Historical Constructs:
Deprived and depraved children; and the causes of delinquency
There is a sizable difference in children who are deprived and those who are depraved. One is lacking in the physical essentials of life while the other is lacking mentally and or emotionally (Deprived, n.d.) (Depraved, n.d.). Children who are deprived do not have the means with which to live a healthy normal life. This may include lacking a healthy nutrition or a lack of clothes or a proper living quarters. These children can be helped. They can be provided with the physical things they are lacking. Depraved children are those who are deficient morally. They have an absence of understanding what is right. They are willing to do evil things with little to no remorse. Often young depraved children have no perception that their behavior is bad, they just do not have the ability to translate good behavior. These children must be treated totally different from deprived children. A depraved child needs counseling or psychological help, which may or may not help them. Depending on the depth of their depravation they may need to be isolated from others during their therapy. Thus these children can not be treated the same. Deprived children can have their conditions positively affected relatively quickly, while depraved children need long, in-depth therapy while possibly being isolated from others.
Delinquency is the violation of a law if committed by an adult would be a crime (Cardozo, 2012). According to Warren Hurlbut, who for many years was an acting superintendent for the Division of Juvenile Corrections Services in Rhode Island, “a prominent issue was that many of the risk factors correlated with each other and created ‘clusters of risk factors.’” (as cited in Cardozo, 2012, p. 8). Therefore when attempting to measure which of poverty, parenting or adolescence would be the greatest cause, it would be difficult to separate the effect of the three. It would seem that strong leadership in the home would be able to help adolescents to rise above the other factors. Strong parenting would help to overcome poverty since they would be a shared commodity within the home. Influencing the young pre-adults to stay at home would lessen the effect of adolescence, the peer pressure young people feel to fit in and to do what the group or the friends are doing. However, the pull of poverty at home may be so strong as to force adolescents to leave, to ‘hang out’ with their friends more often which could lead to delinquent behavior. While it is clear that these three factors are interrelated in potentially leading to delinquency, if there was to be one that has the ability to be more of a determining factor it would be the leadership of strong parenting. Strong influential parenting would create strong character within individual adolescents, which would help steer them from delinquent behavior.
References
Cardozo, L. (2012). Juvenile Delinquency: An Investigation of Risk Factors and Solutions (Unpublished master's thesis). Salve Regina University. Retrieved January 20, 2017, from http://digitalcommons.salve.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=pell_theses.
Depraved. (n.d.) In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/depraved.
Depraved. (n.d.) In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deprive.
