Ivan Nye's theory of teenage delinquency

¶ … Criminology and Their Relevance

Ivan Nye's Teenage Delinquent Theory

Ivan Nye's 1958 book "Family Relationships and Delinquent Behavior" provides information with regard to the role families and environments in general play in a person's upbringing. Nye emphasized the fact that families are in charge of teaching children about social ideas and in assisting them to take on rational attitudes. By presenting them with rules and by making it difficult for them to interact with individuals or situations that can have a negative effect on them, families can enable children to behave in normal ways.

Nye's theory relates to how in spite of the fact that people are typically inclined to perform deviant activities, the majority of individuals act in agreement with social norms. From his perspective, there are four types of social control that families provide their children with: internal control, indirect control, direct control, and legitimate need satisfaction. Internal control involves people's inner thoughts, with the environment they live in supporting their conscience. Indirect control a tendency to do everything in one's power so as to avoid providing individuals close to them with reasons to be ashamed. Direct control is induced by rules that children come across at home and in school. A legitimate need for satisfaction entails a person's willingness to thrive in enterprises that he or she gets involved in.

Depending on the degree to which each of the previous social control types is present in a person's life, he or she is more or less likely to perform deviant acts. When each of them is significant, the person tends to behave in agreement with social regulations. In contrast, situations when they are not provided with sufficient support, they are very probable to engage in deviant behaviors. Nye's ideas provide insight regarding delinquent behavior, considering that it was aimed at raising public awareness concerning the elements that play an important role in determining the difference between a criminal and an honest person.

A significant part of Nye's theory relates to how family control is the most important element in determining a person's likeliness to behave in deviant ways. "A healthy and emotionally close bond between parent and child, Nye contended, was the primary foundation of social control." (McLaughlin & Newburn 123)