In many cases, when you remove the child from this type of situation, their tendency for delinquent actions is removed. Similar to neighborhood pressures, peer pressure from direct acquaintances can have an effect on how a juvenile reacts to bad situations. If all of their friends are committing delinquent acts, the child may feel pressured to do the same to be accepted. The best way to avoid this type of situation is to be actively involved with who your child is hanging out with on a regular basis.
Know their friends. This not only instills confidence in your child to do the right thing, but it can also help parents keep their children away from bad influences. Juvenile delinquency is more common in poorer neighborhoods. While all neighborhoods are not exempt from delinquent activities, it is believed they happen more in areas where children feel they must commit crimes to prosper.
Theft and similar crimes may actually be a result of necessity and not that of just a petty crime. The only true help for this situation is to make sure that children in these areas have access to what they need and understand that they do not have to commit a crime to get ahead in life.
Substance abuse in a home or by the child is a very common cause for delinquency. Children who are exposed to substance abuse often do not have the necessities they need to thrive and are forced to find these necessities in other ways. Others, who become dependent on a substance may also need to commit crimes to sustain their habit.
Counseling and treatment for this type of situation is the only real remedy to help these children. This type of situation can cause their self-worth to deteriorate and allow them to commit acts that they would not otherwise have considered. Parental or adult influence is the most important factor in deterring delinquency. When a parent or other adult interacts with the child and shows them what is acceptable behavior and what is considered wrong, the child is more likely to act in a way that is not delinquent.
It is very important for a child to have a bond with a good adult who will influence their actions and show them the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Even if your child has committed an act of delinquency, their lives are not over. You, as their caregiver have the chance to turn around their lives and show them how to change their ways.
Care must be taken in generalizing this literature to girls and minorities and to general populations. Nevertheless, over the past 20 years, much has been learned about risks for antisocial and delinquent behavior. This chapter is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of all the literature on risk factors. Rather it focuses on factors that are most relevant to prevention efforts.
For reviews of risk factor literature, see, for example, Hawkins et al. The chapter discusses risk factors for offending, beginning with risks at the individual level, including biological, psychological, behavioral, and cognitive factors. Social-level risk factors are discussed next; these include family and peer relationships.
Finally, community-level risk factors, including school and neighborhood attributes, are examined. Although individual, social, and community-level factors interact, each level is discussed separately for clarity. A large number of individual factors and characteristics has been associated with the development of juvenile delinquency. These individual factors include age, gender, complications during pregnancy and delivery, impulsivity, aggressiveness, and substance use.
Some factors operate before birth prenatal or close to, during, and shortly after birth perinatal ; some can be identified in early childhood; and other factors may not be evident until late childhood or during adolescence. To fully appreciate the development of these individual characteristics and their relations to delinquency, one needs to study the development of the individual in interaction with the environment.
In order to simplify presentation of the research, however, this section deals only with individual factors.
Studies of criminal activity by age consistently find that rates of offending begin to rise in preadolescence or early adolescence, reach a peak in. Some lawbreaking experience at some time during adolescence is nearly universal in American children, although much of this behavior is reasonably mild and temporary.
Although the exact age of onset, peak, and age of desistance varies by offense, the general pattern has been remarkably consistent over time, in different countries, and for official and self-reported data. For example, Farrington , a , in a longitudinal study of a sample of boys in London the Cambridge Longitudinal Study , found an eightfold increase in the number of different boys convicted of delinquent behavior from age 10 to age 17, followed by a decrease to a quarter of the maximum level by age The number of self-reported offenses in the same sample also peaked between ages 15 and 18, then dropped sharply by age In a longitudinal study of boys in inner-city Pittsburgh just over half the sample was black and just under half was white , the percentage of boys who self-reported serious delinquent behavior rose from 5 percent at age 6 to about 18 percent for whites and 27 percent for blacks at age 16 Loeber et al.
A longitudinal study of a representative sample from high-risk neighborhoods in Denver also found a growth in the self-reported prevalence of serious violence from age 10 through late adolescence Kelley et al. Females in the Denver sample exhibited a peak in serious violence in midadolescence, but prevalence continued to increase through age 19 for the boys. The study is continuing to follow these boys to see if their prevalence drops in early adulthood.
Laub et al. Much research has concentrated on the onset of delinquency, examining risk factors for onset, and differences between those who begin offending early prior to adolescence versus those who begin offending in midadolescence. There have been suggestions that early-onset delinquents are more likely than later-onset delinquents to be more serious and persistent offenders e. There is evidence, however, that predictors associated with onset do not predict persistence particularly well Farrington and Hawkins, There are also important problems with the choice of statistical models to create categories of developmental trajectories Nagin and Tremblay, Research by Nagin and Tremblay found no evidence of late-onset physical aggression.
Physical aggression was highest at age 6 the earliest age for which data were collected for this study and declined into adolescence. The available data on very young children indicates that frequency of physical aggression reaches a peak around age 2 and then slowly declines up to adolescence Restoin et al.
Those who persist in offending into adulthood may differ from those who desist in a number of ways, including attachment to school, military service Elder, ; Sampson and Laub, , sex, age of onset of offending, incarceration, and adult social bonds e. Sampson and Laub found that marital attachment and job stability significantly reduced deviant behavior in adulthood. Farrington and West found that offenders and nonoffenders were equally likely to get married, but those who got married and lived with their spouse decreased their offending more than those who remained single or who did not live with their spouse.
They also found that offending increased after separation from a spouse. Similarly, Horney et al. Within marriages, only good marriages predicted reduction in crime, and these had an increasing effect over time Laub et al. Warr also found that offending decreased after marriage but attributed the decrease to a reduction in the time spent with peers and a reduction in the number of deviant peers following marriage rather than to increased attachment to conventional society through marriage.
Brannigan points out that crime is highest when males have the fewest resources, and it lasts longest in those with the fewest investments in society job, wife, children. Crime is not an effective strategy for getting resources. There is evidence that chronic offenders gain fewer resources than nonoffenders, after the adolescent period Moffitt, The evidence for desistance in girls is not clear. One review of the literature suggests that 25 to 50 percent of antisocial girls commit crimes as adults Pajer, There is also some evidence that women are less likely to be recidivists, and that they end their criminal careers earlier than men Kelley et al.
However, the sexes appear to become more similar with time in rates of all but violent crimes. There is a suggestion that women who persist in crime past adolescence may be more disturbed than men who persist Jordan et al. Several studies have found an association between prenatal and perinatal complications and later delinquent or criminal behavior Kandel et. Prenatal and perinatal risk factors represent a host of latent and manifest conditions that influence subsequent development.
Under the heading of prenatal factors, one finds a broad variety of conditions that occurs before birth through the seventh month of gestation Kopp and Krakow, Similarly, perinatal factors include conditions as varied as apnea of prematurity poor breathing to severe respiratory distress syndrome.
The former condition is relatively benign, while the latter is often life-threatening. Although they are risk factors, low birthweight and premature birth do not necessarily presage problems in development.
Prenatal and perinatal risk factors may compromise the nervous system, creating vulnerabilities in the child that can lead to abnormal behavior. Children with prenatal and perinatal complications who live in impoverished, deviant, or abusive environments face added difficulties.
According to three major large-scale, long-term studies: 1 developmental risks have additive negative effects on child outcomes, 2 most infants with perinatal complications develop into normally functioning children, and 3 children with long-term negative outcomes who suffered perinatal complications more often than not came from socially disadvantaged backgrounds Brennan and Mednick, ; Broman et al.
These and other studies have been unable to identify specific mechanisms to account for the fact that the number of prenatal and perinatal abnormalities tend to correlate with the probability that a child will become a criminal. In addition to the lack of specificity regarding the predictors and the mechanisms of risk, similar measures predict learning disabilities, mental retardation, minimal brain dysfunction, and others Towbin, An association between perinatal risk factors and violent offending is particularly strong among offenders whose parents are mentally ill or very poor Raine et al.
Most measures indicate that males are more likely to commit crimes. They are also more vulnerable to prenatal and perinatal stress, as is shown through studies of negative outcomes, including death Davis and Emory, ; Emory et al. Hyperactivity, attention problems, and impulsiveness in children have been found to be associated with delinquency. These behaviors can be assessed very early in life and are associated with certain prenatal and perinatal histories DiPietro et al.
For example, exposure to environmental toxins, such as prenatal lead exposure at very low levels, tends to adversely affect neonatal motor and attentional performance Emory et al. Hyperactivity and aggression are associated with prenatal alcohol exposure Brown et al. Prenatal exposure to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and nicotine appear to have similar effects. Each tends to be associated with hyperactivity, attention deficit, and impulsiveness Karr-Morse and Wiley, In recent investigations, observable behaviors, such as duration of attention to a toy and compliance with mother's instructions not to touch an object, that are particularly relevant to later misbehavior are observable in the first year of life Kochanska et al.
However, the ability to predict behavior at later ages in adolescence and adulthood from such traits early in life is not yet known. Aggressive behavior is nevertheless one of the more stable dimensions, and significant stability may be seen from toddlerhood to adulthood Tremblay, The social behaviors that developmentalists study during childhood can be divided into two broad categories: prosocial and antisocial. Prosocial behaviors include helping, sharing, and cooperation, while antisocial behaviors include different forms of oppositional and aggressive behavior.
The development of empathy, guilt feelings, social cognition, and moral reasoning are generally considered important emotional and cognitive correlates of social development. Impulsivity and hyperactivity have both been associated with later antisocial behavior Rutter et al. The social behavior characteristics that best predict delinquent behavior, however, are physical aggression and oppositionality Lahey et al. Most children start manifesting these behaviors between the end of the first and second years.
The peak level in frequency of physical aggression is generally reached between 24 and 36 months, an age at which the consequences of the aggression are generally relatively minor Goodenough, ; Sand, ; Tremblay et al. By entry into kindergarten, the majority of children have learned to use other means than physical aggression to get what they want and to solve conflicts. Those who have not learned, who are oppositional and show few prosocial behaviors toward peers, are at high risk of being rejected by their peers, of failing in school, and eventually of getting involved in serious delinquency Farrington and Wikstrom, ; Huesmann et al.
The differentiation of emotions and emotional regulation occurs during the 2-year period, from 12 months to 36 months, when the frequency of physical aggression increases sharply and then decreases almost as sharply Tremblay, ; Tremblay et al. A number of longitudinal studies have shown that children who are behaviorally inhibited shy, anxious are less at risk of juvenile delinquency, while children who tend to be fearless, those who are impulsive, and those who have difficulty delaying gratification are more at risk of delinquent behavior Blumstein et al.
A large number of studies report that delinquents have a lower verbal IQ compared with nondelinquents, as well as lower school achievement Fergusson and Horwood, ; Maguin and Loeber, ; Moffitt, Antisocial youth also tend to show cognitive deficits in the areas of executive functions 1 Moffitt et al. The association between cognitive deficits and delinquency remains after controlling for social class and race Moffitt, ; Lynam et al.
Few studies, however, have assessed cognitive functioning during the preschool years or followed the children into adolescence to understand the long-term link between early cognitive deficits and juvenile delinquency.
The studies that did look at children 's early cognitive development have shown that poor language performance by the second year after birth, poor fine motor skills by the third year, and low IQ by kindergarten were all associated with later antisocial behavior Kopp and Krakow, ; Stattin and Klackenberg-Larsson, ; White et al.
Stattin and Klackenberg-Larsson found that the association between poor early language performance and later criminal behavior remained significant even after controlling for socioeconomic status.
Epidemiological studies have found a correlation between language delay and aggressive behavior Richman et al. Language delays may contribute to poor peer relations that, in turn, result in aggression Campbell, a.
The long-term impact of cognitively oriented preschool programs on the reduction of antisocial behavior is a more direct indication that fostering early cognitive development can play an important role in the prevention of juvenile delinquency Schweinhart et al.
It is important to note that since poor cognitive abilities and problem behaviors in the preschool years also. Executive functions refer to a variety of independent skills that are necessary for purposeful, goal-directed activity. Executive functions require generating and maintaining appropriate mental representations, monitoring the flow of information, and modifying problem-solving strategies in order to keep behavior directed toward the goal.
Several mental health disorders of childhood have been found to put children at risk for future delinquent behavior. Conduct disorder is often diagnosed when a child is troublesome and breaking rules or norms but not necessarily doing illegal behavior, especially at younger ages. This behavior may include lying, bullying, cruelty to animals, fighting, and truancy.
Most adolescents in U. Many adolescents, in the period during which they engage in these behaviors, are likely to meet formal criteria for conduct disorder.
Behavior characterized by willful disobedience and defiance is considered a different disorder oppositional defiant disorder , but often occurs in conjunction with conduct disorder and may precede it. Several prospective longitudinal studies have found that children with attention and hyperactivity problems, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, show high levels of antisocial and aggressive behavior Campbell, b; Hechtman et al.
Early hyperactivity and attention problems without concurrent aggression, however, appear not to be related to later aggressive behavior Loeber, ; Magnusson and Bergman, ; Nagin and Tremblay, , although a few studies do report such relationships Gittelman et al. Another disorder that is often associated with antisocial behavior and conduct disorder is major depressive disorder, particularly in girls Kovacs, ; Offord et al.
In girls, conduct disorder may be a kind of manifestation of the hopelessness, frustration, and low self-esteem that often characterizes major depression. For juveniles as well as adults, the use of drugs and alcohol is common among offenders. In , about half of juvenile arrestees in the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program tested positive for at least one drug.
In these same cities, 2 about two-thirds of adult arrestees tested. Data on adults are collected in 35 cities altogether. Of course, drug use is a criminal offense on its own, and for juveniles, alcohol use is also a status delinquent offense.
A number of studies have consistently found that as the seriousness of offending goes up, so does the seriousness of drug use as measured both by frequency of use and type of drug see Huizinga and Jakob-Chien, In the longitudinal studies of causes and correlates of delinquency in Denver, Pittsburgh, and Rochester see Thornberry et al.
In addition, about three-quarters of drug users in each sample were also involved in serious delinquency Huizinga and Jakob-Chien, Similarly, in the Denver Youth Survey, serious offenders had the highest prevalence and frequency of use of alcohol and marijuana of all youth in the study.
Nevertheless, only about one-third of serious delinquents were problem drug users Huizinga and Jakob-Chien, Although there appears to be a relationship between alcohol and drug use and criminal delinquency, not all delinquents use alcohol or drugs, nor do all alcohol and drug users commit delinquent acts other than the alcohol or drug use itself. Those who are both serious delinquents and serious drug users may be involved in a great deal of crime, however.
Johnson et al. Neverthless, it would be premature to conclude that serious drug use causes serious crime McCord, Whatever characteristics individuals have, resulting personalities and behavior are influenced by the social environments in which they are raised. Characteristics of individuals always develop in social contexts. Children's and adolescents' interactions and relationships with family and peers influence the development of antisocial behavior and delinquency.
Family interactions are most important during early childhood, but they can have long-lasting effects. In early adolescence, relationships with peers take on greater importance. This section will first consider factors within the family that have been found to be associated with the development of delinquency and then consider peer influences on delinquent behavior.
Note that issues concerning poverty and race are dealt with under the community factors section of this chapter. Chapter 7 deals specifically with issues concerning race. In assigning responsibility for childrearing to parents, most Western cultures place a heavy charge on families. Such cultures assign parents the task of raising children to follow society's rules for acceptable behavior. It should be no surprise, therefore, when families have difficulties with the task laid on them, that the product often is juvenile delinquency Kazdin, Family structure who lives in a household and family functioning how the family members treat one another are two general categories under which family effects on delinquency have been examined.
Before embarking on a review of the effects of family structure, it is important to raise the question of mechanisms Rutter et al. It may not be the family structure itself that increases the risk of delinquency, but rather some other factor that explains why that structure is present. Alternatively, a certain family structure may increase the risk of delinquency, but only as one more stressor in a series; it may be the number rather than specific nature of the stressors that is harmful.
Historically, one aspect of family structure that has received a great deal of attention as a risk factor for delinquency is growing up in a family that has experienced separation or divorce. For example, longitudinal studies have found an increased level of conduct disorder and behavioral disturbance in children of divorcing parents before the divorce took place Block et al.
Capaldi and Patterson showed that disruptive parenting practices and antisocial personality of the parent s accounted for apparent effects of divorce and remarriage. Thus, it is likely that the increased risk of delinquency experienced among children of broken homes is related to the family conflict prior to the divorce or separation, rather than to family breakup itself Rutter et al. In their longitudinal study of family disruption, Juby and Farrington found that boys who stayed with their mothers following disruption had delinquency rates that were almost identical to those reared in intact families.
Many discussions of family structure treat single-parent households and divorced families as the same. In this section, the literature on single-parents is reported separately from that on separated and divorced families because there may be considerable differences in the experiences of children born to single parents and those whose parents divorce. Being born and raised in a single-parent family has also been associated with increased risk of delinquency and antisocial behavior.
Research that takes into account the socioeconomic conditions of single-parent households and other risks, including disciplinary styles and problems in supervising and monitoring children, show that these other factors account for the differential outcomes in these families. The important role of socioeconomic conditions is shown by the absence of differences in delinquency between children in single-parent and two-parent homes within homogeneous socioeconomic classes Austin, Careful analyses of juvenile court cases in the United States shows that economic conditions rather than family composition influenced children 's delinquency Chilton and Markle, Statistical controls for the mothers' age and poverty have been found to remove effects attributed to single-parent families Crockett et al.
Furthermore, the significance of being born to a single mother has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. In , Census Bureau, By , births to unmarried women accounted for Gorman-Smith and colleagues found no association between single parenthood and delinquency in a poor, urban U. Nevertheless, children in single-parent families are more likely to be exposed to other criminogenic influences, such as frequent changes in the resident father figure Johnson, ; Stern et al.
Single parents often find it hard to get assistance Ensminger et al. If they must work to support themselves and their families, they are likely to have difficulty providing supervision for their children.
Poor supervision is associated with the development of delinquency Dornbusch et al. An analysis of children born in and in Washington state found that being born to a mother under age 18 tripled the risk of being chronic offender. Males born to unmarried mothers under age 18 were 11 times more likely to become chronic juvenile offenders than were males born to married mothers over the age of 20 Conseur et al. What accounts for the increase in risk from having a young mother?
Characteristics of women who become teenage parents appear to account for some of the risk. Longitudinal studies in both Britain and the United States have found that girls who exhibit antisocial behavior are at increased risk of teenage motherhood, of having impulsive liaisons with antisocial men, and of having parenting difficulties Maughan and Lindelow, ; Quinton et al.
In Grogger's analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of youth, both within-family comparisons and multivariate analysis showed that the characteristics and backgrounds of the women who became teenage mothers accounted for a large part of the risk of their offsprings' delinquency Grogger, , but the age at which the mother gave birth also contributed to the risk.
A teenager who becomes pregnant is also more likely than older mothers to be poor, to be on welfare, to have curtailed her education, and to deliver a baby with low birthweight. Separately or together, these correlates of teenage parenthood have been found to increase risk for delinquency Rutter et al. Nagin et al. Children raised in families of four or more children have an increased risk of delinquency Farrington and Loeber, ; Rutter and Giller, It has been suggested that large family size is associated with less adequate discipline and supervision of children, and that it is the parenting difficulties that account for much of the association with delinquency Farrington and Loeber, Work by Offord points to the influence of delinquent siblings rather than to parenting qualities.
Rowe and Farrington , in an analysis of a London longitudinal study, found that there was a tendency for antisocial individuals to have large families. The effect of family size on delinquency was reduced when parents' criminality was taken into account. Even in intact, two-parent families, children may not receive the supervision, training, and advocacy needed to ensure a positive developmental course. A number of studies have found that poor parental management and disciplinary practices are associated with the development of delinquent behavior.
Failure to set clear expectations for children 's behavior, inconsistent discipline, excessively severe or aggressive discipline, and poor monitoring and supervision of children predict later delinquency Capaldi and Patterson, ; Farrington, ; Hawkins et al. As Patterson , indicates through his research, parents who nag or use idle threats are likely to generate coercive systems in which children gain control through misbehaving.
Several longitudinal studies investigating the effects of punishment on aggressive behavior have shown that physical punishments are more likely to result in defiance than compliance McCord, b; Power and Chapieski, ; Strassberg et al. Perhaps the best grounds for believing that family interaction influences delinquency are programs that alter parental management techniques and thereby benefit siblings as well as reduce delinquent behavior by the child whose conduct brought the parents into the program Arnold et al.
Consistent discipline, supervision, and affection help to create well-socialized adolescents Austin, ; Bender, ; Bowlby, ; Glueck and Glueck, ; Goldfarb, ; Hirschi, ; Laub and Sampson, ; McCord, ; Sampson and Laub, Furthermore, reductions in delinquency between the ages of 15 and 17 years appear to be related to friendly interaction between teenagers and their parents, a situation that seems to promote school attachment and stronger family ties Liska and Reed, In contrast, children who have suffered parental neglect have an increased risk of delinquency.
Widom and McCord both found that children who had been neglected were as likely as those who had been physically abused to commit violent crimes later in life. In their review of many studies investigating relationships between socialization in families and juvenile delinquency, Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber concluded that parental neglect had the largest impact.
Child abuse, as well as neglect, has been implicated in the development of delinquent behavior. In three quite different prospective studies from different parts of the country, childhood abuse and neglect have been found to increase a child's risk of delinquency Maxfield and Widom, ; Smith and Thornberry, ; Widom, ; Zingraff et al.
These studies examined children of different ages, cases of childhood abuse and neglect from different time periods, different definitions of. The findings are true for girls as well as boys, and for black as well as for white children. In addition, abused and neglected children start offending earlier than children who are not abused or neglected, and they are more likely to become chronic offenders Maxfield and Widom, Victims of childhood abuse and neglect are also at higher risk than other children of being arrested for a violent crime as a juvenile Maxfield and Widom, There are problems in carrying out scientific investigations of each of these components as predictors of juvenile delinquency.
First, these behaviors are not empirically independent of one another. Parents who do not watch their young children consistently are less likely to prevent destructive or other unwanted behaviors and therefore more likely to punish. Parents who are themselves unclear about what they expect of their children are likely to be inconsistent and to be unclear in communications with their children.
Parenting that involves few positive shared parent-child activities will often also involve less monitoring and more punishing. Parents who reject their children or who express hostility toward them are more likely to punish them. Parents who punish are more likely to punish too much abuse. Another problem is the lack of specificity of effects of problems in childrearing practices. In general, problems in each of these areas are likely to be associated with problems of a variety of types —performance and behavior in school, with peers, with authorities, and eventually with partners and offspring.
There are also some children who appear to elicit punishing behavior from parents, and this may predate such parenting. Therefore, it is necessary to take account of children's behavior as a potential confounder of the relationship between early parenting and later child problems, because harsh parenting may be a response to a particular child's behavior Tremblay, It is also possible that unnecessarily harsh punishment is more frequently and intensely used by parents who are themselves more aggressive and antisocial.
Children of antisocial parents are at heightened risk for aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behavior e. Where a family lives affects the nature of opportunities that will be available to its members. In some communities, public transportation permits easy travel for those who do not own automobiles.
Opportunities for employment and entertainment extend beyond the local boundaries. In other communities, street-corner gatherings open possibilities for illegal activities. Lack of socially acceptable opportunities leads to frustra-. Community-based statistics show high correlations among joblessness, household disruption, housing density, infant deaths, poverty, and crime Sampson, , Community variations may account for the fact that some varieties of family life have different effects on delinquency in different communities Larzelere and Patterson, ; Simcha-Fagan and Schwartz, In general, consistent friendly parental guidance seems to protect children from delinquency regardless of neighborhoods.
But poor socialization practices seem to be more potent in disrupted neighborhoods McCord, Neighborhoods influence children's behavior by providing examples of the values that people hold, and these examples influence children's perception of what is acceptable behavior. Communities in which criminal activities are common tend to establish criminal behavior as acceptable. Tolerance for gang activities varies by community Curry and Spergel, ; Horowitz, In sum, family life influences delinquency in a variety of ways.
Children reared by affectionate, consistent parents are unlikely to commit serious crimes either as juveniles or as adults. Children reared by parents who neglect or reject them are likely to be greatly influenced by their community environments.
When communities offer opportunities for and examples of criminal behavior, children reared by neglecting or rejecting parents are more likely to become delinquents. And delinquents are likely to become inadequate parents. A very robust finding in the delinquency literature is that antisocial behavior is strongly related to involvement with deviant peers. One longitudinal study reported that involvement with antisocial peers was the only variable that had a direct effect on subsequent delinquency other than prior delinquency Elliott et al.
Factors such as peer delinquent behavior, peer approval of deviant behavior, attachment or allegiance to peers, time spent with peers, and peer pressure for deviance have all been associated with adolescent antisocial behavior Hoge et al. In other words, the effects of deviant peers on delinquency are heightened if adolescents believe that their peers approve of delinquency, if they are attached to those peers, if they spend much time with them, and if they perceive pressure from those peers to engage in delinquent acts.
There is a dramatic increase during adolescence in the amount of time adolescents spend with their friends, and peers become increasingly.
Moreover, peers appear to be most important during late adolescence, with their importance peaking at about age 17 and declining thereafter Warr, Thus the decline in delinquency after about age 18 parallels the decline in the importance of peers, including those with deviant influences.
Consistent with this view, in the longitudinal research of antisocial British youth by West and Farrington , deviant youth reported that withdrawal from delinquent peer affiliations was an important factor in desistance from offending. Peer influences appear to have a particularly strong relationship to delinquency in the context of family conflict. For example, adolescents ' lack of respect for their parents influenced their antisocial behavior only because it led to increases in antisocial peer affiliations Simmons et al.
Patterson et al. And 6th grade association with deviant peers, in turn, predicted delinquency in 8th grade.
In adolescence, susceptibility to peer influence is inversely related to interaction with parents Kandel, ; Kandel and Andrews, ; Steinberg, Other research suggests that adolescents usually become involved with delinquent peers before they become delinquent themselves Elliott, b; Elliott et al.
In those cases in which an adolescent was delinquent prior to having delinquent friends, the delinquency was exacerbated by association with deviant peers Elliott, b; Elliott and Menard, ; Thornberry et al. The influence of peers varies depending on the influence of parents. In general, peer influence is greater among children and adolescents who have little interaction with their parents Kandel et al.
Parents seem to have more influence on the use of drugs among working-class than among middle-class families, and among blacks more than whites Biddle et al. Parents also appear to be more influential for the initial decision whether to use any drugs than for ongoing decisions about how and when to use them Kandel and Andrews, Patterson and his coworkers emphasize both family socialization practices and association with deviant peers as having strong influences on the onset of delinquency.
Adolescents report an increasing admiration of defiant and antisocial behavior and less admiration of conventional virtues and talents from age 10 to age They also consistently report that their peers are more antisocial and less admiring of conventional virtues than they are.
At age 11, boys report peer admiration of antisocial behavior at a level that is equivalent to what peers actually report at age 17 Cohen and Cohen,. Given the effects that delinquency has in the society, it is vital to understand the causes of delinquency. It is also critical to come up with solutions and prevention strategies for delinquency. There has been heated debates world over among criminologists, psychologists, and sociologists concerning the possible causes of delinquency in juveniles.
The causes that are included in the following discussion are those that have been proven through practical research. One of the leading causes of delinquent behavior among juveniles is peer influence. Research shows that young people who form relationships with positive individuals and groups that pursue positive commitments tend to shun delinquent behavior. On the other hand, juveniles can engage in activities that do not have concrete objectives and commitments.
These kinds of activities are likely to lead to volatile relationships that may encourage delinquent behavior. Examples of these behaviors include drinking and smoking. Other behaviors without commitment that juveniles may engage in include watching television, and spending too much time watching movies.
Despite the fact that most people attach no harm to these activities, research has proven that the more time peers spend time watching television, the more likely they are to engage in delinquent behaviors Mandel 1. Another factor that has been proved to contribute to juvenile delinquency is family influence.
It is even suspected that family influence contributes to delinquent behavior more than peer pressure. Research has proven that families in which there is no strong emotional bonding tend to have juveniles who turn out to be delinquent.
This is because the juveniles may develop psychological problems like rejection and low self-esteem, which may lead to delinquent behavior. Other causes of psychological problems like trauma and low self-esteem are also linked to delinquency. The two can originate from sources outside the family. Children who are abused or exposed to family violence are likely to be delinquents. Some studies have linked genes to delinquency, arguing that children who are raised by criminals and drug addicts are likely to become delinquent.
Another risk is a family in which there are no effective communication channels. Children who are raised in this kind of a family may have issues that they want to address, but they may lack audience.
This is likely to make them result to delinquent behavior. Non-traditional families like reconstituted families and single parent families may also be a factor. Research has shown that children who are raised by single parents or divorcees tend to be more delinquent than their counterparts who are raised in traditional families are Mandel 1.
Race is a significant factor in predicting delinquent behavior. The main reason why race is a determinant factor for delinquency is that minority groups are not accorded the same treatment as other races. This makes them to live disgruntled lives, which may make them have delinquent behavior.
Once the trend of delinquency is set in a certain race, the peer influence then fuels recidivism and fresh offense. It is important to note that numerous scholars argue that race is not the factor, but racism is Mandel 1. Juvenile delinquency is a big problem that not only affects the victims of the delinquents, but it also affects the juvenile delinquents themselves, their family, and even the society as a whole.
The juvenile delinquents may not be able to predict the effect of their crimes on themselves, but, as stated, they are seriously affected by these crimes. This will also have an effect on the academic welfare of the juvenile because he or she will miss academic activities that will take place during the probation or incarceration. This will make the juvenile more likely to recidivate, and suffer the consequences of re-offense.
The delinquency of the minor may even dictate his or her career choices in the future. The trauma of having a juvenile delinquent in a family can potentially create instability for other members of the family. The family also has an ethical obligation to the victim of the delinquent. Families are required to attend counseling sessions as a group. This is normally costly and disruptive Barker 1. Juvenile delinquency is closely related to sexual behavior, drug use, gang involvement etc. All these have a negative effect on the community because they make the community unsafe, and they make the government to spend colossal sums of money in school safety and law enforcement.
As stated, juvenile delinquency has serious effects on a number of societal groups. It therefore affects the society negatively by affecting the community, families, individuals etc. The problem also challenges government agencies, organizations, educators, faith communities, and politicians alike Barker 1. Due to the contribution of family influence to delinquent behavior in juveniles, it is vital to ensure that families influence children positively.
This can be achieved by ensuring that there is strong emotional bonding in the family, and laying out effective strategies for communication.
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