Juvenile Delinquency - Essay Example

?Your Sur Juvenile Delinquency Introduction Juvenile delinquency is the illegal or antisocial behavior by adolescents or children. Crime by youth is a serious issue and has hence received great attention from media, politicians, and the society at large. The types and level of juvenile delinquency can be used to determine the general levels of law and order and morality in a particular country or state. a juvenile delinquent person refers to a person who is under 18years and who commits a crime that is that is chargeable in a court of law if they were adults. Although juvenile delinquents have sometimes associated their acts to mental disorders or issues of behavior, most of them have been diagnosed with conduct disorder. Juveniles are involved in sex, murder or robbery crimes every day in all parts of the world. In 20008, America reported about 30-60%juvile sex crimes according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports (57). The findings further indicated that 20% of rapes and 50% of sexual children molestation are accountable to juveniles. Street Wars- Hip Hop and Rise of the Gangster Culture by John M Hagedorn and Random School Shooting together with the film Green Street Hooligans among others have effectively shown the extent, types, causes and effects of juvenile delinquency in our societies today. Cultural criminology denotes the broader orientations and specific perspectives of cultural crimes in the society, especially among children and teenagers. The film interweaves certain intellectual threads in order to explore cultural and criminal convergence process in modern social life. Green Street Hooligans and Random School Shooting moral decay in the society which is also triggered by social structural difference, resulting into violence, bribery and drug abuse among the youth. However, what is the role of the local government, parents, and wider society? Sociological Analysis of Juvenile Delinquency Green Street Hooligans Green Street Hooligans is a football drama film that shows hooliganism in football, in England. It was directed by Lexi Alexander starring Elijah woods and Hunnan Charlie. The green street elites, West Harm fight other football firms like Manchester United and Tottenham. The film indicates drug abuse by juveniles. Elijah Wood, Matt Bucker, is expelled from Harvard University where he is pursuing a journalism course when cocaine is found in his room. Though it belongs to his roommate, Jeremy, he fears to disclose this because he fears Jeremy’s family, because they are very powerful. He is only paid $10,000 for facing the consequences. This shows how the juveniles are involved in crimes like bribery, because they fear their elites. This shows that different social structures present in our modern day societies propagate juvenile delinquency, especially the elites, at the expense of the poor. This message reinforces elite’ stereotype of being powerful but perish in the end. When Matt goes to live with his married sister, he meets Pete, a thuggish and loud cockney who owns a local football club, hooligan firm, which plans to fight other firms after matches, though he is a professional teacher. Therefore, this shows the high level of social immorality as those who are supposed to be role models, like teachers to their students, are morally rotten. Money is the major cause of crime as we see Matt being bribed again by Pete so that he can accompany him to a football match where he learns a new behavior of violence. This is a typical delinquent behavior because into results into death, like that of Pete. On the other hand, we see Matt becoming a drug addict as he openly snorts cocaine. In response to delinquency, crimes like bribery and drug abuse can only be stopped through education and rehabilitation by legal authorities, and other social institutions. Such crimes are punishable, like Matt being expelled from school. To stop our children from engaging in social crimes, they should be educated on the dangers of drugs and bribe, as well as standing for truth irrespective of social structures of our friends. Street Wars- Hip Hop and Rise of the Gangsters Culture by John M Hagedorn Street gangs are a very common local phenomenon today. They are however perpetuated by young people, especially those who drop from schools. Most of those gangs live in economically and socially isolated areas and they rarely venture outside their neighborhood. In a world of Gangs, Hagedorn explores globalization impact on the proliferation and persistence of gangs in slums and ghettos of the world. Globalization’s socioeconomic forces are increasingly marginalizing the poor, and like in the past, gangs arise in order to meet their social, economic and political needs. According to Hagedorn (12), global era gangs are produced faster than ever in a myriad of shapes and forms. Unfortunately, those involved are adolescents, who have no choice or control of their lives. Post industrial street gangs creates a powerful culture that gives the alienated, excluded young man and the oppressed a source of identity. This shows that the society gives the socially disenfranchised youth a way of asserting themselves in a world that happens to be too large to be controlled. Therefore, the gang shrinks the world by making a cultural counterforce to nihilism, self destructiveness and misogyny among the youths (15). The message conveyed about the nature of delinquency is gangster crimes among the youth because of poverty and marginalization. They therefore form and join gangster groups in order to meet their needs as well as seek their own identity. The poor social structures is the most affected since they are the once who are marginalized and forgotten in the society. The vicious circle of poverty in association to violent crimes is therefore reinforced. To control gang in the society, it is recommended that the society at large, together with the government should invent ways that will help the poor and marginalized youths acquire their needs, (socially, economically and politically) as well as identity, by creating employment opportunities and recreational activities. Random School Shooting by Kimmel and Mahler Violence is a very urgent issue that has to be quickly addressed, especially among school children. Young people are apparently opening fire, wounding or killing teachers, plus their fellow students. School violence, indeed, is an issue that leaves us asking ourselves if it is emotional disturbance, internet, games, that trigger the violence and are the parents the ones to blame? School shootings concern shows violence that is growing fast in our schools today. It tries to look into the causes of these crimes. According to Kimmel and Mahler (25), peer pressure, poverty violent video games, Goth music are the major causes of violence and social crimes among students. Others link school violence to the 1999 Mayhem, suggests that violent video games and internet bring violence at home, which children then take to school, thus exposing the same to others. Random school shooting demonstrates a kind of society in which the rich children adopt violent behavior and other types of crime from media and then transfer it to schools, where they impact the same behavior to their peers. Many students, irrespective of race or gender are non violent, but the few who have access to violent media, the elites, normally transfer this behavior to their colleagues who then turn to be very violent (Kimmel and Mahler 53). The cause of such crimes among school students cause death, poor school performance, and dropping out of schools. It is therefore recommended that parents should be very careful concerning the kind of media materials that their children access. On the other hand, teachers, together with parents should limit peer groups among school students so that they do not influence others. Conclusion Street Wars- Hip Hop and rise of the gangster culture and Random School Shooting together with the film Green Street Hooligans among others have effectively shown the extent, types, causes and effects of juvenile delinquency in our societies today. Cultural criminology denotes the broader orientations and specific perspectives of cultural crimes in the society, especially among children and teenagers. The film interweaves certain intellectual threads in order to explore cultural and criminal convergence process in modern social life. Green Street Hooligans and Random School Shooting moral decay in the society which is also triggered by social structural difference, resulting into violence, bribery and drug abuse among the youth. However, the parents, local government, and the wider society have a role to play in eliminating these vice, like counseling, creating job opportunities, punishment and recreational activities among others. Work Cited Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Report (2009). The Crime in United States 2008. Retrieved on October 11, 2009, from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm Hagedorn, John. A world of gangs: armed Young Men and Gangster Culture. Minneapolis; Minnesota University Press, 2008. Kimmel, Michael and Mahler, Matthew. Random School Shooting: Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia and Violence. New York; Stony Brook, 1982-2001. Read More