JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Research Design: Juvenile Delinquency

Research Design: Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency refers to the crimes carried out by young people or minors. A criminal is one who relapses and commits crimes repeatedly. Most legal systems consider specific procedures for dealing with this problem, such as juvenile detention centers. There are many different theories about the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the causes of juvenile crimes. Juvenile crime often receives great attention from the media and politicians. This is because the level and types of juvenile crimes can be used by analysts and the media as an indicator of the general state of morality and public order in a country and as a result can be a source of alarm and moral panic. Like most types of offences, crimes committed by juveniles have increased since the mid-twentieth century. There are many theories about the causes of juvenile crimes, regarded as particularly important within criminology. This is because the number of crimes increases dramatically between fifteen and twenty years. Second, any theory about the causes of crime, juvenile crimes should be considered as adult criminals are likely to have had a beginning in crime when they were young (Loeber, 1998).

Undoubtedly, juvenile delinquency is one of the major social phenomena that our societies have raised, and is one of the preferred international criminological problems from the last century as the manifestations of social behavior called the attention of a negative can be seen; generally better among young people in the adult population. It is also important to juvenile delinquency and crime today as adult as possible tomorrow. Juvenile delinquency is a global phenomenon, as it extends from the far corners of the industrialized city to the suburbs of large cities, from the rich or affluent families to the poorest, is a problem that occurs in all social strata and in every corner of our civilization (Feld, 1999).

One may ask why juvenile delinquency is viewed as a separate construct from adult deviant behavior. The answer to this legitimate question is derived historically from societal attitudes about children (Aries, 1962). Only after the Victorian Age were children seen as emotionally and intellectually developing human beings. During the Victorian Age, children were simply viewed as little adults. They were not regarded as having a world of their own. Their reality was that of their elders. With the industrial revolution and the social reforms that followed (child labor laws, mandatory educational requirements, etc.), children were viewed as a group to be protected. From this attitude concerning the welfare of children sprang the juvenile justice system. The role of the juvenile justice system was to rehabilitate wayward youth. The idea of parent's, the court acting as the parent, became the foundation for the juvenile justice system. Unlike the adult criminal justice system, which was a penal system demanding restitution and levying penalties for breaking the law, the juvenile justice system was seen as a means to reform adolescents ...