Criminal behavior among the adolescent has caused concern in the society and the need to determine the causes arises. It helps understand how delinquency comes to be and how it can be prevented. The surrounding determines the behavior a youth adopts, such as the neighborhood they reside, the peer groups they are in, schools they attend and the parenting styles. The following articles have helped understand fear of crime and factors that makes adolescent adopt the acts.
Background
There are people who have influential characteristics which make them be known and liked by others. Such individuals receive lots of attention from others and are able to decide what will be expected and acceptable. There are certain theories which explain the influence and the powerful characteristic such as social learning theory. It explains criminal behavior and how peers are influenced by others to adopt such delinquency acts. There are other behavioral models which explain the reason people get influenced much easier, and they explain the broader social network influence (Owen Gallupe, 2015).
Hypotheses
There were two hypotheses which were formulated in the delinquency influence in schools. The first formulation was that the neighborhood characteristic from which the school is established contributed to the level of delinquency influence. The second hypothesis stated that there are various factors in the school surrounding such as the delinquent behavior models which have been formulated and they determine the level of influence in the entire school.
Methodology
Data for the research was attained from the “National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health”. The sample used was taken nationally and consisted of grade 7 American students through the initial 12 waves of the data collection. It was collected between the years 1994 to 1995 and since then follow-up sessions are carried out where the most recent data was taken in the year 2008, and the age group was between 24 and 32 years. The initial sample contained an estimation of 90,000 students, and the research data was grouped by urbanity, ethnic composition, region, school extent, and category (Owen Gallupe, 2015).
Main Results
It was discovered that at the level of bivariate, there shows a substantial affirmative correlation between delinquency and school percentage which was highly popular. The result shows that schools which hold the largest students fraction who are in the very influential contain high levels of crime. From the research, it was concluded that despite the neighborhood characteristic where the school is found, school environment, delinquency behavior plays a stronger role in the determination of the school’s delinquency levels.
Explanations
A relationship exists between personal and peers delinquency through the issue that exists is to determine the nature of the relationship. The first aspect is a determination of the individuals who plays a solid character in the promotion of delinquency behavior. From the study, it was determined that the learning institutions with higher students’ percentage that are popular and high delinquency contain high levels of delinquency. There are social factors that as well contribute to the delinquency levels such as the school climate, neighborhood climate, and baseline delinquency (Owen Gallupe, 2015).
Limitations
The sample size that was used for the study was too big. Taking data from 90000 students is tiring, and there might be confusion. Even when it comes to data analysis, there might be some issues, and incorrect results may be concluded.
Parental Influence
Background
The fear of insecurity and crime is real in the society and parents worry that their children might be influenced in the process. Adolescents between the age 14 and 18 are likely to get into crime activities. Parents determine the behavior their children adopt depending on the parenting style they were practicing. The parental supervision level mostly the fathers are associated with fears while some leisure activities cause fear among female children (Groof, 2008).
Hypotheses
It was formulated that the differential parental effects cause fears of crime among the boys and girls who are at young age. It is contributed by the parenting styles. Leisure and media patterns have a large influence on the different gender and the levels of fears among the boys and girls. It was hypothesized that the level of fear among the girls is more than the youth boys.
Methodology,
Data was attained through structural equation modeling. The approach was applied to differentiate between total and direct effects on some variable do not contain direct influence but have an indirect influence through other variables. Various studies were carried out which shows relationships between the exogenous variables. From the data collected, it was discovered that the adolescent who gets close supervision leads to increased fears of crime. There are also social factors such as cultural and leisure activities which reduce media influence (Groof, 2008).
Explanation
Conclusion
Delinquency among the young children is influenced by different factors. When the adolescents are victimized or get any influence from their parents and social media, they tend to gain the fear of crime. Some parents make their children fears crime through supervision. The levels of fear are higher among the boys than the girls. Parents should be able to determine best methods which they can approach their children with so that they cannot victimize them and same time guide them in doing the right way to avoid being influenced by others easily.
References
Groof, S. D. (2008). And My Mama Said . . .The (Relative) Parental Influence on Fear of Crime Among Adolescent Girls and Boys. Free University of Brussels, Belgium, 27.
Owen Gallupe (2015): The influence of popular and delinquent adolescents on school delinquency: specifying the key delinquent models, Journal of Crime and Justice, DOI: 10.1080/0735648X.2015.1070739
