SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Juvenile Violence and Delinquency in Light of Sociological Perspectives

Juvenile Violence and Delinquency in Light of Sociological Perspectives

Introduction

The discipline of sociology was born during a century of rapid social change attributable largely to the Industrial Revolution. Social theorists in nineteenth-century Europe devoted much of their attention to the institutional consequences of the erosion of the old social structure. There are three dominant theoretical perspectives in Sociology: Structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism.

This paper discusses the sociological issue of “Juvenile Violence and Delinquency” in connection with a functionalist paradigm perspective, a conflict paradigm perspective and a symbolic interaction perspective.

Discussion

The problem of juvenile delinquency is ever present in the society of the United States. Although much has been done to reduce juvenile delinquency and to throw out the retributive justice approach to crime in general, youth crime and especially violence is still very real in our society. There are six major theoretical approaches which can be utilized to answer two key questions regarding juvenile delinquency. The first question is the possible causes of and justifications for juvenile delinquency and especially violence, on a micro or internal level. The second question is the possible causes and justifications for juvenile delinquency and especially violence, on a macro or societal level. (Best 2003)

Perspectives In Sociology

The three dominant theoretical perspectives in Sociology are: Structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism.

Structural Functional Paradigm

Structural-functional theory addresses the question of social organization and how it is maintained. In the study of society, a sociologist with this perspective tries to identify the structures of society and how they function; hence their name structural functionalism. The structural functional model tries to identify the social structures that exist in society and to examine how these structures relate to the rest of society.Do they work in harmony together? Do they contribute to the maintenance of society. (Ritzer, 2000)

The study of society must begin with an identification of the parts of society and how they work , structural functionalism is basic to all perspectives. Structural functionalist rely on three major assumptions:

Stability: The chief evaluative criterion for any social pattern is whether it contributes to the maintenance of the society.

Harmony: As the parts of an organism work together for the good of the whole, so the parts of society are also characterized by harmony.

Evolution: Change occurs through evolution - the adaptation of social structures to new needs and demands and the elimination of unnecessary structures.

Structural functionalism is called consensus theory as it emphasizes harmony and adaptation. This theoretical perspective owes much to the ideas of Auguste Comte, Father of Sociology. This theoretical perspective has its roots in natural science and the analogy between society and an organism. Herbert Spencer, another architect of this approach, asserted that the human body and society have many things in common. The structural parts of the human body include skeleton, muscles, and various internal organs. These elements are interdependent, with each contributing to the survival of the entire organism. In the same way, various social structures are interdependent, working ...