Introduction
Juvenile crime or offending by minors has become an issue that deserves critical examination given its impacts both on the criminal justice system and the society at large. A juvenile or a delinquent refers to a person who has not reached the age of majority and who has come into contact with the criminal justice system as a result of having committed a minor offence which would normally be criminal if committed by an adult. Examples of juvenile or status offences include truancy, disobedience of parents, shoplifting, consumption of alcohol, tobacco purchase or smoking, sneaking out of school or running away from home, engaging in sexual behaviors, and curfew or parole violation (Wasserman et al., 2003). While a plethora of literature has been written on the subject of juveniles and crime, very little attention has been paid to the specific reasons why juveniles commit crimes. It is through a proper understanding of the root causes of their engagement in criminal activities that the vice can be effectively controlled by the society and the justice system. This research proposal seeks to unearth some of the reasons why juveniles commit crimes and the policy implications thereof.
Literature Review
Most studies on the reasons why juveniles engage in criminal offending tend to consider the risk factors that usually drive or push young adolescents to commit crimes and thus face the criminal justice system. According to Simoes, Matos and Batista-Foguet (2008)), these factors may be classified into family background factors,environmental factors, individual characteristics, biological factors, and peer influence due to association with antisocial behaviors. This author notes that the family factor is one of the most important risk factor for juvenile offending and includes poverty or low family income that drives young persons into crime to fend for them and lack of proper parental care, guidance, love, warmth and affection in childhood. Moreover, the author argues that research by psychologists and child development experts shows that children who grow up or are brought up in troubled families are more likely to commit crimes in future than those from peaceful families. Further, individual characteristics of adolescents such as low self-esteem or self-control, impulsive and hyperactive characters may increase the propensity of minors to engage in crimes such as street violence and gang membership. As to the environmental factors, the nature of the school or home environment has a strong influence on what minors grow to become. Where children grow up in a social environment where there is increased exposure to violence or contact with antisocial behaviors they are likely to engage in crimes since they develop the misguided notion that that is the way of life in order to survive. On the other hand, peer influence also plays a significant role in contributing to crime among juveniles. Using the social learning theory, it may be easily understood how juveniles learn to commit crime either from adults or fellow adolescents through copying. Further, history of violence and antisocial behavior or disorderly conduct such as bullying, stealing, lying and pranking may be risk factors for juvenile crimes.
Other writers, Wong, Slotboom and Bijleveld (2010) also argue that some of the risk factors related to juvenile crime include easy access to drugs or firearms, poverty, unstable family life, repeated exposure to violence, and association or contact with delinquent peer groups. According to these authors, the media and demise of the traditional family life have also contributed to a great extent to juvenile crime mostly in Western nations like the US where single parent families are on the increase. The same is true to less developed nations where poverty forces most children to the streets where they resort to crime as the only means to survive. With advancements in modern technology, the media has led to increased juvenile offending due to more exposure by children to violent and extreme media programs such as movies and computer games. Coupled with lack of or insufficiency of family or parental guidance, media content that portray certain antisocial behaviors as being ‘cool’ has seriously encouraged antisocial and criminal behavior by young adolescents.
Other causes of juvenile crime or reasons juveniles commit crime according to Wasserman et al. (2003) failure in school due to poor attendance or performance, drop outs and expulsion, substance abuse negatively affecting juvenile behavior, family problems or history of criminal activity, gang membership , pattern conduct behavior problems such as chronic theft and gun possession by However, according to this author, drugs or substance abuse and poverty remain some of the most common causes of juvenile crime. Additionally, poor parent-child relationship, antisocial parents, low socioeconomic status, lax or harsh parents, family conflicts and poor supervision or abuse parents can also lead to some young people committing crimes or engaging in delinquency (Petrosino, Derzon, & Lavenberg, 2009). Also, an individual features such as aggression; gender, physical violence, low IQ, restlessness and lack of concentration also contribute to juvenile crime according to this writer. In addition, community and school factors such as low academic aspirations, disorganized neighborhoods, presence of delinquent peer groups in one’s surrounding environ, and lack of societal values have also been identified as causing juvenile crime. Divorce, parental neglect, mistreatment of children, parental psychopathology and, association with deviant peers, family structure, intelligence, poor cognitive development and poor parenthood may also lead to juvenile criminal behavior. Parenting style, economic, social, psychological and moral problems in the family, labelling by the society, ab usive behavior, peer group rejection, individual social, psychological mand physical concerns are also other reasons why juveniles commit crimes (Krupa, & Childs, 2014).
Research Question and Hypothesis
The main research question that this paper seeks to answer or find a solution to is: What are the main causal or risk factors responsible for crime commission by juveniles? Further, this research proceeds on the assumption that drug abuse, poor parenting or family problems, poverty and the media are some of the most important risk factors for juvenile crime.
Analysis
The unit of analysis in this paper will be juvenile crime rates in different social settings. These will make it possible to identify the factors that contribute to a great extent to juvenile crime.
Sampling Technique
The study intends to employ random sampling method in which each member of the study population will have an equal chance of being selected to participate in the study on juvenile crime rates and causal factors as variables.
Potential Spurious Relationships and How to Control them
Some of the spurious relationship that are likely to be encountered in this study include the number of juveniles involved in crime, number of juvenile crimes in a state, family factors, drug abuse and peer influence among juveniles. These will be controlled by identifying and ruling them out of the study population but taking account of them in the final interpretation of results.
Policy Implications of Research
The findings, conclusions and recommendations of the final study on juvenile crime in this research are expected to inform policy actions, decisions and reforms in a number of significant ways. To begin with, this study will inform relevant government policies to address the problem of juvenile crime through legislative and legal mechanisms. It is expected that the findings of this study will influence governmental action by the relevant authorities to act on some of the prevalent causes of juvenile crime such as drug abuse, low socioeconomic status or poverty, breakdown in families and poor parenting.
References
Krupa, J. M., & Childs, K. K. (2014). Trajectories and risk factors of criminal behavior among females from adolescence to early adulthood. Laws Journal, 3, 651-673. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from www.mdpi.com/journal/laws/
Petrosino, A., Derzon, J., & Lavenberg, J. (2009). The role of the family in crime and delinquency: Evidence from prior quantitative reviews. The Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, 6(2), 108-132.
Simoes, C., Matos, M. G., & Batista-Foguet, J. M. (2008). Juvenile delinquency: Analysis of risk and protective factors using quantitative and qualitative methods. Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7(4), 389-408.
Wasserman, G.A., Keenan, K., Tremblay, R.E., Cole, J,D., HerrenkohL, t.t., Loeber, R., & Petechuk, D. (2003. April). Risk and protective factors of child delinquency. US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Bulletin Series. Retreived April 22, 2016, from https://www.ncjrs.gov//193
Wong, T. M., Slotboom, A.-M., & Bijleveld, C. C. (2010). Risk factors for delinquency in adolescent and young adult females: A European review. European Kournal of Criminology, 7(4), 266-284. doi: 10.1177/1477370810363374
