Psychological and social factors contributing to juvenile delinquency

Juveniles and Delinquency

Youths are important members of the society. They are, as the common saying connotes, the "future of the nation." This is the every reason why much of the developmental programs established by the government and/or the educational institutions are addressed to the needs of the youths. But however hard the government and the educational institutions try to cover the entire populations of youths, thee are still some who fail to take part in such developmental programs. This resulted to the continuously increasing number of juvenile delinquencies.

There are various forms of juvenile delinquencies. In the same manner, there are various classifications of programs and approaches that policy makers, social workers and even psychologists do to have a better understanding regarding the causes and effects of juvenile delinquency and the best possible ways to address it.

Objectives of the study

It will be a good research endeavor to understand the psychological, emotional and psychosocial aspects related to juvenile delinquency. Specifically the purpose of this paper is to:

Recognize the statistical reports related to juvenile delinquency

Identify the various reasons why youths have the tendency to become juvenile and delinquent

Evaluate the effects of juvenile delinquency to various component of the society - the family, the community and/or the country

Identify the programs, laws and regulations related to juvenile delinquency

Assess the success rates of each of the programs and government regulations related to juveniles

Hypothesis

This paper hypothesized that there are a number of factors affecting the youth's tendency to become juvenile and delinquent. These factors may include:

the media and the kind of information presented on it having dysfunctional families unavailability of community developmental programs for the youths

It is a common knowledge that various forms of media are able to present all types of information which are most of the time not suitable for young audiences. Wars, violence, crimes, terrorism, death, killings and other forms of actions causing physical harms can be watched and heard and read from televisions, radios and news papers. At the same time, role playing games in the computers also highlights some actions which when learned and adopted by the youths will form negative imaginations and actions. These are just some of the reasons why media can play a detrimental part in causing more and more juvenile delinquencies.

Meanwhile, the number of dysfunctional families is also rising. Divorce, annulment and long distance family relationships are just some of the causes of dysfunctional families. Being part of a dysfunctional family can trigger psychological and emotional problems to the child hence, resulting to becoming juvenile delinquent.

Lastly, as there are different other issues inside the community, there are times that community workers and/or policy makers neglect the youths and their need for developments activities. Such neglect can result to having more juvenile delinquents within the community.

More so, it is hypothesized that the success rate of the programs and/or laws and regulations against juvenile delinquency is significantly low, hence stricter guidelines on the implementations of different youth-related programs and regulates should be done to achieve better success results.

Significance of the Study

The result of this study will play a significant role to social workers, policy makers and even educational institutions for this paper will give them idea on how to handle juvenile delinquents and how to prevent the seemingly increasing number of juvenile delinquency.

Likewise, this paper will prove to be beneficial to other future researchers who will be dealing with topics on youths, juvenile delinquents or developmental activities for youths. The result of this study will serve as a basis or a reference guide for other researches.

Literature Review

Youth Gangs and Violence - The Starting Point

It should be noted that violence started from the family affecting the whole society. What an individual has for a family, what can be seen in the society, what is seen in the environment are all clear reflections of the kind of people a certain society is bringing up - whether it is a deviance to the society or not.

Now, pertaining to the crimes and how the government solved it, it must be remembered that the laws are already there, it is already being maintained by the concerned officials and followed the U.S. citizen. But there are still some other aspects that are still need to be considered such as the factors directly affecting these violent behaviors, the preventive measures that the society can do and the things that should be bear in mind if juvenile delinquency persists.

First, why do most youths are becoming more involved in various gangs or groups? A recent survey revealed that most youths find gangs as (http://ww2.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca/publications/policing/199456_e.asp,2005):

highly organized definite leadership structure systematic involvement in violence crime for profit is a major activity

So from this standpoint alone, it can be easily reflected upon that the sense of belonging is one of the major reasons why youths started joining gangs and/or groups. Right after becoming a member, certain activities done by the gang will now be done also by the newly appointed members - may it be a bad activity or an illegal one, the new members will be "forced" to doing those activities because they would always want to pride themselves that they are indeed part of that group and that they can do what the other gang members do. And so the cycle continues.

According to the statistics given by the FBI, there are actually three types of crimes being committed. First, crimes against the person - or violent crimes - are defined as crimes against people that involve violence or the threat of violence. Examples are murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. Secondly, crimes against property - or property crimes - are defined as crimes that involve theft of property belonging to others. Examples are burglary, larceny-theft, auto theft, and arson. A third category, victimless crimes, is defined, as violations of law in which there are no readily apparent victims. Examples are gambling, prostitution, and the use of illegal drugs (http://www.geocities.com/tdeddins/deviance.htm,2004).

Based on the relevant data that presented above, most youth gangs do violent actions. They do it either for "survival" purposes or for a very lame excuse of priding themselves capable of doing deviant acts. Yes, there are numbers of laws and regulations preventing youths from involving themselves to such kinds of gangs, but those who are members already find it hard to separate themselves form the gangs they have already joined with because they did various activities in the past that made them "stick" to the gangs. They fought real hard to be with the gang and they cannot just throw that away.

Sex Offenders as Part of Juvenile Delinquency

In today's world, male and female juvenile sex offenders are becoming a real problem and a big threat to most of our youths today. Research studies show that between 25-40% of all alleged sexual abuse involves young perpetrators. Moreover, the majority of those who display sexually harmful behavior are adolescent males. Young children and females also commit sexually harmful acts. Sexual behavior as displayed by children and young people exists on a continuum from mutually agreed experimentation through to harmful, abusive exploitation. The majority of these children and young people have been or are being sexually, physically and/or emotionally abused themselves (http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/JuvenileSexOffenders.html,2005).

In Canada alone, several studies (done by government and non-government organizations) revealed that two of the most common factors why there have been female and male juvenile sex offenders are (Correctional Service Canada. (1991):

unstable job and/or income family and/or marital problems past histories and sexual abuse

Indeed, juvenile sex offenders are the product of psychological and emotional problems by the offenders themselves. There may have been several problems in the offenders' minds and that they find their victims as their "outlet" to ease out their problems. These problems may come from their lack of financial support which prompted them to do something bad instead. Family and marital problems may also cause one person to act impulsively thereby affecting the innocent victims. Histories of personal sexual abuse can also trigger the mind of the offenders for this may be the reason why they would want to inflict pain to others also, or because of the trauma they have experienced before resulted to an "addiction" to sex.

Treatment of male and female juvenile sex offenders takes a lot of time and effort, both from the side of the family and from the offender him/herself. Many treatment programs have all three objectives; all these typically avoid direct reduction of deviant sexual arousal except by means of thought stoppage or appropriate fantasy substitution. Researchers found that sex offenders who receive treatment that included direct methods to reduce deviant arousal were less likely to re-offend than a group of men whose otherwise similar treatment lacked such a component. Moreover, there are some evidence that show that such a component needs to be introduced at or near the beginning of a treatment program, otherwise sexual aggressors tend to harbor deviant fantasies throughout the later stages of therapy and are more likely to drop out prematurely (http://www.northwestmedia.com/vs./report.html,2005).

All conditioning methods used with sex offenders rely on scripts, audiotapes, or free fantasy to induce deviant arousal, that is, arousal to an illicit sex act. At some point in the procedure, either an aversive stimulus is introduced or the crime scenario (e.g., rape, child molestation, exposing) begins to take on an aversive quality through repetition. Virtually all aversive procedures require dozens, if not hundreds, of trials over a minimum period of 10 days to 12 weeks (http://www.northwestmedia.com/vs./report.html,2005).

Death Penalty and/or vs. The Juvenile Delinquents

According to the statistics given by the FBI, there are actually three types of crimes being committed. First, crimes against the person - or violent crimes - are defined as crimes against people that involve violence or the threat of violence. Examples are murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. Secondly, crimes against property - or property crimes - are defined as crimes that involve theft of property belonging to others. Examples are burglary, larceny-theft, auto theft, and arson. A third category, victimless crimes, is defined, as violations of law in which there are no readily apparent victims. Examples are gambling, prostitution, and the use of illegal drugs (http://www.geocities.com/tdeddins/deviance.htm,2004).

Such classification of crimes is form of deviant behaviors that adults, teenagers and even youngsters do. In February 1963, Gary McCorkell, a 19-year-old sex offender, was scheduled to be hanged. But just days before his execution, the then Liberal cabinet of Lester Person commuted McCorkell to life in prison. Less than 20 years later, McCorkell was arrested, tried, and convicted for the kidnapping and rape of a 10-year-old Tennessee boy. He was sentenced to 63 years in prison. Prior to leaving Canada, he was sought by Metro Police in the attempted murder of an 11-year-old boy. What this has gained? Had McCorkell been executed in 1963, two boys would never have had to go through the horror of being sexually abused. These individuals may themselves become sex offenders, as many sex offenders were sexually abused as children. (http://www.*****/essays/legal/870.shtml,1998).

Such is an example of juvenile delinquent related cases where death penalty could have been a lot useful. In 2004, an argument regarding death penalty and adolescents have been raised. The U.S. Supreme court has implied that the death penalty for teenage murderers should be minimized because this is considered as a "cruel and unusual punishment." The court has further implied that moving down the verdict of capital punishment is just because society has reached a consensus that adolescents are less culpable for their actions than adults (Savage, 2004).

Going back in 1998, the court had already struck down the death penalty for crimes committed before an offender reached the age of 16. A year later the court decided to decline the extension of not putting the 6 and 17-year-old murderers into the death penalty sentence.

This was lifted on the grounds that there was no consensus if it was really immoral to execute people for crimes committed as older teenagers (Savage, 2004). (However, it should also be noted that as early as 1989, the number of states that were allowing and carrying out the juvenile death penalty has been continuously descending. Eventually, all other countries except Somalia have formally rejected the punishment for juveniles Savage, 2004). Hence it's the U.S. And Somalia only, versus all other countries that allow death penalty for juvenile delinquents.

The Media as Factors Increasing Juvenile Delinquency

Because media has really become indispensable, many youths are also very engrossed into using it. In schools, libraries and even at home, children are increasingly becoming involved in various prominent media. In fact, there are series of surveys done which proved that almost over 78% of family households with children have media access at home accessing it in an average of 16.7 hours per week in. With this, it can be strongly inferred that the types of media present today have a very big potential to affect children's minds (Cho, et.al, 2005).

Because of media's powerful capabilities, it is found to be able of exposing children to lots of negative content. Because of the abundance of information available in the various types of media, children can have easy access to negative aspects that may include violence, pornography, hatred sites, isolation, predators, and even commercialism (Cho, et.al, 2005).

Violence

The art of war, pictures full of blood, guns, killings, etc. are all available in television programs, in radios and even in the print medium. In just one click of the finger, all morbid details and gruesome pictures will all pop up in the computer screen. So, even if the parents will limit the youths in viewing violence in the televisions, children can always go to these media to see violence.

Pornography

Now, there have been an increasing number of programs and channels that are for adults only. These sites are those that show nude or pornographic pictures or videos. Though there are sites that state that they are strictly for adults, minors or the adolescents can always get access and force they desire to watch, read or listen to these pornographically related media (Cho, et.al, 2005).

Hatred, Isolated and Commercialized Media

Without purposely getting access, children may have contact media which are not supposed to be seen by them. This is because, sites that contain hatred, isolated and commercialized ones pop up without even being keyed. Youths have the wildest imagination. At the same time, they are very vulnerable and can be easily encouraged to do things which youths should not be doing. With the available information in all types of media and the information full of hate, isolation and commercialization, youths are being exposed to and are actually being commercialized and used as another target market of information which is not supposed to be for them.

Juvenile Delinquency: What to Do About it?

Government intervention is really a must. Enough funding on the youth's welfare, particularly on giving them the right for proper education, shelter, and food should be enhanced. Moreover, social workers, non-government organizations (NGO's) are also there to assist the government in uplifting the lives of the many, hence the government can really work hand-in-hand with this groups.

Various activities are also encouraged to be initiated in highly youth-populated areas so that they may be given venues to enhance their skills in sports and to prevent them from going into abusive drugs and/or crimes.

Indeed, there area lots of venues and activities that can be done so as to improve the welfare of the youths. But all of this needs proper attention for the people who are in the position to do it - the members of the government. The civilians and/or ordinary citizens can only offer help, but they are the ones who should initiate every thing.

Subjects of Study

In-depth literature review is will be conducted in this research. Various credible journals, articles and/or web references dating from the years 1995 and above will be used as references for this study. These references are assumed to be providing ample information regarding juvenile delinquency. The covered years of publication of the references is aimed to be 1995 and above for it is one of the intentions of this paper to cover the most recent and/or updated information and statistical reports concerning juvenile delinquency.

Also, an interview with the recognized juvenile delinquents will be conducted. These juvenile delinquents will be chosen through predetermined approach which will be provided for by several social workers and/or youth developmental organizations.

This research paper aims to interview at least 5 juvenile delinquents. They should be of varied age, socio-economic status and racial upbringing so that a more in-depth analysis can be achieved. The interview will take a minimum of 10 minutes wherein both open-ended and close-ended questions will be addressed to the interviewees.

As for ethical considerations, it should be noted that the interviewees will be adolescents. Questions and the very manner of talking with them should first be approved by the social workers or psychologists handling them. This is because these juvenile delinquents should be carefully addressed carefully in a way that their emotional, psychological and/or social state should not be negatively affected or triggered in anyway. They are in such a vulnerable state that mere questioning or talking with them may result to something unexpected.

Conducting human and literature research needs to follow certain rules guidelines. For human research, permission prior to conducting the research must be sought first. Questions for the interviews must be carefully prepared and the interviewees have the right to see and/or read the questions first and review it before they will provide their own answers. As for literature research, considerations concerning copyright guidelines must be adhered to. Whatever type of literature it is - may it be a journal, a new paper clip, or even a previous research - they must all be cited as part of the Reference List at the end of the paper.

Measurement

The key variables for this research will be both the literatures gathered and the answers to the interview questions. Both of which will play a detrimental part in the discussion of results as well as in coming up for the final conclusion.

Data Collection Method

Data and/or information that will be gathered from both the literature research and the interview will be analyzed through the qualitative approach. Results from the literature search will be paraphrased, summarized and analyzed categorizing the needed information. Same approach will be done in the encoded answers to the human search (or the interview). All the responses of from the interview questions will be noted as part of the discussion and conclusion of this paper.

Design Analysis

Cross sectional design analysis will be used in this research undertaking. This is because it has been assumed that this is the best method to use in a type of study like this, wherein a combination of human and literature search is used. Also, the cross-sectional design analysis is a proven effective method in analyzing qualitative type of information such as what this research will be gathered.

There will be nominal and ordinal data that will be gathered in this paper. Both types of data will come from the literature and the human search.

Schedule

Literature search will be conducted prior to the humans search. Two consecutive weeks will be spent in researching and going to different libraries and/or web research engines. The literature search should be conducted first so that ample information will be gathered before the researcher faces the possible interviewees. It is important that the researcher will have enough understanding of the topic first and the kind of questions to be addressed to the interviewees.

After the thorough literature search, the researcher can then start formulating the questions to be asked to the interviewees. While ding so, the researcher will be allotting the next two weeks in dealing with various youth developmental agencies and social workers to ask for assistance in choosing the best probable interviewees. After the name of the interviewees are given, the researcher will allot another three weeks in meeting the interviewees, asking for their permission to be interviewed, setting an appointment for the interview and finally conducting the interview proper.

Budget

This research undertaking will only be requiring a minimum amount for this to be conducted successfully. Literature research will not entail any amount but pure efforts and time. Human research on the other had may need to incur some amount as a recorder, and some forms of "thank-you" gifts may need to be given to the juvenile delinquent interviewees.