Gang Influence on Juvenile Delinquents

Introduction

The concept of delinquency was first developed in the 19th century before which there was little distinction between adult and juvenile offenders. Children were almost subjected to the same form of punishment as adults. Juvenile delinquency is a term that refers to children who act against the law. Juvenile delinquency refers to delinquent and criminal behavior among young people as they negotiate the transition from childhood to adulthood in on increasingly complex and confusing world. Juvenile delinquent therefore is that person who repeatedly commits crime. It has also been proved that delinquent will do to someone else what has been done to him. There has been much discussion concerning the relationship between juvenile delinquency and the factors that cause or influence the delinquency.

The first Juvenile Court developed in Chicago, the middle and upper classes wanted to control increasing numbers of immigrants and the poor. Additionally conditions of the Cook County Jail and the Chicago House of Correction, where children were being placed with adults, were deplorable. Escalating numbers of youths were imprisoned with hardened adult felons, criminals who corrupted and exposed them to debauchery, crime, and. The reformers composed primarily of middle and upper class women such as Jane Addams, Louise Bowen, and Julia Lathrop, were committed to rescuing the urban American family and its youth by restoring rural values to them. These reformers were aided in their quest by a new emerging philosophy (Donald, pp. 5). The life style of a gangster can seen easily as one of a career criminal, and in many cases this is true; the question that has to be posed is simply why, why would a juvenile chose that life style, one that is surely going to end with tragedy, the death of many friends, family, and almost certain imprisonment.

Juvenile justice began in the colonial period of the United States. It continued the English practices. Family was the primary means of social control of their children. The only law enforcement officials were town fathers, magistrates, sheriffs, and watchmen; and the only penal institutions were jails for prisoners awaiting trial or punishment. The state was committed to raising its children correctly and making them follow society's rules. “These early practice seem to have been integrated into the early Massachusetts Puritan code, which was a model for the U.S. Constitution of 1787.

Discussion

The two separate opinions in relation to juvenile gangs come from the perspective of those who experience the life style and simply those who see the negative effects of the juveniles who are subjected to such a life style. Although the proponents of the gang life style are very few and not well documented the inner social purpose of gang activity is based on as sense of survival that in the environment it is present provides social tools and associations that if not present would cause the gang members to be repeatedly victimized. The opponents of the gang life style would be those of the rest of the ...