Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile Delinquency



Abstract

Juvenile delinquency refers to the crimes carried out by young people or minors. Juvenile crime often receives considerable attention from the media and politicians. The father's influence on antisocial behaviors in children may be a result of traditional gender role training. Males have traditionally received more encouragement to engage in aggressive behaviors than females. The relationship between race and involvement in delinquency is not entirely straightforward. To understand this relationship, one must consider the source of data. Geographic location is also an extremely serious phenomenon that plays a vital role in juvenile delinquency. Lower-class individuals lack opportunities for success normally given to others and experience strain, as a result. The strain of poverty and lack of opportunity motivates involvement in crime.

Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency refers to the crimes carried out by young people or minors. A criminal is one who relapses and commits crimes repeatedly. Most legal systems consider specific procedures for dealing with this problem, such as juvenile detention centers. There are many different theories about the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the causes of juvenile crimes. Juvenile crime often receives ample attention from the media and politicians. This is because the level and types of juvenile crimes can be used by analysts and the media as an indicator of the general state of morality and public order in a country and as a result, can be a source of alarm and moral panic. Like most types of offenses, crimes committed by juveniles have increased since the mid-twentieth century. There are many theories about the causes of juvenile crimes, regarded as particularly noteworthy within criminology. This is because the number of crimes increases dramatically between fifteen and twenty years. Second, any theory about the causes of crime, juvenile crimes should be considered as adult criminals are likely to have had a beginning in crime when they were young (Paloutzian, 2005).

Social class

For decades, criminologists acted under the assumption that delinquency was a “lower-class' phenomenon. Social class is an important factor for juvenile delinquency. Some of the most influential theories in criminology are based, either directly or indirectly, on the assumption that the disadvantage of a lower-class environment has far-reaching effects on individuals and the communities in which they live.” For example, lower-class individuals lack opportunities for success normally given to others and experience strain, as a result. The strain of poverty and lack of opportunity motivates involvement in crime. Additionally, those from lower-class backgrounds are exposed daily to criminal traditions in the neighborhood, and lower-class communities often lack effective means of social control. Research from the early 1970s examined social class and offending and seemed to support the assumption that delinquency is a lower-class phenomenon. An influential study by Marvin Wolfgang and his colleagues showed that social class was strongly related to the likelihood of arrest. In this study, almost half (45%) of the boys from lower-class census tracts had at least one recorded police contact, while only 27% of those ...