Addressing the Problem of Juvenile Offenders

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., through the appearance of an entire community make-up. 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 expectations to families in that neighborhood will ultimately reap what they sew: disorder and delinquency in the lives of the young people.
Young persons require parameters, bounds as well as affection and guidance (Werner, Silbereisen, 2003; Barrett et al., 2015). Peers may have some influence, but those peers are going to be shaped by their home lives as well. If they are being raised on media that is filled with violent and sexual lyrics and are receiving no counter-programming, so to speak, from family or other meaningful authorities, their lives are likely to reflect the stimulation that is most impactful on them—the media. Variables like media, drugs, theft, vandalism—all of it must appeal to the youth in some way for it to be impactful, and that appeal typically comes because it either fills a gap in the young person’s life (a need for belonging, for meaning, for stimulation, for expression, for acting out) or because the youth has no other direction or moral foundation with which to oppose such acts.
Potential Solutions
Solutions that do not address the underlying problems will not be effective in the long run. The underlying factors, as shown above, in the development of juvenile delinquency are primarily social and environmental—i.e., the social organization of the family and the community. The question that must be asked, therefore, is how to strengthen families and communities so that children are not led into delinquent behavior. What do families need to supply children with the proper foundation and guidance to do well in their lives as they grow? Fines and arrests do not address the underlying issues—they only act as deterrents or as negative reinforcement. They do not address the actual cause of the problem—just the symptom. Therefore, they are not advised as effective remedies of the problem.
This question then of what to do has been asked especially by educators, who must spend a great deal of time with these children. Character education is one of the most important issues that teachers are now talking about (Smith, 2013) and classical philosophy (which once served as the moral and ethical foundation of Western civilization) is also being identified as a necessary subject that must be reintroduced to the lives of young people (Kristjansson, 2014). The teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, after all, helped develop the Western World and gave the religion that would define the West for more than a thousand years its perch upon which it could plant its flag. That flag acted as a banner, a border, a boundary—a statement of what was allowed, permitted, acceptable, and what was not. In today’s communities there are no such flags to be found. The modern environment is one in which “everything” is permitted—and the end result is delinquency.
Schools themselves do not bear the most responsibility, however. Character education and formation must first start in the home—i.e., parents must establish that kind of formation through example, affection, teaching, and communication. Parents play a fundamental role in the meeting of the child’s needs, as described in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If parents and families cannot agree on what should constitute a solid character education, the schools are unlikely to agree as well. Families and parents will take their cues from their own fathers and mothers, their own life experiences, and their own education. All the factors that impact young people will have already impacted their parents.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the issue goes even beyond families: it goes to society as a whole and to the leaders of society who are responsible for acting as “guardians” of the nation, as Plato states in The Republic. Leaders have a duty to do what is in the best interest of the whole of the community, and that means they too have a responsibility when it comes to taking blame for delinquency. They must ensure that negative variables are not being proliferated (i.e., through the media, where violence and sex are promoted as though they were good for the psyche). All stakeholders have a role in preventing juvenile delinquency—even the juveniles themselves. They too must take responsibility for their own lives and recognize the natural law that is written within them and they must form their consciences appropriately so that they conform to the natural order that is evident in the world.


References
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