The Juvenile Delinquency, Essay Example

The issues involved in viewing juvenile delinquency as a specific form of criminal behavior have rendered the subject difficult for criminal psychologists, and from virtually the earliest days of delinquency identified as such. The complications arise, in fact, from the still prevalent notion that juvenile offenses are not, strictly speaking, criminal behaviors, but manifestations of troubled and/or disadvantaged adolescents who would otherwise not be offenders. It is widely felt, even today, that the juvenile offender is making poor choices, rather than demonstrating an  inherent criminal personality. The juvenile commits crime, it is perceived, because he either does not comprehend moral consequences, or he is induced to do so by unfair conditions and is too young to resist temptation. This in turn presents what may be the most common cause for delinquency, that of failures within the environment, either in terms of the family unit or the wider circle of community, as creating incentive and opportunity for incipient criminal behavior.

Both mentality and cause are  longstanding, and date back to the nineteenth century. As the United States became an industrialized nation,  whole families abandoned rural communities to seek jobs in primarily Eastern cities. The migration was on an epic scale, and children were frequently either displaced in the process or simply allowed more independence. Many were compelled to help support the family through work, which both removed opportunities for education and permitted an unprecedented measure of personal freedom for those so young:  “…Children of urban workers were often left unsupervised, because they were no longer able to participate in their parents’ labor…as (were) their counterparts who resided on farms” (Regoli, Hewitt, 2009, p. 343). That this factor has been perhaps unjustifiably credited with causing most delinquency, as it remains so today, does nothing to obviate the facts. Familial economic pressures and crowded, urban environments breed the potential for delinquency today, as they did when the Industrial Age first took hold.

Related to this cause is a consequential one, that of how juvenile offenders, once identified as such, are then placed within a system which fuels further delinquency. For example, the 1980s saw an increased focus from individual states on adopting harsher laws regarding juvenile offenders,  which was prompted by the substantial rises in teen gang warfare and drug-related crimes in juvenile populations.   It would get much worse;  juvenile arrests for drug-related crimes grew by nearly one hundred and fifty percent in the 1990s, as compared to an adult rise of forty-five percent  (Heilbrun, Goldstein, Redding, 2005,  p. 69). This was serious crime, and the people seemed to feel that leniency for age considerations no longer applied, or was effectively remedial. In response, the U. S. Department of Justice adopted a hardline approach to juvenile delinquents. Attorney General William Barr released a policy paper stating that “…A juvenile justice system that is too lenient can become, in fact, a conveyor belt for career criminals” (Howell, 2009,  xiv).

Unfortunately, as with adult criminals, immersion in any prison population frequently produces the same, “career criminal” result. Incarcerated or on probation, the young offender often already views himself as hopelessly set on a criminal path, a view certainly reinforced by his unavoidable contact with other offenders. Not unexpectedly, juvenile offenders are far more likely than non-offending adolescents to carry on a criminal life, and certainly while they are still juveniles  (Hess, Orthmann, 2008,  p. 97).   It is hard to refute, then, that a substantial cause for delinquency may be tied to punishment for delinquency itself.

Other causes for delinquency include the potentially valid one that learning problems generate it. This element is necessarily part of a larger arena of genetic factors which influence both adult and juvenile criminality, yet is distinct by virtue of the age of juveniles. That is to say, as a cause, it is one manifested and created by a young person’s increasing inability to conform to societal standards and expectations.   Within the peer environment of a school, for instance, the adolescent falling behind in studies may easily feel disenfranchised, and already “removed” from mainstream life. The effects have been documented: “Adolescents with LD (learning disabilities) are statistically at increased risk for juvenile delinquency and substance abuse” (Goldstein, Reynolds, 2010, p. 120). Such disabilities merely serve to further isolate and frustrate an adolescent, and consequently make him more prone to delinquent behavior.

References

Goldstein, S., & Reynolds, C. R. (2010.)  Handbook of Neurodevelopmental and Genetic Disorders in Children. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Heilbrun, K.,  Goldstein,  N. E., & Redding, R. E.  (2005.)  Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. H.  (2008.)  Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Howell, J. C. (2009.)  Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: A Comprehensive Framework. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Regoli, R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (2009.) Exploring Criminal Justice: The Essentials.  Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.