Causes and Effects of Juvenile Delinquency - Research Paper Example

Causes and Effects of Juvenile Delinquency Abstract Social interactions have been identified as one vital factor of consideration in the pursuit of unravelling the causes of juvenile delinquency. Young people are usually excited about new experiences but are unfortunately not very keen at filtering beneficial ones. Thus, at times they engage in those activities that are presented to them by the society without caring much about the consequences associated with their deeds. The problems being experienced associated with juvenile delinquency are rooted in the wrong nurturing done by the society itself through social interactions, personality shaping and learning of the deviant behaviours which are favorable for committing crimes. The role played by learning in the facilitation of juvenile delinquency is explained in the differential association theory. The power control theory and the theory of disorganization explain the correlation between social interactions and juvenile delinquency. As much as all these theories of juvenile delinquency explain the relationship between how an individual’s personality is shaped and juvenile delinquency, the power control theory tends to explain it more elaborately taking into consideration the pivotal role played by the family members in the shaping of one’s personality. Keywords are; Juvenile justice system, delinquent act, patriarchy and rehabilitation. Definitions Juvenile justice system refers to the NGO’s as well as government institutions that deal with the juvenile criminal and status offenders. Delinquent act is an act that is committed by a juvenile that constitutes of a criminal offense if committed by an individual above 18 years. In a patriarchy, men and their masculine qualities are valued more highly than women and their feminine qualities. In this context, rehabilitation refers to the reformation of a juvenile delinquent into a law abiding person. Causes Emphasizing on what had been mentioned before concerning social interactions, the family influence on the social interactions and its consequences can be used to explain the causes of juvenile delinquency. Power control theory is an appropriate theory to analyze the social interaction within a family environment and its contribution to social delinquency. Of most importance in this theory is the concept of patriarchy. The effects of valuing men as well as masculine qualities more highly than women and the feminine qualities affects young ones as they grow up by profoundly influencing the way their personalities are shaped (Ryan & Testa, 2005). In many societies, men have been allowed to venture into outrageous activities while women have been being engaged in less outrageous activities. In such societies, families have their men having more power than women, and this is also passed on the children of these families. Thus, boys have more power and more exposure to outrageous activities than the girls in those households. As a result, it has been observed that there is a significant difference between the crime rates committed by men as compared to women. In a community where realizing or identifying the common values of those who reside in that location or even solving problems that are commonly experienced there is a problem, such a community is considered to be socially disorganized (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). From this concept of social disorganization, there is derived the theory of social disorganization of explaining juvenile delinquency. Evidently, according to the findings in many studies, communities that have failed to correct their children and lead them in the right way have suffered from high crime rates (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). For instance, the perpetrator of the crimes against the older person, in this case, may have been a child who grew up exhibiting deviant behaviour but his/her community failed to admonish him or her for the bad behaviour. Consequently, as much as the others may perceive beating of an older person and destroying his/her property as a major crime, the delinquent it may be not so. In socially organized communities, however, informal social control is evidently high and, as a result, there are lower crime rates (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). Such societies become disorganized when they fail to observe vigilance in areas that may encourage criminal activities. For instance, where there are criminogenic products in abundance, crime rate is most likely to be high. These include crime tools such as handguns as well as crime targets such as motor cars with incognito locks, easily stolen goods that have high value on them among others. In addition, poor management in the community such as improper check-in procedures in public and private places, unsupervised social gatherings, overcrowded clubs among others contribute to the vulnerability of a community in raising juvenile delinquents. Other disorganization factors are such as poorly designed buildings that are characterized by having no surveillance at the parking lots, having public bathrooms that are isolated, and shops that are vulnerable to thefts. The disorganized communities are also characterized by poor gun controls, poor regulation of alcohol consumption, drugs and prostitution. Under the light of the differential association theory, learning plays a profoundly significant role that leads to the commitment of delinquent behaviour. Learning, as seen from the point of view of schooling system, is evident to have taken place in an individual when it elicits behaviour change from the individual who has undergone through the process of learning. In the same way, the criminal behaviour exhibited by a young person, according to this theory of differential association, is the result of learning of the behaviour by the person (Zigler, Taussig & Black 1992). In a further elaborate detailing of the behaviours learned by the individual, they can be analyzed in two categories. First, techniques involved in the process of committing crimes are some of the behaviours learned as part of development to criminal behaviour. Secondly, there are important elements that are always associated with criminal behavior that emanate from the affective domain of the delinquent person’s cognitive functioning. The first important element under this second category is the drive to commit the crime, also intertwined to the motive involved in the commitment of the crime. It has been observed in various studies that overwhelming emotional disturbances have been a characteristic of juvenile delinquents. Sexual assault among other crimes against an individual leave a painful scar in one’s inner self that elicits trauma or overwhelming emotional disturbances within an individual. Depending on the personality of the victim as well as the intensity of the emotional disturbance, the victim may be forced by his or her feeling to behave in a deviant manner (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). For instance, a juvenile who has been sexually abused may retaliate in an abnormally surprising way in form of criminal act. This would be by punishing the individual who assaulted him or her. Rationalizations that an individual may give to justify his or her action are part of the learned behaviors that result ultimately to the criminal behaviours. A combination of attitudes and other cognitive function affecting the affective domain make it favorable to violate laws are entailed in the differential association theory (Zigler, Taussig & Black 1992). These vary and are often dictated by the context. Therefore, it is an observation that most delinquent juveniles who provide rationalizations for their criminal acts are indeed brilliant and fluent in improvisation of the context. Some of the rationalizations highlighted in the differential association theory are as well integrated to the neutralization theory since presentation of rationalizations provides neutral grounds for both the victim and the perpetrator of the crime. A delinquent can develop techniques of committing criminal acts and effectively getting away with them. This may be observed when, for instance, the delinquent denies personal accountability to the criminal act that he or she commits. In such a situation, the individual looks for an effective channel for escape. In a case such as the one of the individual who burns an older person’s house and deliberately leaves him inside the burning, after beating him, may claim that this is as a result of an accident. If the delinquent is very effective, he or she is able to achieve confidence within his/her audience by describing a situation in which the accident occurred which saw him or her desperately struggle to save his/her life. This way the situation created provides evidence that the delinquent was helpless thus was not in a position of saving another, whatsoever. In addition, the delinquent can be cunning to deny injury when evidence identifies that the victim of his or her crime, the older person, in this case, was beaten up. Defending oneself from suffering the consequences of his/her violence against the elderly, the delinquent juvenile may decide to deny the injury by turning it into a self-defense pursuit. Making it look like the older person’s broken bones had been as a result of struggle between him/her and the delinquent juvenile as the juvenile delinquent tried to defend him/herself from the older persons harm would be a learnt technique of neutralization (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). In addition, neutralization may also take the form of the perpetrator of the crime, the juvenile delinquent, denying the victim. This is very close to the previously technique above of committing criminal acts. However, this one is more inclined to the punishment aspect of the circumstance although it is still concerned with the retaliation element too. In this case, the juvenile delinquent may make the injury look less like an injury but rather punishment to the older man. For instance, revenge for sexually assaulting the perpetrator may be given as a reason for punishing this older person in the way that the juvenile delinquent does it. Treatment Considering that in terms of development the youth are very different from the adults, their treatment in the criminal justice system is different (Ryan & Testa, 2005). In addition, the juvenile’s special characteristics are usually important to consider when a judge is making a conclusion in a court of law. For instance, the youth may be found to have developed certain personality traits due to particular events that occurred earlier in his/her life. In addition, it has been observed that a substantially high percentage of juveniles involved in delinquency either suffer from mental health disorders or are seriously emotionally disturbed. The tool used for screening these disorders is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fourth Edition, DSM–IV. If diagnosed with a mental health disorder, the juvenile can be, depending on the illness, put into medication and taken to counselling and therapy sessions (Ryan & Testa, 2005). Counselling and therapy session will help the juvenile to deal with the issues bothering him or her in a constructive way that is also beneficial to his/her health. Studies have also revealed that of these juvenile delinquents who have been found to suffer from mental health disorders, many of them have also been reported to have what is referred to as co-occurring substance abuse disorder. It is thus important to consider also the employment of efforts to assist the juvenile to overcome drug abuse as he/she undergoes treatment. Prognosis There is a challenge that faces the treatment of juvenile delinquents with mental health disorders. In some cases, they go untreated where juvenile detention and correctional facilities have inadequate treatment equipment (Ryan & Testa, 2005). This is where diversion into community-based services becomes necessary. Instead of worsening the condition of the juvenile who has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, the diversion serves as an alternative for the betterment of him or her. To rid the society off patriarchy, one of the moves that can be considered as a way of doing so is the increasing opportunities for paid employment for women. With more women relying on themselves for finances to run their families either on their own or in partnerships with their husbands, there have been substantial changes in the rules and controls which are placed on sons and daughters in the families. In such families, the differential controls that were previously placed on sons and daughters no longer exist. Embracing this now and in the future will change the difference in crime rates committed by men as compared to those committed by women. This projection is from the point of view that this has been observed to work before. Eliminating patriarchy, therefore, eliminates gender differences and inequalities that have earlier been observed to contribute to juvenile delinquency, especially affecting men considerably. Conclusion In conclusion, the issue of juvenile delinquency is has been observed to cause profoundly adverse problems to the society yet its roots are located at the nurturing done by the society itself through social interactions. Thus, if the same society went back to the drawing board and established where the problem is, then that would be a good beginning point to effect change and overcome juvenile delinquency. Making sure that the adult models are chastised so that they lead the young ones by example is unavoidable in the pursuit for a society that is crime free. References Kubrin, C. E., & Weitzer, R. (2003). New directions in social disorganization theory. Journal of research in crime and delinquency, 40(4), 374-402. Ryan, J. P., & Testa, M. F. (2005). Child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency: Investigating the role of placement and placement instability. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(3), 227-249. Zigler, E., Taussig, C., & Black, K. (1992). Early childhood intervention: a promising preventative for juvenile delinquency. American psychologist, 47(8), 997. Read More