. The student becomes indifferent or disillusioned with school completion. Fallout is not essentially an active decision but relatively a “side-effect of inadequate personal and support educationally” (Saminsky, 2010). Socially related school dropout is related to family matters and peer influence. Family related reasons for drop outs may be due to the following: economic disadvantage, perhaps the student had to support their families; she might have been pregnant; married or became a father. Additionally, the student might have faced difficulty with financial aid to enjoying schooling. School related reasons may be associated with poor performance, lack of momentum with schooling activities, the negative relation with teachers and expulsion due to delinquencies. Additionally, the students might drop out of school due to suspension or lack of competency with school work (Saminsky, 2010). Correlation of school failure and delinquency Failure to complete school causes countless effects to children (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). One such impact is juvenile delinquency. Students who fail in school tend to be arrogant and develop hate towards those who continue with school. Upon failure to complete school, they engage in criminal and delinquent activities. Such activities include drug and substance abuse, rape, bullying, window breaking and other major and minor criminals. Additionally, because these students often tend to develop bitterness with school, they always attempt to convince and persuade other children to drop out of school, like them, and engage in such activities (American Society of Criminology, 1970). There are extensive texts and literature showing the relationship between school failure and delinquency or adolescent misconduct. Almost all of these documents, research and literature assumed and concluded that school failure is caused by adolescent misconduct (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). Misconduct may arise from school failure; most of the commonly recent work on the school-delinquency linkage show that the extensive misconduct leads to drop out. Evidence from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies offers, at least, cautious backing for the suggestion that school failure follows misconduct of children (Saminsky, 2010). Prevention that can be used to reduce these rates There are many effective strategies for prevention of school dropouts. These may include after-school opportunities, alternative learning, career and technology education, literacy development, individualized training and active learning among others. Other prevention measures can be categorized into distinct perspectives (Phillips & Kelly, 2006). In School and Community Perspective prevention strategies include safe learning environments and school-community collaboration. A complete violence prevention plan and conflict resolution must resolve potential violence and crisis management. Providing a safe learning environment offers daily experiences that boost positive social attitudes and operational interpersonal to students. When the community offers collective school support, a strong organization sustains a supportive environment for youth to achieve and thrive (American Society of Criminology, 1970). In the perspective of early interventions, dropout and delinquency prevention may entail Early Childhood Education, Early Literacy Development, and Family Engagement. Phillips and Kelly, (2006) proposes that a better way to reduce dropout numbers is to provide good classroom instruction from the start of their school experience all through their education. Early interventions to support low-achieving students expand their writing and reading skills and establish their foundation for effective school learning. Research regularly shows that family engagement has a positive, direct effect on children's success achievement. Family engagement is also an accurate predictor of a children’s success in school (Doggett, 2014). On the perspective of Basic Core Strategies, prevention encompasses After-School Opportunities, Alternative Schooling, Mentoring or Tutoring and Service-Learning. Providing after-school and summer opportunities programs eliminate loss of information and inspire interest in a range of areas. Such experiences are important for students who are at risk of school failure. Alternative schooling offers potential dropouts a range of options that that enhances graduation (Phillips and Kelly, 2006). These programs should pay special attention to the children with individual academic requirements and social needs in high school. Mentoring provides care and supports the relationship between the mentee and a mentor. Tutoring focuses on academics and is very effective when addressing certain needs such as writing, reading, or math competencies. Service-learning connects significant experience of community service with academic learning. Tutoring promotes social growth and personal, civic responsibility, career development and is a powerful means for effective prevention of school dropout (Saminsky, 2010). Conclusion Regardless of the number of parents or guardians that a child has, stating the best possible guidelines and rules for the youth is a must in all families. For youths, this is the time when they are the most influential state, and what they may view in their perspective will hinder on their outcome of life. Just providing enough for them to have a place to live and eat at is not adequate. Seek out the extra help if needed, and display encouragement and support by seeking the right direction (Saminsky, 2010). References American Society of Criminology. (1970). Criminology. Columbus, OH American Society of Criminology Doggett, Anika. (n.d.). Juvenile Delinquency and Family Structure. Retrieved December 3, 2014 from http://facstaff.elon.edu/ajones5/Anika's%20paper.htm John C. Phillips and Delos H. Kelly. (2006). School Failure And Delinquency Which Causes Which? Criminology Volume 17 (2), pages 194–207. Saminsky, Alina. (2010). Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: Early Intervention and Comprehensiveness as Critical Factors. Retrieved December 3, 2014, form http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/165/preventing-juvenile-delinquency-early-intervention-and-comprehensiveness-as-critical-factors Smith, C. (1998). Learning Disabilities: The interaction of learner, task, and setting. Needham eights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Read More