Social, Community, and Environmental Influences on Delinquency

In today’s society, adolescents are on the rise to becoming delinquents by committing crimes. Officials of the juvenile justice system are attempting to understand what it is that provokes adolescents into committing these crimes and turning to a delinquent lifestyle. It is believed that “social, community and environmental relations exert a powerful influence on an adolescent’s involvement in delinquent activities,” (Siegel, 2012). Youth are considered in danger of following a delinquent lifestyle if they are unsuccessful at school, have a poor home life and no support from their neighborhood. Those who are socially awkward, bully or are bullied and/or engage in substance abuse are often characteristics of chronic offenders. Officials and scientists alike have been endeavoring to find ways to understand if it is biological, environmental or a combination of both that turns these to crime.

 

Some psychologists believe that biology and ethics could be the answer as to why there are more males than females in juvenile centers. Psychologists attribute it to the ways males and females develop in the social world. Males typically have a more aggressive attitude than their counterparts and spend less time in relations with the opposite sex due to bonding with their current friends that happen to be delinquents themselves. Becoming a delinquent causes these social issues to arise. According to the text “Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law,” female delinquency is less than male delinquency because of morals, not wanting to harm others and they are less violent” (Siegel, 2012). How they then are treated and adapt to being in a juvenile delinquent center determines their path.

 

Studies have found a correlation between delinquent behavior and involvement with fellow delinquents. According to McCord and colleagues, "Factors such as peer delinquent behavior, peer approval of delinquent behavior, attachment or allegiance to peers, time spent with peers, and peer pressure for deviance have all been associated with adolescent antisocial behavior" (NAP, 2001).Researchers have acknowledged that peer delinquency is one of the strongest candidates for choosing a delinquent lifestyle due to their influence. Influence from others and then acceptance of delinquent behavior coupled with little interaction and positive influence from their parents is indicative of becoming a delinquent. Negative influence from one’s parents is also a factor.

 

Family dysfunction is the key to understanding deviance and delinquency. Good, strong, functional families focus and pride themselves on protecting their children from risk factors and social deviance. As stated by the National Academies Press “Without help from extended family members, unstable families can be dangerous and more likely prone to negative emotions” (NAP, 2012). The majority of dysfunctional families rely on television and babysitters/nannies/daycares to raise their children instead of taking the responsibility for themselves. Having a disturbed home environment has a significant impact on delinquency since the nuclear family is the primary unit of socialization. According to the text Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law, “family breakup is one of the most enduring controversies in the study of delinquency, and a strong determinant of a child’s law-violating behavior” (Siegel, 2012). Siegel and Welsh also state that,

“Children who have experienced family breakup demonstrate behavior problems and hyperactivity, and are also often associated with conflict, hostility, and aggression. Because blended families are less stable than families consisting of two biological parents, an increasing number of children will experience family breakup two or three times during childhood” (Siegel, 2012).

Children of divorce are suspected of having a lack of supervision, weakened attachment, and greater susceptibility to peer pressure. Due to this, it is understandable that children raised in broken homes are more likely to become delinquent.

 

Research and studies over the past few decades on normal child development and on development of delinquent behavior have shown that individual, social, and community conditions as well as their interactions influence behavior. There is general agreement that behavior, including antisocial and delinquent behavior, is the result of a complex interplay of individual biological and genetic factors and environmental factors, starting during fetal development and continuing throughout life. Clearly, genes affect biological development, but there is no biological development without environmental input.

 

Works Cited

Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control, Committee on Law and Justice, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, National Research Council, Institute of Medicine. "The Development of Delinquency."  Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2001.Retrieved November 20, 2012. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9747&page=80

Siegel, Larry J., Brandon C. Welsh. Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 2012.

The National Academies Press. “Chapter Outline”.  Cengage Learning. 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2012. http://academic.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0495095427_96482.doc