Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Delinquency deals with children, minor or youth below twenty-one years of age who break the law or fail to do what the law requires. A child above 15 years but below 18 years of age shall likewise be exempt from criminal liabilities and to be subjected to an intervention program, unless he or she has acted with discernment, in which case, such child shall be subjected to the appropriate proceedings in accordance with this act. (R.A.9344, 2005) Types Of Juvenile Delinquency According to Rohit Bura, Delinquency exhibits a variety of styles of conduct or forms of behaviour. Each of the patterns has its own social context, the causes that are alleged
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This concept refers to the set of values and norms that guide the behaviour of group members encourage the commission of delinquencies, award status on the basis of such acts and specify typical relationships to persons who fail outside the groupings governed by group norms.
(d) Situational delinquency:
The above-mentioned three types of delinquencies have one thing in common. In all of them, delinquency is viewed as having deep roots. In individual delinquency (according to the psychogenic explanation), the roots of delinquency lie primarily within the individual; in group-supported and organised delinquencies (the sociogenic explanation).
The roots (of delinquency) lie in the structure of the society with emphasis either on the ecological areas where delinquency prevails or on the systematic way in which social structure places some individuals in a poor position to compete for success.
Situational delinquency provides a different perspective. Here the assumption is that delinquency is not deeply rooted, and motives for delinquency and means for controlling it are often relatively simple.
A young man indulges in a delinquent act without having a deep commitment to delinquency because of less developed impulse-control and/or because of weaker reinforcement of family restraints, and because he has relatively little to lose even if
Developmental theories look at how offenders start and end their criminal behaviors. All developmental theories, including the two focused on in this paper, pull from social, psychological, and biological factors to find answers. Both of these theories follow along a trajectory or pathway for offenders. Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory has offenders following along two possible trajectories. They can either follow along the high risk trajectory or the low risk trajectory.
Analyzing the juvenile delinquency, this can be perceived from different mindsets. Merriam-Webster defines juvenile delinquency as conduct by a juvenile characterized by antisocial behavior that is beyond parental control and therefore subject to legal action and a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment. Also, a crimes committed by a person is only name a juvenile if the individual is under the age of eighteen In today’s society majority of kids are not born to be criminals or defined as above as delinquents. Children usually develop these habits or lifestyles choices due to poverty, circumstances and culture.
One way to discipline delinquents or to remove them from society is to incarcerate them. Being surrounded by inmates whom you cannot relate to, not only on a mental level, but on a level of criminal activity is not the ideal setting for a juvenile to be placed in. When this occurs, youth then have to find ways to protect themselves. Which can result to further deviant behavior. "Studies have shown that continuing delinquent youth in correctional facilites will return to the same adverse environment".
My paper aims to discuss the three different factors of criminal behaviour, what causes it and why. My essay will examine and focus mainly on the genetic makeup of a person, the environment in which they are raised in and gender differences.
Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.
Juvenile delinquency as a concept did not always exist as we know it today, nor did the concept of childhood. During the Middle Ages (500-1500 AD) children were merely depicted as miniature adults and were faced with severe physical punishment for offences. As most children entered the adult world of labour at a very young age through apprenticeship, discipline was severe as their Master was held accountable for any sign of disobedience. Apprenticeship was realised as an effective form of control over children and it unknowingly became the first form of “detention” for delinquent children. These children were put to work in agriculture, domestic services or trading and it became a means of keeping them out of trouble.
Some major findings in this study were that participants were significantly more violent than the average juvenile delinquent. They were also asked about the most serious crimes that they had ever committed finding that among the 34 participants, 5 terrorist threats, 5 murders, 2 attempted murders, 1 manslaughter, 12 burglaries, 11 strong-armed robberies, 9 assaults with a deadly weapon, 8 drug possessions with intent to deal, 6 gun possessions, and 5 shootings. There were many preexisting risk factors that included exposure to violence, vicarious victimization, and criminal and delinquent acts. In the aspect of their future expectations, they mostly had negative expectations. When the young males were asked about future risks, they really felt like they would be the victim of a violent crime or even shot at.
This paper draws on existing sociological research in identifying a number of theories used in explaining the formation of gangs. The theories discussed are social structure theories, social conflict theory, and social process theories all of which highlight elements of strain in different forms as they relates to gang formation. According to Merton, (as cited in Schneider & Tilly, 2004) structural theories significantly emphasize the role of social and economic structures as the causes of delinquent behavior and tend to treat criminal behavior as the result of the undesirable and dysfunctional structures (P. 3.).
The social disorganization theory developed by Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay is one theory that endeavors to explain the phenomenon of crime. This essay aims to analyze, assess, and clarify whether the social disorganization theory accurately dissects the social problem of delinquency. Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay, two criminology researchers from the Chicago School of Criminology developed the social disorganization theory in 1942. The theory contends that an individual’s social and physical environments are the principle influences to the behavioral choices that they make. In their research, Shaw and McKay measured and assessed crime, truancy, juvenile delinquency, and mental disorder as part of the problems in Chicago communities.
We ask a question which came first the peer of the delinquent with selection perspective youth, selects their peers based on their own delinquency or delinquent attitudes. The socialization perspective with peer influence involvement attitudes and what are possible relationships criminal associations criminal definitions which lead to crime. This is a macro level theory on
The set of the structural-functional theories are among the most widespread perspectives on the juvenile delinquency. The group of the theories regards that the behavior of the underage delinquent is caused by the breakdown of the social process that consequently results in the increase of conformity (Thompson & Bynum, 2016). The group of theories presumably blame institutions that are responsible for the socialization of the young delinquents for the way the socialize the individuals by causing them to conform to the values of the society. One of the central theories of the juvenile delinquency is the anomie theory that is rooted in the early studies by the sociologist Emile Durkheim.
(1988). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law (3rd ed.). United States of America: West Publishing Company. Wright, W. &.
Social structure theories look at the formal and informal economic and social arrangements of society that cause crime and deviance. The negative aspects of social structure such as disorganization within a family, poverty, and disadvantages because of lack of success in educational areas are looked upon as the producers of criminal behavior (Schmalleger, 2012). The three major types of social structure theories are Social Disorganization, Strain, and Culture Conflict (Schmalleger, 2012). Social disorganization theory is based on the idea that changes, conflict, and the lack of social consensus in society are the reasons for criminal behavior. This theory views society as a living organism and that criminal behavior is compared to a disease.
Types of juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, or offending, can be separated into three categories: delinquency, crimes committed by minors which are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system; criminal behavior, crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system, and status offenses, offenses which are only classified as such because one is a minor, such as truancy, also dealt with by the juvenile courts. According to the developmental research of Moffitt (2006), there are two different types of offenders that emerge in adolescence. One is the repeat offender, referred to as the life-course-persistent offender, who begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive behavior in adolescence (or even childhood) and continues into adulthood; and the age specific offender, referred to as the adolescence-limited offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency begins and ends during their period of adolescence. Because most teenagers tend to show some form of antisocial, aggressive or delinquent behavior during adolescence, it important to account for these behaviors in childhood, in order to determine whether they will be life-course-persistent offenders, or adolescents-limited offenders.
Juvenile Delinquency is a phenomenon that affects communities worldwide according to media reports, both print and electronic, where worrying images of youths involved in behavior outside societal norm has been highlighted. This issue has been studied by researchers locally, regionally and internationally where results has shown that delinquency has been influenced by a number of factors such as age, gender, race, family circle, environment, socioeconomic status et cetera. This research paper attempts to examine Juvenile delinquency and the effects of social structure on form (III) three students attending secondary schools in Trinidad. A structural functionalist perspective will be used based on factors that influence delinquency such as Poverty, Ideology of hegemony, and discrimination.