Attitude to Female Juvenile Delinquents - Essay Example

?For the purpose of this assignment, the case study which the will be using to analyze behavior is that of Chelsea, a 17-year old who has been exhibiting a remarkably drastic change from her previously well-liked personality. Influences on Chelsea’s Behavior Upon analyzing Chelsea’s case one finds that there appears to have been a rather extreme change in her behavior over a supposedly short period of time. While in the beginning, the alterations in her manners may not have appeared overtly visible or threatening, but lately she has been increasingly putting herself in harm’s way by indulging in risky behavior regardless of the consequences. Her familial attachments have also withdrawn, and she seems to be hanging by the thread. Hence, it draws upon the author to investigate the various influences that have played their role in shaping Chelsea’s personality. Chelsea, being an adolescent, is undergoing a very difficult time in her life. As Sigmund Freud puts it in his psychoanalytical theory, her inner self is now undergoing turmoil as she strengthens her sexual desires, at the same time trying to severe emotional bonds with her parents (Freud, 1958). It is through this tumultuous passing that her challenging and changing behavior needs to be analyzed. Research studies in America have acknowledged that there exists a connection between rising conduct problem behaviors and early unauthorized alcohol use among adolescents (Johnson, Arria, Borges, Ialongo, & Anthony, 1995). The author believes that Chelsea’s problems began manifesting with alcohol use; therefore, to scrutinize her behavior it is essentially important to understand the influences to her initiation. In the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Resnick, 1997), the researchers who studied 12, 118 adolescents across America found that there is a clear relationship between family and school connectedness and psycho-social health of adolescents. According to the case history, it is believed that though the client was a good student, she was often seen as the class clown. Although this was seen as a positive trait by the school population in general, the client’s perception of the same remains unknown. The author believes that this seemingly harmless teasing could have resulted in her feeling disrespected and uncared for. She could thus have possibly created negative social bonds with her school and become academically disinclined. In this situation connecting with anti-social peers, among whom she felt accepted and respected, may have been easy and could have attracted her to anti-social behavior. A study conducted by the Social Development Research Group in Seattle on the predictors of alcohol and marijuana use onset found that young people who were exposed to peers who practiced substance abuse were at a higher risk of being initiated into early alcohol use (Kosterman, Hawkins, Guo, Catalano, & Abbott, 2000). Within the school context, it is also quite possible that though the client was a good student, as she moved to Sixth Form, she found her classes to be tough and unmanageable. Her inability to cope with them could have resulted in the loss of self-confidence. Here, it is important to assess the relationship which existed between Chelsea and her teachers. Though no evidence on this issue is reflected in the case study, it is duly mentioned that the client was well-liked by her teachers. However, what was the level of support and warmth that she received from them in the context of losing her self-confidence remains unknown. It is not understood if her distress and anxiety, in the form of lower grades, missed classes and decreased academic performance, were even recognized or acknowledged by her teachers. In the analysis done by McNeely (2003) on the data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1997), it was found that a positive student-teacher relationship is connected with a lower possibility of earning poor grades, engaging in risky behaviors and being suspended. In regard to her familial attachments, though no negative responses were initially identified, her increased alcohol use led her to have quite a few alterations with her parents, some even turning violent. It may be deduced that her lowering levels of school attainment and her parents’ expectations regarding her conduct could have led to these alterations. It is also very much possible that the client’s relationship with her family had been long deteriorating, but it was hardly recognized. Resnick (1997) in his study points out that physical presence and feelings of care, warmth and love from parents can help shape positive outcomes for adolescents. In Chelsea’s family the author assumes that there is a certain disengagement. Since she did not believe that her parents would understand her, she never confided in them, directing the way to increased disconnect. Under these circumstances, the author deduces that alcohol use by the client may have served two purposes: greater acceptance among her peers and an escape mechanism from her troubles. However, she has now lost control over the right dosage of alcohol she needs for relieving stress and, consequently, has begun a process of alcohol abuse. Research has found that adolescents who engage in any one risk behaviors are often at risk of clustering, or co-occurrence (Lindberg, Boggess, & Williams, 2000). Multi-risk taking has been found to be a major behavior trait among most risk taking adolescents in different research settings. In a 1994 study by Cooper, Peirce, and Huselid, a close connection was made between substance abuse and unprotected sex. Similarly, Moore, et al. (1995) through their research concluded that adolescents who began using alcohol and tobacco at a very early age had more accommodating sexual behaviors and attitudes. Given this probability, the author understands that Chelsea who started with mere alcohol use and moved on to delinquency, may also be exposed and tempted to attempt, unprotected sexual activity and other substances abuse. The client, the author believes, is herself unable to stop these events from unfolding because she is incapable of envisioning the consequences her actions will lead to. Hence, there is an urgent and growing need to bring her under the guidance of a counselor who could further help her. In Chelsea’s Words While Chelsea’s condition is defined as being increasingly risky and self administered, she herself may view her condition as being a result of circumstances beyond her control. It is important to understand how she views the world from her side because only then can she be helped to overcome her various psychological and substance abuse issues. Chelsea, being a 17 year old, may feel that the world has wronged her in more than one way. Since the turmoil inside her is unexplainable, she may justify it by pointing to elements in her environment that have made her feel belittled, for example, an event in school which caused her embarrassment or her parents who may not have listened to her. She will use the opportunity to blame anyone and everyone for her behavior. She would categorize herself as being depressed, lonely and bereft of social support of any kind. She would also claim that she has a lot of free time and does not know what to do with it. Any feeling of being utterly lost and rejected from her peers and family would be consistent with her repressed emotions. Her severe conduct at home may be explained by her as the inability of her parents to understand her and their try to force their expectations on her. The client may also feel that every time she is at home, her parents use the opportunity to argue with her. Every action, every word spoken by her may be considered to be negative and heavily criticized. She would constantly feel that nothing she ever does seems to be right for her parents. Every small mistake would call for an overreaction, coupled with severe punishments, which would not seem fair to Chelsea. The moral and traditional beliefs her parents wish to tie her down with do not appeal to her. She believes that the extremes in her behavior are a result of their increased tendency to supervise and hold her back. She most probably cannot wait to be 18 years old and move out of her parents’ home. Alcohol-use for the client may have begun merely as an experiment among her peers. She would have engaged in it to gain social acceptance and recognition. However, over time she would have begun getting pleasure from the feeling of being intoxicated. Today, though the client may accept that she engages in binge drinking with her friends, she would not in any way find it harmful. She would view drinking as a fun and popular activity done by her peers and herself to enjoy themselves, and its far reaching consequences in terms of violent behavior and delinquency are never connected. She may further explain that moving into the sixth term had caused her a lot of tension and anxiety, and she had started drinking to reduce pressure from her academic performance. Alcohol use for her would have been a coping mechanism. However, now that all her peers were into alcohol use, not drinking when she was with them would only make her an oddity. As an adolescent, she likes new and exciting experiences, and her arrest three months ago for taking somebody’s car without their consent, she believed, was just another fun thing she had done with her peers. Her peers had dared her into trying to take a car lying unlocked outside a book store; they had shared quite a fun ride until the police had caught up. For Chelsea that had been one of the most sensational experiences of her life. She enjoyed the time she spent with her current set of friends and viewed their activities through positive terminologies like, ‘daring’ and ‘thrilling’. She believes that they keep pushing her to the edge and help her in trying out the varying possibilities of life. While some risks she shared with them have merely been on the spur of the moment, but she may confess that sometimes they plan risk taking activities for a new adventure. The client may also explain that since her leap into the adult world where she makes her own decisions and carves her own path, she has been able to attract much more male attention and may finally be on to getting her first steady boyfriend. While her emotional bonds break from her family, she may portray an increasing dependence on her peers and lover. Though Chelsea was earlier believed to be a model student, she now has a problem with anybody who shows too much authority. She may feel that no person in the world has the right to boss over her. The two incidents in the case study where she has misbehaved with her family members may have been constructed very differently in her own mind. She may explain that once during a very heated argument with her parents when she stood up to make her point she accidentally lifted the table, spilling hot coffee on her step-father and knocking her mother out of the way. She may also narrate how the tendency to break something had increasingly been gnawing her, and how once she picked up a baseball bat and tried to smash a pot when she became really frustrated with her parents in the face of an endless disagreement. Her accounts of both these cases may sound very different than those narrated by her family members. She may honestly believe that those outbursts were merely a defense mechanism and that she would never have hurt anybody willingly. While the client may be defiant about a lot of things, she may admit that eventually she only seeks love and acceptance from those around her. For her, it is extremely important to be around friends who understand her zest for life and respect and recognize her. She wants her friends to have a good opinion of her. She may simply describe herself as a 17 year old who wants to make a mark for herself in the real world. Discriminatory Practices In the case of Chelsea, this 17-year old is suffering from alcohol addiction and conduct disorders. Now, both these behaviors have far reaching and widely replicated consequences which have led people to build certain prejudices around them. For example, it is widely believed that increased alcohol use will lead to rise in sexual activity among adolescents. While this may have found to be true in many research studies, many individuals take it upon themselves to use this doctrine while interacting with adolescent girls under the influence of alcohol. This exposes them to the risk of sexual assault and inappropriate sexual behavior. Such incidents lead to teenage pregnancies and increased risk to sexually transmitted diseases. Whenever the society views an anti-social adolescent, it automatically expects him/her to turn to anti-social behavior for the rest of their lives. The pit into which a rebellious adolescent falls while portraying anti-social behavior prevents his/her being accepted or understood by mainstream society. However, Robins (1978) in his research argues that not all delinquents commit crime as they become adults. In fact, he found in his study that most anti-social adolescents do not follow the same path of disruptive behavior into their adulthood. Another prejudice that teen alcohol addicts have to often encounter is that of neglect in the hands of their counselors and psychiatrists. A lot of practitioners still believe alcohol abuse is a behavioral problem which can only be made right if the alcohol user gets the right motivation to change the course of his/her life. They believe that alcohol abuse results from lack of moral decision making and is self directed. However, alcohol abuse, like any other illness, needs well educated and trained practitioners who can administer effective treatment programmes to the client and a sensitive support staff that can help rehabilitate the client back into mainstream society. Impulsiveness, which marks conduct disorders, is not seen as a positive attribute by society. A client, whose criminal record is already underway due to her impulsive nature, may find herself rejected from job interviews and shown the door while seeking an opportunity. Since the society cannot control or tame impulsive behavior, it is viewed as an obstacle to the tradition of collective efficacy. The society accepts everything that makes it strong; everything else is rejected. Finally, it is commonly found that female juvenile delinquents are treated far more harshly than their male counterparts given the public uneasiness that the idea of women as criminals create. Hence, if Chelsea were to seek forgiveness from her parents and wish a good life for herself from here on, she would be politely surprised to find many obstacles that society would create to block her entry. Sexism that is so intricately intertwined in the juvenile justice system would stop her progress and render her incapable of moving on to greater things in life. References Chesney-Lind, M., 1997. Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime. E. S. Buzawa, ed. London: SAGE Publications. Cooper, M. L., Peirce, R. S., & Huselid, R. F., 1994. Substance use and sexual risk taking among black adolescents and white adolescents. Health Psychology, 13, pp.251-262. Freud, A., 1958. Adolescence. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 13, pp.255-278. Johnson, E. O., Arria, A. M., Borges, G., Ialongo, N., & Anthony, J. C., 1995. The growth of conduct problem behaviors from middle childhood to early adolescence: Sex differences and the suspected influence of early alcohol use. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 56, pp.661-671. Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J. D., Guo, J., Catalano, R. F., & Abbott, R. D., 2000. The dynamics of alcohol and marijuana initiation: patterns and predictors of first use in adolescence. American Journal of Public Health, 90 (3), pp.360-366. Lindberg, l., Boggess, S., & Williams, S., 2000. The Urban Institute. Available at: < http://www.urban.org/publications/410248.html> [Accessed 10 January, 2013]. McNeely, C., 2003. Connection to School as an Indicator of Positive Development. In: Indicators of Positive Development Conference (pp. 24). Washington, D.C.: Child Trends. Moore, K. A., Miller, B. C., Sugland, B. W., Morrison, D. R., Glei, D. A., & Blumenthal, C., 1995. Adolescent sexual behavior, pregnancy and parenthood: A review of research and interventions. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Available at: [Accessed 10 January, 2013]. Resnick, M. P., 1997. Protecting Adolescents from Harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278 (10), pp.823-832. Robins, L. N., 1978. Sturdy, childhood predictors of adult antisocial behavior: Replications from longitudinal studies. Psychological Medicine, 8, pp.611-622. Read More