Juvenile Delinquency Wrong Turn Predisposing

Juvenile Delinquency

WRONG TURN

Predisposing Factors that Lead to Juvenile Delinquency

and its Effects on Society

Predisposing Factors

Juvenile delinquency is broadly defined as an anti-social behavior or violation of a law by a minor (Wordwebonline, 2009). Young people who live in unstable homes and social environments are considered at-risk on account of their vulnerability to those inherent conditions (Martin, 2005). The instability of their condition often induces the development of antisocial behavior among them. Antisocial behavior, in turn, leads to criminal or deviant behavior and crime. Antisocial or deviant behavior is influenced by several factors, which predispose to it. Family, socioeconomic class and educational experience are the major ones (Martin).

Family

This is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, influences on juvenile behavior

(Martin, 2005). The family environment establishes and internalizes the blueprint of one's norms, values, modes of behavior and other perspectives. A young person receives his first information on social interaction with the outside world from the family atmosphere. A family with healthy or unhealthy values passes on those values to its members, which accept and adopt these. Thus, dysfunctional, deviant and criminal behaviors run in many families. Marital instability and family discord, stress, separations, and lack of intimacy quite often produce delinquent behavior in children who grow up with these incidents. A healthy atmosphere is either present or absent and determines the development of delinquent behavior. A single-parent family does not necessarily produce deviant behavior. A troubled two-parent family atmosphere is more disruptive than a loving and emotionally stable single-parent family atmosphere.

Socioeconomic Class

Updated statistics provide evidence that children and other youth from poor and low socioeconomic classes are as vulnerable to deviance as middle-class youngsters (Martin, 2005). Social theorists point to dysfunctional norms of behavior among the very poor of urban society. These people who belong to inner-city underclass are products of a chronic generational cycle of poverty, low or poor education, teenage pregnancy and parenthood, unemployment and dependence on welfare. These theorists stress the strong connection between delinquency and criminality in which antisocial behaviors are considered the norm. Delinquency among middle and even upper-class society, on the other hand, often develops out of factors such as parental pressure, peer pressure, anxiety towards the future, strong youth subcultures, and experimenting with substances and alternative, more intriguing, lifestyles (Martin).

Educational Experiences

Schools can and do affect young people's sense of opportunity and self-esteem (Martin, 2005). The occurrence of problem behavior tends to be less among graduates and achievers than among school dropouts and poor achievers. Opportunities for education and excellence are supposed to be equally available to students of all socioeconomic classes. But socioeconomic and demographic factors render these opportunities unequal or selective. School environment for poor students is quite often very different and less inspiring than that of middle or upper-class students. Proper norms are not always or everywhere enforced in academic competition, manners and study habits. Teachers' perceptions and expectations are also often based on students' appearance, social class, gender or race (Martin).

Other Factors

Environmental Toxicants

The 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey established a significant connection between conduct disorder in young Americans and tobacco smoke and environmental lead exposure (Braun et al., 2008). The nationally representative, cross-sectional survey pooled the responses of 560,000 Americans aged 8-15 with conduct disorder. In 95% of them, parents were exposed to cigarette use during and after pregnancy and exposure to lead. The survey concluded that prenatal exposures to these environmental elements increased the risk of conduct disorder in the offspring. It confirmed results of previous studies on the connection (Braun et al.).

Tobacco smoke is believed to lead to fetal hypoxia as a consequence of carbon monoxide and the direct interaction of nicotine with the fetus' developing brain (Braun et al., 2008). Nicotine exposure at this early stage impairs in later life the child's ability to contain or avoid inappropriate responses, organize behavior and learn from the consequences of his previous actions. The low IQ or poor cognitive control of child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD may explain his behavioral problems (Braun et al.).

Exposure to lead, on the other hand, causes changes in neurotransmitter concentrations and neurotransmitter receptor density (Braun et al., 2008). Separate studies support the connection between delinquency and exposure to blood lead. One such study established the link between prenatal and postnatal blood lead concentrations and higher rates of arrests for offenses of violence in later life (Wright et al., 2008). Respondents to the study were 250 persons, aged 19-24, recruited at birth between 1979 and 1984 and pregnant women in four clinics in Cincinnati, Ohio. The pregnant women lived in areas with high concentrations of older-type of lead-contaminated dwellings (Wright et al.). Commendable efforts have been expended to reduce exposures to tobacco and environmental lead at this time. But millions of young people continue to be exposed to them in levels sufficient to put them at risk of persistent violent and criminal behaviors (Braun et al.).

Trauma

Studies conducted with a wide range of age groups, populations and types of trauma showed that traumatized children and adolescents face a high risk of developing different behavioral, psychological and neurobiological problems (Caffo et al., 2005). Early traumatic experiences can have strong and lasting behavioral and psychological consequences in the young. These include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, depression, anxiety and psycho-functional impairment. Strong social support may shield the young from the effects of traumatic events. These events include community violence, natural and man-made disasters, child abuse and maltreatment, road traffic accidents and exposure to medical illnesses and death. A study of 349 traumatized adolescents from 9 U.S. middle schools revealed that 76% of them witnessed or were victims of at least one violent event in the previous three months. Another study of 2,041 Kenyan adolescents found that 80% of them had the same experience. Children and adolescents who are exposed to or become victims of war and terrorism are at an especially high risk of developing trauma and other psychosocial consequences (Caffo et al.).

Effects on Society

Another nationally representative study on adolescent students showed that more than one-fifth of them engaged in problem behaviors, which have potentially damaging consequences to themselves, their families, the community and society in general