Juvenile Delinquency, Research Paper Example

Juvenile delinquency is used to refer to criminal acts performed by the youths. By extension, a juvenile delinquent is a youth who repeatedly commits crime. Juvenile delinquency is a major contributor to crime not only in the United States but in the whole world (Holmes. p1). There are various theories that have been fronted as far as crimes and their genesis are concerned. Most of juvenile delinquents are considered to be juveniles with disorders such as organic or non organic mental disorders (Brown. p2).

Case Summary

On the 5^th of November 2008, on a Wednesday afternoon in a two-storey house, an eight year old boy brandished a .22 caliber rifle and shot his father and a family friend four times each. He took his time and reloaded the gun between the shots! This incident happened in St.Johns, approximately 200 miles northeast of Phoenix, Arizona, in a rare case of a youth killing a parent. F.B.I data showed 62 cases of arrests following juvenile (7-8 year olds) murders in the US between 1976 and 2005(Dougherty p1). However this was only the second case of a child murdering a parent. The boy had a troubled childhood in an unstable family. The parents had divorced and the boy lived with his grandmother and the father before he remarried. The father was a hunter who possessed rifles and taught the son how to shoot prairie dogs. The boy had enrolled in school and he did not have obvious reported difficulties in his studies. The day before the shooting however, the boy reported to have been spank because of doing poorly in school. The police arrived eight minutes after the shooting episode and arrested the boy as he was found at the scene of crime. After questioning by the detectives he admitted to shooting his father and his (father’s) friend. The court ordered a psychological evaluation of the boy and the judge reported that the court’s intention was to get the boy some help (Dougherty p1).

Theoretical Correlations

There are several theories that have been put forward to explain the reasons behind youth crime. Many of these theories are intertwined into each other and not really separate. Among these is the theory of social disorganization. This theory looks at crime in the prism of societal and family organization. According to this theory, crime occurs when there is a breakdown in the network of societal values and tearing of the family unit. This occurs when there is widespread war, crime and other social evils in the society. Family break ups and other domestic upheavals also contribute (Walklate. p15). The strain theory looks at crime as a reaction to unmet goals and objectives. It is a revolution against nature by the strained youth who cannot achieve what he/she had focused upon achieving or feels unprivileged in life not to have what several other neighbors(classmates) have. Another theory is the sub cultural theory. This postulates that crime occurs when the youth cannot achieve the status that the society already expects of them. They become frustrated and feel useless when they can’t measure up to the standards that are expected of them. Thus, a pupil who is always the last in class may result into crime when his/her efforts at improving the performance do not bear fruits. Children born with disabilities or other inborn defects may feel as rejects and thence result into crime (Walklate. p16). It is not wise to peg the above case of delinquency to a single of the above explained theories. This was a case of a child born to a bad family. The family had divorced and the boy was living with the father. The motherly care was lacking in the crucial stage of development of this child. There is availability of weapons in the immediate environment and even the father goes ahead to teach the boy how to load his rifle and pull the trigger. Then the blow lands when the boy is spanked, if one is to believe the boy’s account. He may have been harbouring bad thoughts of the father and siding with the mother since the divorce. The fact that the boy may have had problems in school and the absence of a mother in the house, by hatred of the step mother may have thrown him into reaction following the sub cultural theory (Walklate. p16).

May be the only reason the boy acted the way he did was purely medical-he may have suffered some mental disorder after the parents divorce at such an early age.

Conclusion

Juvenile delinquency is a daily phenomenon in our society. The many theories that try to explain the causes of youth crime can apply single handedly or in concert in such cases. Some cases, however, are purely medical and cannot be pegged to such theories.

Cited Works

Brown, S. Understanding Youth and Crime. Buckingham: Open University Press. 1998

Dougherty, J; O’Connor, A.  Prosecutors Say Boy Methodically Shot His Father New York: New York Times. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/us/11child.html?fta=y>

Holmes, S et al. ‘Risk Factors in Childhood that Lead to the Development of Conduct Disorder’ Child Psychiatry and Human Development.31(3), Spring 2001

Walklate, S. Understanding Criminology – Current Theoretical Debates Maidenhead: Open University Press. 2003