Where Does Crime Begin? The Issue of Juvenile Offenders Introduction

There are many theories for how juvenile offenders come to be: from strain theory to social control theory and social learning theory, researchers have postulated on what accounts for juvenile delinquency, what factors contribute to its rise, and who is to blame. Werner and Silbereisen (2003) have shown that harmonious families have greater probability of having a positive impact on childhood development than inharmonious families. Barrett, Ju, Katsiyannis, and Zhang (2015) have shown that there are personal, family, and emotional/behavioral variables that impact and/or determine a young person’s degree of delinquency, including recidivism. And Farrell, Mays, Henry and Schoeny (2011) have shown in their study that parents act as moderators of juvenile behavior, as juveniles seek to balance multiple influences from school life to peer influence as they grow and develop. In short, there are many factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency—they are social, familial, and environmental. This paper will discuss where crime begins, where blame may be placed, and what potential solutions might be applied to help remedy the situation.

Helpful Theories

One of the most helpful theories, rooted in environmental causation, is the concept known as Broken Windows Theory. This theory, developed by Wilson and Kelling in 1982 states that if a neighborhood is not physically taken care of then it will produce or allow degenerate behavior to flourish. As Bursik (1988) puts it, social disorganization fosters crime. In other words, criminals take advantage of an environment that is not kept up, viewing it as one in which people do not care about order; thus, people see this as an opportunity to engage in behavior and activity that is outside the normal spectrum of law and order. Young people who grow up in such an environment are more likely to be lured into juvenile delinquency simply because their environment seems to suggest that this type of behavior is acceptable or condoned by the community’s indifference to standards and order. Social learning theory correlates with Broken Windows Theory in the sense that the former also explains that delinquency is a learned behavior that young persons pick up from those around them.

Social disorganization might be most apparent from a macro-level—i.e.,...

However, social disorganization typically takes place first in the family and then proceeds outward to manifest itself in the community. Thus, turning from environmental factors, one can look towards familial factors that also have an impact on childhood behavior. Parents, families, peers, social organizations (church, sports teams, clubs), and schools all play a role in the development of a child—but families offer the most intimate setting for childhood development and parents have the greatest impact as, for a child, they represent the definitive authority in their lives: parents set the tone, the mood, establish guidance, articulate ideas, beliefs and expectations, and communicate love and affection—all of which is needed for positive development (Farrell et al., 2011). Children who engage in risky behavior (such as drug use or underage sexual activity) are more likely to have missed some aspect of the parental guidance described above, which is ultimately really just a part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If the needs of children are not being met, expressions of delinquency have a greater probability of becoming manifested—which is explained by Strain Theory (the idea that individuals lash out at society through delinquent acts as a result of feeling torn, pushed, pulled, oppressed, or negatively impacted in some other way by their surroundings, which—far from negatively impacting them—should be nourishing their growth and development).
Who is Responsible?

With each of these theories in mind, it can be seen that every sector is responsible and plays a role in the development of a child and the onset of juvenile delinquency. Families and parents should bear the most responsibility, since they set the stage and serve as the building block of society. If social disorganization begins at home, it will continue on into the community—and if the community consists of many socially disorganized homes, the neighborhood itself will very soon resemble one where Broken Windows Theory is likely to be applied for the rise of crime in that vicinity. Families have the most responsibility, but communities also share in that responsibility, as no family exists in an isolated bubble. Communities that do not take the initiative to show ownership of their neighborhoods and communicate standards and…