Bad Behavior and Juvenile Delinquency: 1037374

Literature review

The objective and aim of the research paper has been formed in the following. This research is about the bad behavior and the juvenile delinquency. A behavior which hurts any other person or even the person behaving in such way is considered as a bad behavior.

According to Friedlander (2013) generally the term juvenile delinquency means a minor child’s behavior which is marked by any criminal activity, disobedience or any persistent behavior of any antisocial nature of which the parents of the child are unable in controlling. However, in legal aspect juvenile delinquency is the law’s violation by any minor that is not to be punished by way of life imprisonment or death.

As per Thompson and Bynum (2016) juvenile delinquency is treated as the unlawful conduct of the minors which is below the age of 18 years, and for which penalties are imposed.  Juvenile delinquency is also termed as the juvenile offending. Participating in any act that is unlawful or illegal behaviour or the commission of any unlawful or illegal act is generally known as the juvenile delinquency or juvenile offending. When the minor commits such unlawful conduct or behaves in an unlawful way they are said to become juvenile delinquents. In the U.S. the juvenile delinquent is considered any person that is exactly below the 18 years of age.

According to Ryan, Williams & Courtney (2013) juvenile delinquency means the any child’s activity that is of antisocial or criminal nature by which the laws are violated and the same activity is to be treated as crime if the same has been committed by any adult person.

According to Woolard, Jennifer and Scott (2009) the juvenile offending or the juvenile delinquency, has been generally divided into this three categories:

  • Delinquency: which are the crimes that the minors have committed, that generally the system of juvenile justice and juvenile courts deals with;
  • Criminal behaviour:  the crimes which the system of criminal justice deals with;
  • Status offenses: The offenses which are only characterised as just because the one is minor, like the truancy, which also the juvenile courts deal with.

As stated by Steinberg, (2008) there are two key predictors of the juvenile delinquency, which are:

  1. The parenting style: which can be also divide into further four styles:
  2. Neglectful parenting
  3. Permissive parenting
  4. Indulgent” parenting
  5. Authoritarian parenting
  6. The peer group association: which is particularly with the peer groups of anti-social nature, which has been more likely at the time, adolescents are generally left by unsupervised.

According to Thompson and Bynum (2016), the ideology of giving same treatment to the juveniles, as same as the adults are all curtailed from Common Law of Great Britain. Under the Common Law of England, the juveniles have been forced to work and were also often trained for domestic or agricultural works.

The purpose of this research paper is to identify and investigate the bad behaviors and juvenile delinquency. After considering the issues of bad behavior and juvenile delinquency the following questions can be raised: 

According to Friedlander (2013) the literal meaning of the term juvenile delinquency is a minor child’s behavior which is marked by any criminal activity, disobedience or any persistent behavior of any antisocial nature of which the parents of the child are unable in controlling. Whereas in legal aspect juvenile delinquency is the law’s violation by any minor that is not to be punished by way of life imprisonment or death. As per Thompson and Bynum (2016) juvenile delinquency is treated as the unlawful conduct of the minors which is below the age of 18 years, and for which penalties are imposed.

When the minor commits such unlawful conduct or behaves in an unlawful way they are said to become juvenile delinquents. As stated by Siegel and Welsh (2014) the juvenile delinquency is the minor act of participating in the unlawful behaviours.

 According to Ryan, Williams and Courtney (2013) juvenile delinquency means the any child’s activity that is of antisocial or criminal nature by which the laws are violated and the same activity is to be treated as crime if the same has been committed by any adult person.

As stated by Shoemaker (2017) the offenses which are committed by the juveniles that is the person below 18 years of age are not termed crimes, the crimes committed by the minors are termed as delinquent, and thus, the juvenile delinquency occurs when a minor commits any unlawful conduct. As defined by Burfeind and Bartusch (2015) juvenile delinquency is considered as a conduct of a juvenile that is characterized by the antisocial behaviour which beyond the control of the parents and is therefore subjected to the legal actions.

Background

According to Thompson and Bynum (2016), before the 1800s, if a crime is committed by a juvenile, then they used to get the same punishment and in same way an adult gets the punishment. The ideology of giving same treatment to the juveniles, as same as the adults are all curtailed from the Common Law of Great Britain. Under the Common Law of England, the juveniles have been forced to work and were also often trained for domestic or agricultural works.

Further, many of the juveniles were being apprenticed into the adulthood. The similar practice of the English Common Law has rapidly made the way into the America and has continued till the early days of nineteenth century.

Though the similar and identical practices have been established in the United States and the juveniles were also tried as the adults for the commission of crimes, all the civic leaders then decided of focusing on the alternative ways of alleviating such harsh conditions of the juveniles in which they have been subjected to.

Thus, they started referring to themselves as saviour of children. The main aim and purpose of the children saviour was of improving the behaviours of the juveniles by way of creating activities, programs and to provide care to those youths. The 1800s had been the Child Saving Movement’s beginning. After this movement’s creation, the children saviours wanted to focus on the creation of programs which focused on the reformation of the juveniles.

For the purpose of accomplishing this, the institution of the New York House of Refuge was done in the year of 1825. The purpose behind such institution was of taking those juveniles who have been considered at the risk on streets and the reformation of them into the setting was being conducive to them, and which had been usually in such a setting that is like a family. In the year 1899, first juvenile court had been established in the Illinois.

 The juvenile court’s development was made in order to allow it for having the jurisdiction over the children below 16 years of age, who were guilty for the violation of the laws, and to provide care to the children who have been neglected, and for ensuring separation of the juveniles and the adult offenders.

 The Juvenile Court Act of 1899’s establishment had been a vital movement in the system of juvenile justice. How the juveniles were being punished for commission of the crimes, have been a lot of different from the punishment which were imposed on the adult offenders of crime. 

The juvenile justice system’s concept was for the allowance of the youths in admitting that they are guilty and focusing on the rehabilitation of the juveniles not by way of punishment rather by the identification of the youth’s needs and the findings of their problem’s solution.

The juvenile delinquency has been an important public concern in the world which refers to the commission of illegal acts which are committed by the minors who have not attained the age of 18 years. According to Siegel and Welsh (2014) Juvenile delinquency is known as the act of the minor’s participation in any unlawful behavior.

As per Ryan, Williams and Courtney(2013) the act of juvenile delinquency is generally categorized in three forms, which are, the delinquency that are the minor’s commission of crimes which the juvenile courts and the justice systems deals with; criminal behaviors which the system of criminal justice deals with and the status offenses that also the juvenile courts deal with. Status offenses are the offenses which are classified in such form as one of the offender was a minor.

As stated by Thompson and Bynum (2016) there are two juvenile delinquency predictors which are; the peer group association and parenting style. The parenting styles are generally of permissive, neglectful, authoritarian and indulgent nature.

As per Hirschi (2017) suicide rates of the young adults are not able in showing the clear decline; there is importance of elucidating the possible factors of risk. The juvenile delinquencies have been pointed out as the possible behavior of risk. Even after the young adult’s morality rates have been decreased steadily over the recent decades, the rate of suicide have not been decreased similarly.

Impact of the juvenile delinquency

According to Siegel and Welsh (2016) Juvenile delinquency is considered a major problem throughout the U.S., at where almost 45,500 minors had been incarcerated in the juvenile’s residential facilities in the year of 2016.

 Even, about the 17% of the peoples who were arrested from the United States have not completed the age of 18 years. The problem not just only affects the crime victims; but also the families and the future of the juvenile delinquents are being affected, even the society has been affected as a whole. As per Hirschi (2017) the effects can be classified into the followings:

Effect on victim

Victims are the most noticeable peoples to whom the juvenile delinquency affects. Whether any vandalism, violence or theft is in involved in such crime, the victim always suffers the loss most. Expenses may be incurred by the victims in relation to the lost wages, psychological care or health care and additionally to the replacing cost of the destroyed or damaged items.

Effect on the juvenile delinquent

Any juvenile committing any crime may also suffer the effects which such person has not probably predicted. The juvenile might lose the freedom which he or she possessed while being in the incarceration or on being placed on the probation. The juvenile might also lose his or her academic grounds as well.

Effect on family

The trauma and upheaval of having any member of the family who has been proved to be a juvenile delinquent might create instability in other relatives. The family may not just be forced of coping up with the child’s need, which has been in a trouble, but also they might be forced of raising a large sum of money for making the payment of the lawyers.

Effect on community

There is correlation between the drug use and the juvenile delinquency, gang involvements, sexual behaviour and alcohol abusing. All such issue challenges the community by way of making the neighbourhood unsafe as well as costing huge sum of the public money in spending on the enforcement of law and for the safety of the school.

Effect on society

Minor people who have committed grave kind of crimes prior to their completion of 18 years of age challenge every involved person’s future. They might have been acting out of for protesting the abuses of perceives nature, which had been committed against such minors. They might believe they have no future beyond the crime life.

They might have been expressing their anger or the frustration against any other person or against any other group or might be seeking the approval of any gang. Whichever be the motive, the juvenile delinquency do affect numerous individuals, communities and families.

The Gap

According to Siegel and Welsh (2016), juvenile delinquency is considered as a major problem in whole world particularly in the United States. It is to be considered as the most serious kind of problems in the society.

The juvenile delinquency has been an important public concern in the world which refers to the commission of illegal acts which are committed by the minors who have not attained the age of 18 years. The juvenile delinquency and bad behavior is a product of the modern industrialization and urbanization.

Two juvenile delinquency predictors are there which are; the style of parenting and the peer group association. The style of parenting is generally of the permissive, neglectful, authoritarian and indulgent nature. A great number of attentions are required for the problem as various affects and causes are involved in it.

17% of the arrested United States citizens are below 18 years of age thus, juvenile delinquency is a serious threat to the society. It has a great effect on the victims as well as on the offender’s future, their family and to the society.

Hypotheses

H1– Juvenile delinquency and Bad behavior has an impact on victims, juvenile delinquents, family, community and the society

H0 – Juvenile delinquency and Bad behavior has no impact on the victims, juvenile delinquents, family, community and the society

Research aim and objective

The aim of this research is to investigate and identify the issue of Juvenile delinquency and Bad behavior. Following are the key objectives to meet the states aim.

  • To identify the impact Juvenile delinquency and Bad behavior on the victim and the society
  • To critically identify the factors causing the bad behavior and juvenile delinquency in youths.
  • To identify the suitable methods of preventing the bad behavior and juvenile delinquency

The research proposal structure

The research proposal structure would include the following chapterization:

The first chapter introduction chapter refers the research study’s introductory chapter, hypotheses, statement of the problem, research aim and objectives, which will be described by the researcher. The second chapter will describe the models and theories along with the selected topic’s concept. The research methodology will be demonstrated in the third chapter. This chapter would describe the method of data collection, the method of data analysis and the data collection result.

Methodology

Introduction

Qualitative study research is the chosen methodology for this paper. For serving the purpose of collecting data, the research would be making use of the qualitative study research method or the secondary research method by way of which the researcher would be presenting legislative provisions, scholarly articles, and books for the purpose of relevant information. Additionally, for the purpose of interpreting and analyzing the data which is to be collected, the researcher would be taking help of the qualitative study research method for the purpose of investigating and identifying the issues and impacts of the juvenile delinquency and bad behavior.

The Independent Variable for the research project is juvenile delinquency and bad behavior and the dependent variables for the research project are victims, juvenile delinquents, family, community and the society. The researcher plans to measure the variables through the use of Graphs and tables. The researcher will also carry out a survey through 50 respondents which would be randomly chosen across a specific population.  All data collected by the researcher will be kept confidential to ensure that no privacy provisions are violated. The researcher will also collect secondary data for the researcher project and ensure that proper referencing and citations have been done to avoid any intellectual property rights issues.

Expected outcome

After the collection of the relevant data and after analyzing the same, the research supports the fact that it is necessary to prevent the bad behavior and juvenile delinquency in today world for the purpose of decreasing the crime rates, suicide rates among the youth, drug abuse, alcohol abuse as well as for securing the public policy and the betterment of the community and the society as a whole. Juvenile delinquency has now become a major worldwide problem which is suffered by the victims, juvenile delinquent themselves, their families, communities and even by the society. In order to reach that purpose several new legislation are to be enacted and the older laws need to be amended and general awareness must be made within the public.

Reference

Burfeind, James, and Dawn JeglumBartusch. Juvenile delinquency: An integrated approach. Routledge, 2015.

Cameron, Roslyn. “A sequential mixed model research design: Design, analytical and display issues.” International journal of multiple research approaches 3.2 (2009): 140-152.

Crouch, Christopher, and Jane Pearce. Doing research in design.Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.

Friedlander, Kate. A Psycho-Analytical Approach to Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Case Studies, Treatment. Routledge, 2013.

Hirschi, Travis. “Causes and prevention of juvenile delinquency.” The Craft of Criminology.Routledge, 2017.105-120.

Hirschi, Travis. Causes of delinquency.Routledge, 2017.

Juvenile Court Act of 1899.

Ryan, Joseph P., Abigail B. Williams, and Mark E. Courtney.”Adolescent neglect, juvenile delinquency and the risk of recidivism.” Journal of youth and adolescence42.3 (2013): 454-465.

Shoemaker, Donald J. Juvenile delinquency.Rowman& Littlefield, 2017.

Siegel, Larry J., and Brandon C. Welsh. Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Siegel, Larry J., and Brandon C. Welsh. Juvenile delinquency: The core. Nelson Education, 2016.

Thompson, William E., and Jack E. Bynum. Juvenile delinquency: A sociological approach. Rowman& Littlefield, 2016.