The Development of Juvenile Delinquency - Literature review Example

Juvenile delinquency 2006 Thesis statement No single factor can adequately justify Juvenile delinquency that originates from a variety of causes (including individual psyche, family situations, peer relations, school atmosphere, and the nature of the community) eventually culminating to grave offenses (ncrs.gov). The family Aggressive traits observable in a child and that linger in many cases through his/her life is the most noticeable upshot of bullying the child into discipline. Violent children frequently become hostile adults, who habitually generate more destructive children, a sequence that continues from generation to the next. Physical retributions amount highly in the family of teenager and adult violence, particularly in those expressions that take rebellious shapes, such as criminal behavior and wrongdoings. Physical castigations by adults are the main family examples that make the child susceptible to violent, offensive and other types of unsociable behavior that surface when he/she becomes adult. Psychologists, Ronald Slaby and Wendy Roedell in The Development and Regulation of Aggression in Young Children, note, "one of the most reliable predictors of children's level of aggression is the heavy use by parents of harsh, punitive discipline and physical punishment." According to their study, "Parental punitiveness” can be definitely linked with children's violence. In another in-depth study by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (beginning in 1940), the repressive role of imparting discipline in a male child eventually fuelling unsociable character traits was confirmed. They compared aberrant and non-aberrant teenagers from English, Irish and Italian families in deprived city areas and found irrefutable proofs that criminal behavior is derived from formative years experiences, order and family life being of supreme magnitude (Greven, 1990). They established that delinquency starts long prior to teenage years and is frequently evident when children are between three and six, and nearly at all times sooner than they are eleven. Sheldon says: "The onset of persistent misbehavior tendencies was at the early age of seven years or younger among 48 per cent of our delinquents, and from eight to ten in an additional 39 per cent; thus a total of almost nine-tenths of the entire group showed clear delinquent tendencies before the time when boys generally become members of organized boys' gangs..."(Sheldon Glueck, 1964 as cited in Greven, 1990). The Gluecks undertake their study of the role of discipline in childhood days published subsequently as Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (1950) in which they declare: "All in all, the most marked difference between the disciplinary practices of the parents of the delinquents and those of the non-delinquents is found in the considerably greater extent to which the former resorted to physical punishment and the lesser extent to which they reasoned with the boys about their misconduct"(as cited in Greven, 1990). The lowly rate of wrongdoings and disruptive activities in teenage and beyond is always noticed with males who were appreciated, esteemed, looked after and explained about things during early days. Recent studies reveal that bodily punishment is a great factor in engendering the fury, anger, and urges for vengeance that increase the imaginations, and acts of generally male individuals, to turn tem into being anti-socials or offenders. Yet, delinquency usually is the fall out for only a tiny little bit of those physical attacks by adults in early days. For the huge bulk of people there are other avenues to manifest their annoyance, fury and disobedience that branch from early confronts with hurting parental retributions (Greven, 1990). Punishment and Obedience Fagin, Oliver Twist’s teacher, pondered "why is it that children enjoy picking pockets, and old folks are fond of stolen goods?" Then the prudent Solomon is quoted to have said: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son." This insight of treating the child as a little monster and educate it by terror and coercion is upheld by certain sorts of teachers. The child is seen as a small monster, a young chimpanzee, at best a little barbarous human being. So the child, is trained to behave not by using his /her brain but by the order of those who are in authority. The child is governed by terror into discipline and submission. The adults consequently stifle the brilliance and the uniqueness of the child and prefer and cultivate ordinariness dictated by sticks, not by deliberations. The child can never entirely free himself of all the upsetting, gloomy costs of such a rule. Fear lingers with him /her all though the life. When this “fear instinct” and its accompanying self-defense are provoked gruesome feelings develop like a landslide in its descent. In later life these impulses surface in numerous ways, showing the most painful edgy indications. Teaching by terror, compliance, and submission restrains the growth of the logical faculty of mind, giving birth to the involuntary, subliminal aspect of mind. It damages the mental health of human beings torturing them with a wide range of manias, typical of mental unbalance in which the distress of the patient is frequently more than in many illnesses of an entirely physical kind. In this case, the person turns irrational, unpredictable, propelled by the invincible drive of self-defense and by angers. He/she for all time, avoids real issues, always wavering, is short of poise, independence and self-discipline (Sidis, 1919). Assigned by Germantown-based Brio Corp, a study a few years ago finds that most American parents and particularly grandparents think that babies can be indulged if the rod is spared, when, in fact, they cannot. "We have solid evidence that the way a child becomes independent is to have his or her needs met in first year of life," says J. Ronald Lally, director of the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies in San Francisco, who worked as advisory group chairman of the study. "If a baby cries, it is because he or she needs something. If those needs are attended to, the baby will see the world as a friendly place, one worth exploring. That baby will be more secure, relaxed and trusting," he says further. But how to cope up with the old people’s counsel to the hazy -eyed parents to "let the baby cry it out?" Almost 67 pc of the grandparents and 44 pc of the parents of young children said that they consider that lifting up a 3-month-old each time he/she cried would “spoil” the child. The study indicates bulk of American parents overlook smacking as a usual type of penalty. More than one-third says that they consider spanking was suitable for children under 2. In reality, spanking is harmful to the child's growth, because it trains children to work out their problems with aggressive behaviors, thinks Kyle Pruett, a doctor and medical professor of psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center. "We're potentially raising overly aggressive children who react to situations with intimidation and bullying, instead of cooperation and understanding; children who won't be able to tolerate frustration, wait their turn or respect the needs of others," he said. But what would be the response against those “rough and tough” types that usually contemptuously say, "We were spanked, and it didn't kill us." Lally finds it to be of no worth. "Look at our society," says Lally. "We're a mess. We have violence in schools. Hate crimes. Our generation is not one to hold up as a model. It's easy to say, 'It didn't hurt me' when the truth is, we're killing each other"(Kissinger, 2000). Child Abuse and delinquency In a research paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Denver, Colorado, 1990 Phyllis T. Howing et al (tyc.state.tx.us) state that bodily battered children are habitually more hostile to peers and adults, notably less obedient, and have lesser control over their impulses in contrast to non-battered children. A number of researchers ask if violent behavior stems from or hasten cruelty on child. Some studies discover that sometimes in a same family some children are mistreated whereas some other were spared. To such researchers this indicates that the individuality of a child might bring forth maltreatment. Physically or mentally handicapped, or inadequate children were found to be more in danger of being mistreated than normal children. Children might also endure cruelty because of look, nature and manners. The authors implied that the connection between the mistreatment of a child and his/her subsequent wrongdoing is “bi- directional”. They stress: "Rather than view aggression and delinquency as resulting from abuse, it may be more accurate to conceptualize both as products of the reciprocal interactions among the child's emerging personality, parental inadequacies, and a broad range of setting events”(Howing et al, tyc.state.tx.us). Individual, society, and community: three great factors Different scholars classify factors that are associated with juvenile delinquency in different manners. The broadly accept classification of the risk factors that fall under three types: personal, societal, and community related. Each of these types comprises numerous sub-classes (that is, “family- and peer -related risk factors” are classified under the social class). Personal factors (pre and post birth problems): Several studies have associated prenatal (i.e., before childbirth) and perinatal (after birth) problems with later offending or wrongdoings. Prenatal and perinatal problems can eventually end up with various health hazards that harmfully affect growth (McCord, Widom, and Crowell, 2001 as cited in ncirs.gov). In a potential study of youth at excessive chance for misbehavior, Kandel and Mednick (1991, as cited in ncirs.gov) finds that 80 percent of aggressive wrongdoers rank high in delivery problems in contrast to the 47 percent of “non-offenders”. Still, some of the evidence about the link between pregnancy and delivery problems and misbehavior contradict each other. (Hawkins et al., 1998 as cited in ncirs.gov) However, some of the evidence regarding the association between pregnancy and delivery complications and delinquency has been conflicting (Hawkins et al., 1998 as cited in ncirs.gov). Mednick and Kandel (1988, as cited in ncirs.gov) relate pregnancy and delivery problems to aggressive behavior, but not to passive offending behavior. Also, some other studies have revealed that children whose mothers smoked often during pregnancy were more liable to show disorderly and other behavioral problems. Even though the effects are conflicting, the existing facts demonstrate the need to study more about the connection between prenatal attentions, delivery problems, and the consequential health hazards and infantile delinquency (Hawkins et al., 1998, as cited in ncirs.gov). Personal factors (Psychological traits): Quite a few individual character traits are associated with delinquency. Tremblay and Le Marquand (2001) mentioned : "…the best social behavior characteristic to predict delinquent behavior before age 13 appears to be aggression." In addition, Hawkins and colleagues (1998:113) reviewed several studies and reported "a positive relationship between hyperactivity, concentration or attention problems, impulsivity and risk taking and later violent behavior." (Tremblay and Le Marquand, as cited in ncirs.gov) Stumpy “verbal” intelligence and tardy language training have both been associated to delinquency, according to a section of researchers, lingers. Likewise, some scholars find that problems at school can end up to delinquency. Herrenkohl and colleagues (2001) noted,"children with low academic performance, low commitment to school, and low educational aspirations during the elementary and middle school grades are at higher risk for child delinquency than are other children" (as cited in ncirs.gov). Peer influences A number of studies have found a coherent relationship between association in a antisocial peer group and aberrant behavior McCord and colleagues (2001) say: "Factors such as peer delinquent behavior, peer approval of delinquent behavior, attachment or allegiance to peers, time spent with peers, and peer pressure for deviance have all been associated with adolescent antisocial behavior"( McCord et al, Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice…,2001). Conversely, Elliot (1994, as cited in ncirs.gov) says that to being in the company of peers who dislike antisocial activities may restrain the child to indulge in violent behavior. The power of peers and their recognition of aberrant behavior is important, and this is enlarged when an adolescent have little contact with their parents (Steinberg, 1987, as cited in ncirs.gov). Community Factors Farrington (2000) in his Explaining and preventing crime noted that "only in the 1990's have the longitudinal researchers begun to pay sufficient attention to neighborhood and community factors, and there is still a great need for them to investigate immediate situational influences on offending”. \ School and infantile aggression Research illustrates that bringing weapon in schools is impacted considerably by school location. Students in some schools taking a weapon outshine in number some other schools. This suggests that the usual school fights are about reprisal, for having of toys, to take control of certain tools, to defy rules of games, etc. A section of boy fighters start to surface during play school. When the fighting continues during the first part of primary school, these boys are more probably to carry on fighting in later classes. Nearly all of the boys who fight come out violent by eight or nine years of age. Children's brute behavior in schools is significant not only for the reason that harm it inflicts harms, but also since it has lasting effects for situations further than the school. For example, constant brutal behavior by boys in schools envisages disruptive acts like law-breaking, and taking resort to violence in the neighborhood. Physical attacks on teachers are not unusual. A national study in 1991 found that 28% of public high school teachers were abused in words, 15% intimidated with wound, and 3% were actually attacked by a student (Juvenile Aggression, CSPV Fact Sheets). Factors behind Delinquency in Girls Researches in the realm of child delinquency mostly focus on boys, making it hard to measure how is it different from boys. Nevertheless, quite a few factors are always linked with aberrant behavior in girls. History of neglect - Studies reveal that a considerable percentage of female delinquents have a history of sexual and bodily insults. In one study in Virginia for violent crimes, 5 1 % of the girls indicated a recorded history of sexual mistreatment and 35% a history of bodily maltreatment, figure that were considerably higher than those for boys. Sexual abuse can lead to a hazardous conduit to other crimes, such as prostitution and drug misuse, ending up in more violent offenses. Besides, such a history can direct a girl to escape from home, abandoning adolescent justice officials with the problem of deciding whether the girl’s attitude represents irrational insolence of her parents or an logical answer to her own persecution. Family distress. A large number of family factors (These including single parent position, parental clash, parental crimes, poor family administration, and drifting) are linked with delinquency in both boys and girls. As girls are supposed to be more attached to homes, it is probable that family factors excessively distress girls. Drug abuse. In 1997 girls made up only 13% of the captures for narcotic abuse. Though, this number underrates the problems of drug misuse for girls, and its related criminal fall-outs. In a study of quite a lot of state training schools in California, over half of the services studied describes an urgent call for drug abuse cures for the bulk of registered girls. Between July 1997 and June 1998, over half of the youth admitted to Virginia imprisonment services indicated past records of drug misuse which included 62% of the boys and 53% of the girls. Mental disease. In an analysis relating to gender and conduct disarray, Rolf Loeber discovered a "gender paradox": Those who behave in opposition to the common gender mold, such as confused and anarchic behavior in girls, tend to be extremely troubled state of mind. The “gender paradox” has great perceptive charm for professionals who work with young lawbreaker girls and find that female criminals are unreasonably bothered by a broad range of disturbing setbacks. Some studies corroborate that female adolescent lawbreakers have higher degree of despair, eating problems, and suicidal penchants than boy criminals, in addition to higher rate of earlier admissions to psychotherapeutic clinics. Adolescent mothers: Even though there is no proof that adolescent motherhood drives to criminal behavior, a lot of the perilous actions are linked with teenage pregnancy that eventually lead to felony. For instance, narcotic abuse and recurrent criminal acts at home and at school are connected with bigger pregnancy rates in youngsters. In a current study of adolescent pregnancy in the United States, self-stated accounts of fighting were interpreted as a major reason for teenage pregnancy. These outcomes, of course, do not mean that skirmishing causes pregnancy, but to a certain extent suggest that the huddle of actions connected with lawbreaking and hostility are also linked with the thrill-seeking that can bring about adolescent pregnancy. Academic failure. Much like boys, female offenders often have a history of weak educational records. In one examination of imprisoned women, almost half of the surveyed had been barred from school, and a lopsided percentage had learning incapability (Loper, 2000). Conclusion Such studies as this invariably suffer from repetition of facts, figure and comments. Yet it always draws readers’ attention since the human factor associated with never loses its relevance. Some of the studies (especially an old one, published in 1919 in which Philip Greven cited from Oliver twist, making us feel that the problem of handling carefully a child is mot a new found one, time has only added extra dimensions to it, making it more difficult and more messy. The survey has a subtle point about it—it also reveals how male chauvinism works deftly in academic circle since as we find here that most of the study reports are also sexually biased concentrating more on boy’s delinquency. Yet, interestingly enough it is the study report by Ann Booker Loper that is distinctively different from the bulk depicting the perilous journey of a delinquent girl teenager, being doubly tormented—firstly for her delinquent mindset, secondly the so-called sane adults making the most profit out of her helplessness. This could be a new approach to deal with the subject of juvenile delinquency. Works Cited Elliott, D.S., Serious violent offenders: Onset, developmental course, and termination The American Society of Criminology 1993 presidential address. Criminology, 1994 32(1):1–21. Farrington, D.P. Explaining and preventing crime: The globalization of knowledge––The American Society of Criminology 1999 presidential address. Criminology, 2000 38(1):1–24. Greven, Philip, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990. Glueck, Sheldon, "Ten Years of Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency: An Examination of Criticisms," in Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck, Ventures in Criminology: Collected Recent Papers (London: Tavistock Publications, 1964), p.285 Howing, Phyllis T., Wodarski, John S. P, Kurtz, David, Gaudin, James M. Jr., and Herbst, Emily Neligan, Child Abuse and Delinquency: The Empirical and Theoretical Links, Prevention Summary, http://www.tyc.state.tx.us/prevention/howing.html Hawkins, J.D., Herrenkohl, T.L., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F., and Harachi, T.W.A review of predictors of youth violence. In Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions, edited by R. Loeber and D.P. Farrington., 1998 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 106–146. Herrenkohl, T.L., Maguin, E., Hill, K.G., Hawkins, J.D., Abbott, R.D., and Catalano, R.F. Developmental risk factors for youth violence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2000 26(7):176–186. Juvenile Aggression, CSPV School Violence Fact Sheets, http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/publications/factsheets/schoolviolence/FS-SV04.html Kandel, E., and Mednick, S.A. 1991. Perinatal complications predict violent offending. Criminology 29(3): 519–529. Kissinger, Meg, Shower child with attention in 1st year, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 14, 2000 Loper, Ann Booker, Female Juvenile Delinquency: Risk Factors and Promising Interventions, http://www.ilppp.virginia.edu/Juvenile_Forensic_Fact_Sheets/FemJuv.html McCord, J., Widom, C.S., and Crowell, N.A., eds. 2001. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. McCord, J., Widom, C.S., and Crowell, N.A., eds. Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control. 2001 Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Mednick, S.A., and Kandel, E.S. 1988. Congenital determinants of violence. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 16(2):101–109. Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck, Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1950), p. 133 Sidis, Boris, A lecture on the abuse of the fear instinct in early education, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1919, http://www.nospank.net/sidis.htm http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/jjjournal_2003_2/page3.html Tremblay, R.E., and LeMarquand, D. Individual risk and protective factors. In Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs, edited by R.Loeber and D.P. Farrington, 2001 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 137–164. Steinberg, L. Single parents, stepparents, and the susceptibility of adolescents to antisocial peer pressure. Child Development, 1987 58(1):269–275. http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/193409/page5.html Read More