How Teenages Turn into Delinquents

What is causing children to act like animals by destroying and causing havoc in our streets? There are many theories and answers to the question of why juvenile delinquents continue to be born; I will be stating the main points. The main causes for children to become juvenile delinquents is childhood trauma, which involves child abuse, either sexual or physical; socio-economic status, usually children living in poverty and ghetto areas; peer influences, which is peer-pressure by the child or teenager from negative and pessimistic children or teenagers; and awful, terrible parenting from non-experienced parents. With all these reasons given, we will come to realize that these are the major topics citizens should focus on in order to eliminate juvenile delinquency.

A child growing up who is abused by a parent, relative, or a grown-up is highly likely to become a juvenile delinquent. If the child is being continuously beaten by their parent, or being continuously sexually abused, the child will be permanently damaged and scarred for life. Whether it is mental, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, there is no doubt the child will be negatively affected, and sadly, the abuse is usually with an adult who is trusted by the child, such as a parent, uncle, teacher, or another relative, which greatly contributes to the child’s delinquent behavior. According to Siegfried, Ko, and Kelley, in 2004, “Numerous studies over the past 10 years have shown a clear relationship between youth victimization and a variety of problems in later life, including mental health problems, substance abuse, impaired social relationships, suicide, and delinquency”(p.5). This is not a surprising fact, which explains why children act delinquently. If children are abused, they are mentally and psychologically damaged, which means they believe the abused acts committed to them is normal and usual, thus resulting in those children committing criminal acts within a community, such as truancy, substance abuse, physical abuse amongst other peers, and even sexual abuse towards other siblings or younger children.

A juvenile’s socio-economic status also plays a major role in juvenile delinquency. A juvenile growing up in a poverty-filled, ghetto community will have other juveniles just like him or her. In these poverty-filled communities, statistics show that juveniles are more than likely to be raised by one guardian, usually the mother, and the child is abandoned by the father, thus leaving the child unsupervised because the mother will be working to make ends meet. The child will have much unsupervised time by him or herself, meaning no punishments for committing delinquent acts by a parent or guardian. This is when peer-influences play a major role in a juvenile’s delinquent act. With families facing the same issues in a poverty-filled community with only one guardian, juveniles will roam freely throughout the streets finding something fun to get into, such as negative fun. There are many street-gangs in communities that are filled with poverty, so the juvenile might join a gang committing drive-by shootings or drug-trafficking, or find another delinquent to commit burglaries with to make money because his or her mother is not making enough money at work to put food on the table. On the other hand, if a juvenile engages in positive acts when he or she is unsupervised by his or her guardian, such as athletics or art drawings and things of that nature, then there is a higher chance of the juvenile not committing in delinquent behaviors. The juvenile conducting in positive day-to-day activities will positively affect his lifestyle, thus he or she will stay away from a life of crime. During this stage of a juvenile’s life, a guardian plays a significant role in one’s life by providing them with the correct parenting.

The correct parenting technique’s is very crucial in the stage of a teenager’s life. This stage in a teenager’s life, he or she is going through puberty and experiencing many physical and mental changes in one’s body, which need correct supervision and parenting in order for the teenager to walk down the correct path, a path away from criminality. According to Matherene and Thomas, both suggests that a positive family influence with strong emotional bonding and positive communication strategies can mitigate the influence of deviant peers in a young person’s life. If the guardians do not properly communicate with the teenager during this stage of one’s life, the teenager will go out and do whatever he or she wants, such as delinquent acts with other peers, usually involving substance abuse, which can lead to robberies, burglaries, and gang activity. By the guardian not communicating properly and punishing the teenager for committing criminal acts, the teenager is more than likely to continue with criminality. With positive family influence and a strong, emotional bond with positive communication between the teenager and the guardian, the teenager will neglect the negative influences faced in this stage of one’s life. The teenager will have more trust with the guardian or parent, and will not want to disappoint or upset his or her parents because the teenager and the guardian communicated what are the right and the wrong things to do.

The reasons are clear to why adolescents end up in the life of crime. Abused children and teenagers, whether physical or sexual seem to be the major reason to why they commit acts of delinquency. The juvenile’s social environment, such as living in poverty-filled areas, does not help the situation because other teenagers will influence one another within the community to commit in acts of delinquency as well. Once these teenagers start committing in acts of delinquency, it is a must that they are correctly punished immediately, or else they will continue in the life of criminality, and sadly, this is the way society has been headed to, thus resulting in more juvenile delinquents.

Matherne, M, & Thomas, A. “Family Environment as a Predictor of Adolescent

Delinquency.” Adolescence, 36(144), 655-664, 2002.

Siegfried, C. B., Ko, S. J., & Kelley, A. “Victimization and Juvenile Offending.”

National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Jan 2004.

Walklate, S. Understanding Criminology – Current Theoretical Debates, 2nd edition.

Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2002.

Juvenile Delinquency: An Ongoing Issue Within Communities

Juvenile delinquency has posed major issues within communities everywhere. Many people are affected by the actions of delinquents throughout their daily lives, but usually cannot be seen clearly by the naked eye. Not only is the delinquent negatively affected by the crimes committed by oneself, but also the victim of the delinquent, the victims family, the delinquents family, the neighborhood, and the society. The delinquent who has committed the crime will be emotionally and psychologically affected because of the crime one just committed and arrested for. Once the delinquent is arrested, he or she will be placed in a correctional facility, such as Juvenile Hall, where one will be faced with more troubles and issues by inmate delinquents, which will result in more criminality to come by the delinquent just arrested. Remember the delinquent is still considered a child, and at this age one is very vulnerable and more prone to psychological, emotional, and mental issues. The delinquent’s family will also encounter many financial and emotional burdens because the delinquent most likely will not have a job, meaning no income, which means the guardians of the delinquent must pay for the fines and fees for the crimes committed, the lawyer’s hired, and the counseled sessions. The family might feel that they have failed in raising a proper child, which will also put a huge burden on the guardians, who will soon start to blame themselves for the delinquent’s wrongful upbringing.

The victim and the family will be emotionally and psychologically affected by the crime as well, and maybe even physically affected depending on what crime was committed. If the victim was raped by the juvenile delinquent, then not only will the victim be physically hurt, which will cost money to hospitalize the victim, but more importantly he or she will be emotionally scarred for life. There is no type of counseling or large sum of money that will erase the nasty memory of that crime from the victim’s memory. The victim will be forever reminded by the incident, and will never be able to let his or her guard down wherever one goes. Consequently, the family’s victim might want retribution against the delinquent, and take matters into their own hands by committing a crime against the delinquent or the delinquent’s family, which will only make matters worse. It is just one huge cycle that continues as life goes on, which ultimately affects the community as a whole.

Whether it is a drug, theft, burglary, robbery, arson, or even murder issues within the neighborhood, society will definitely be negatively impacted by juvenile delinquents. The community will feel unsafe to conduct normal everyday activities. Neighbors will not want to take their children to the parks in fear of delinquents smoking dope in front of them, or being a victim of a drive-by shooting in a drug-deal gone wrong. Neighbors within the community will not want to go to the store at night, and maybe even during the day in fear of being robbed or sexually assaulted on the way to the store or on their way back home. Parents will feel unsafe sending their child to school because some of these delinquents who have not been caught for their criminal acts might be attending the same classes and carrying firearms or other sorts of weapons, which will majorly affect the way the child positively learns in school. Parents will not let their child play outside and enjoy the environment in fear that their child will be hanging out with the wrong group of children, and might be enticed to join a gang. It would be as if the whole community had to be on lockdown, and not be able to leave their homes in fear of being a victim of crime by delinquent criminals, which is not a normal and practical way to live life.

It is very significant that one must stop juvenile delinquency as soon as it occurs because t if the criminal behavior is continued, there is a major chance the delinquent will not stop. If not stopped immediately, the delinquent will start believing that these negative actions and crimes are alright to commit. Delinquents will soon believe there is no other way to live life besides the life of crime, and will continue on committing burglaries, robberies, drug-dealings, thefts, gang-banging, and other ways to get themselves in serious trouble. The delinquents will continue on committing crimes until he or she is an adult, and if not caught for the criminal acts, there is a high chance the delinquent’s children, family, or acquaintances will learn these same behaviors and act similarly because their guardians do it, resulting in more criminals. If law enforcement agencies and the community do not stop this issue of juvenile delinquency as soon as possible, officers will be arresting these delinquents continuously and locking them up in prison when these juveniles turn into adults. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, California’s correction system is already facing an issue of overcrowding in prisons with 174,282 inmates and a cost of $11,399,786 per day, and will only continue to increase. Our hard earned tax dollars are paying to house these criminals, who all started their criminality as juveniles. The issue of overcrowding would not be such a problem if we would have stopped and changed the ways of juveniles at an early age. If we want to put our tax dollars to something more useful and productive, we must make a change immediately. The safety and security of our families, friends, and future children will be in great danger by these delinquents if not stopped and corrected instantly.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. Prison Stats for California. July 2008. 3 Feb 2010.

http://www.jailovercrowding.com

Fellner, Jamie. “Sexually Abused: The Nightmare of Juveniles in Confinement.”

The Huffington Post. Feb 2010. 5 Feb 2010.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-fellner/sexually-abused-the-night..

U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. July 2008. 3 Feb 2010.

http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/programs/ProgSummary.asp.