Juvenile Delinquency and Single Parent - Literature review Example

1. Early Childhood Intervention and Juvenile Delinquency Reynolds (2008) investigated the link between early Juvenile delinquency and single parent homes and homes from which one parent was absent. The study followed the career path of 1262 black youths from the Chicago inner city, from the time the children enrolled as kindergarten students in 1986 when they were 3 years to the time they became teens and reached 12 years. The study was conducted by the authors to test the hypothesis that early intervention in problematic children is found to be more effective than therapy session and counselling when the children grow up. Reynolds has referred to the comment of Yoshikawa (2004) that while the average expense for pre school intervention for a child is about 5000 USD, the average yearly expense for juvenile detention or incarceration is more than 30,000 USD and the results are not guaranteed in the latter case. Inner city region of Chicago was chosen as the program was implemented in the poorest neighbourhoods that have been associated with high unemployment, low social control and low quality schools that are predictors for delinquency and anti social behaviour. Reynolds (2008) points out that the tests conducted where based on certain indicators of delinquency such as school attendance, promiscuous behaviour, theft, aggressive behaviour and fighting and so on. Parents were encouraged and asked to attend counselling sessions for children. The author reports that delinquency incidents for children where both parents attended the sessions and homes where both parents were present showed a reduction of 30%. On the other hand, children who came from homes with a single parent, typically the mother who worked the whole day showed a remarked reported increase in the incidents of delinquency by as much as 47%. There were other factors such as education of the parents, income levels, if the single parent was an alcoholic or drug addict and so on. While the research was very professionally conducted, the author has hypothesised that Juvenile Delinquency is only in poor and black neighbourhoods. Studies should also be performed among middle class white youths to form a relational study that children from single parent homes have a higher tendency to commit juvenile delinquency incidents. 2. Significance of Parental Absence Versus Parental Gender Demuth (2004) has researched the occurrence between juvenile delinquency and single mother family versus two-parent family and single father family. This study was designed to identify the means by which single parent increases delinquency and if effect is mainly a function of parental absence. The study showed that teens from single-parent families have statistically more significant delinquency than children residing with two biological married parents. The author reports that there were higher levels of delinquency by children with single-father than with single-mother families. The authors used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health conducted in 1995, to examine the relation between family structure and adolescent delinquency. The authors were able to obtain over samples of interviews of 20,745 adolescent interviews in grades from 7 to 12. Included in the samples were different groups from physically disabled adolescents, various ethnic groups, African Americans from poor and highly educated families, covering 14 large schools. Sample sizes that were used included: 6,304 adolescents who were residing in two-biological-parent married-couple families with n = 9,505; single mother families with n = 3,792; single-father families with n = 525;, mother-stepfather families with n = 2,039 and father-stepmother families with n = 443 (Demuth, 2004). The dependent measure of delinquency was an additive scale of 10 items that represent self-reported incidents in various delinquent acts in the past year. Frequencies for each act range from never - 0; to five or more times 3 in the past 12 months. “Delinquency items tap how often in the past 12 months did the adolescent: (1) deliberately damage property that did not belong to you, (2) take something from a store without paying for it, (3) hurt someone badly enough to need bandages or care from a doctor or nurse, (4) drive a car without its owner’s permission, (5) steal something worth more than 50 USD (6) go into a house or building to steal something (7) use or threaten to use a weapon to get something from someone (8) steal something worth less than $50, (9) take part in a fight where a group of your friends is against another group, (10) act loud, rowdy or unruly in a public place” (Demuth, 2004). The study is very well reported but it cannot be called as a primary research since the authors have used data published by other surveys and may have attempted to interpret the results to suit their hypothesis. 3. Relation between Juvenile Delinquency and Power Control Theory Hadjar (2007) has examined the significance of Juvenile delinquency in the context of difference in labour force participation between father and mother and if the dominance of one parental control has an effect on the juvenile delinquency and drop out rates of children. This study is significant as it attempts to research the occurrence of delinquency in children of working parents and if there is any cultural bias that increased juvenile delinquency. The authors report that children that had both working parents tended to show more delinquency incidents such as skipping school, not doing homework, petty thefts of less than 10$ and so on. Again out of the sample size, it was found that children where the father resided with the family as compared to a house where the father was not residing had a higher incidents of delinquency. The authors also observed that girls in general had markedly lesser juvenile delinquency incidents than boys in the same cultural background. The concept of power control theory is used here and according to this theory, the behavioural patterns of children varied as per the cultural background and if the household followed a matriarchal or patriarchal system of power devolution. The study was conducted based on data from 319 families with father, mother and two adolescent opposite-sex siblings from East and West Berlin and Toronto. The abstract and the objectives of the paper had identified the link of delinquency and working parents. However, the research and the findings do not prove this point with data and facts. 4. Ratings of Parent Behaviours for Delinquency from two and single parent homes. Wilgosh (2002) has used the Bronfenbrenner Parent Behaviour Questionnaire to find the mother and son ratings of parent behaviours for the dimensions of loving, demanding and punishing. The ratings were compared for juveniles from one and two parent homes. The mean ratings indicate that rated parent behaviours were in the normal or average range and that single and two parent mothers behaviours were not very different. These observations are contradictory to the general assumption that single parent homes and inadequate discipline, affection and control may contribute more to delinquent than do intact two parent homes. Previous research had identified that a number of family home factors such as incompatible parents, poor discipline and control, broken homes, parental unconcern and lack of supervision and lack of affection increased incidents of juvenile delinquency. According to Siegelman (1965), the Bronfenbrenner Parent Behaviour Questionnaire has a high factor of reliability and validity for the dimensions of punishment, demanding and loving parent behaviours. The subjects were mothers and 43 male delinquents with both biological parents living together and their mothers; another set of 27 delinquents from natural mother only homes. The survey was administered to the mothers and the boys who were asked to sit in different rooms. An important fact that emerges that parental roles of mothers are adequate for many delinquent families and that each family must be considered as an individual units in planning the treatment strategies for juvenile delinquency (Wilgosh (2002). The paper has attempted to show that single mothers care and feel about their children, much in the same way as mothers with resident husbands. However, the problem of delinquency is not removed by attentive mothers and there are other reasons that have to be researched. 5. Split Homes and Juvenile Delinquency Pridemore (2002) has researched the growing Juvenile Delinquency in Russia and the emergence of more and delinquents who either have a single parent or in some cases, have been abandoned by their parents as babies. This research has been included in this paper as it portrays the stark fate that befalls young children when a nations judicial system and economy breaks down and children are often the unreported victims of split homes. The author reports that since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the country has seen a vast rise in unemployment and loss of livelihood. Many fathers have abandoned their families and in thousands of other cases, the mothers of young children, many of them teenagers themselves, have abandoned their children. Compared to the 1991 figures of crimes committed by 14 to 17 year old children, there was a 300% rise in Juvenile Arrest Rates per 100,000 people and this is closely related to increase in divorces and child abandonment by 250% for the same period. Some of the offences and incidents are Homicide, rape, Serious assault, Armed robbery, Theft, Hooliganism, Drug offences and Extortion. Many of these offences cannot be regarded as acts of Juvenile Delinquency but as acts of violent crime and only because the offenders are minors, children’s courts try the crimes. Kotsopoulos (2007) who has conducted research to verify incidents of juvenile delinquency in Greece and central European nations points out that in many of these societies the concept of nuclear families has come in. Children in single families often miss their father or mother who is absent and who would act as a role model. In case of single mothers, with two or more children, the elder child who may have been a teen when the parents divorced is more likely to be traumatised and turn to delinquent behaviour of consuming drugs an inappropriate sexual behaviour. On the other hand, the younger siblings who had more time to get used to the missing parent, showed lesser incidents of delinquent behaviour. The first article about Russia seems to indicate that Juvenile Delinquency under communist rule, which was authoritarian, had suppressed such incidents. The author would like to state that to a certain extent, strong authority would bring down Juvenile Delinquency, as the system was strict about schooling for children. However, in the current scenario of free speech, the problem of Juvenile Delinquency has to be addressed. References Demuth Stephen, (2004), Family Structure, Family Processes, and Adolescent Delinquency: The Significance of Parental Absence Versus Parental Gender, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Volume 41, Issue 1, pp. 58-81 Hadjar Andreas, (2007), The Family and Power-Control Theory Reconceived, European Society of Criminology, Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 33-58 Kotsopoulos S, (2007), Trends of Juvenile Delinquency in Greece, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Volume 21, Issue 6, pp. 270-280. Pridemore William Alex, (2002), Social Problems and Patterns of Juvenile Delinquency in Transitional Russia, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Volume 39, Issue 2, pp. 187-213 Reynolds Arthur J, (2008), Early Childhood Intervention and Juvenile Delinquency: An Exploratory Analysis of the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, Evaluation Review, Volume 22, Number 3, pp. 341-372. Siegelman M, (1965) Evaluation of Bronfenbrenner’s Questionnaire for Children Concerning Parental Behavior, Journal of Child Development, Volume 36, pp. 164-174. Wilgosh L, (2002), Ratings of Parent Behaviors for Delinquents From Two-Parent and Single-Parent Homes, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Volume 28, pp. 141-143. Yoshikawa H, (2004), Prevention as cumulative protection: Effects of early family support and education on chronic delinquency and its risks, Psychological Bulletin, Volume 115, Issue 1, p. 28-54 Read More