Juvenile Delinquency and Violentization. CRIMINOLOGY ESSAY

Research Paper
Student’s Name
Institution
Course
Date
RESEARCH PAPER
A Research of Juvenile Delinquency among Youths in Secondary Schools in California, United States
Introduction
Juvenile delinquency refers to the criminal and antisocial behaviors that are committed by people who are below 18 years of age. Once an individual becomes an adult, criminal and antisocial behaviors are referred to as crime. In other terms, criminal delinquency is the child and adolescence version of the crime. Juvenile delinquency is very important in the society because sometimes children and adolescents are committing delinquent offences which might result in violence and other forms of victimizations. In the United States, over one million children and adolescents are always arrested by police officers because of their delinquent offences. California has the highest rates of gang-related violence and homicide cases committed by youths.
Children whose guardians have been incarcerated are likely to get involved in delinquent behavior with other peers. Studies indicate that imposing strict rules can help decrease the rate of delinquency in society. However, these rules have not been effective because these behaviors have continued to increase. Sometimes children can engage in crime because there is lack of laws and supervision. For example, children can commit crimes after leaving school because their parents are preoccupied at work. Statistics show that these are the peak hours when the rate of juvenile delinquency is high.
Additionally, mental illness and drug abuse contribute to juvenile delinquency. For example, 20% of those juveniles who are convicted have serious mental illnesses. The percentage has continued to increase as time passes by.
The primary purpose of this research is to examine juvenile delinquency and violentization of youth living in high violence societies in California. Children are born crime-free. It is the surroundings of the community, which teaches them to engage in crime. Therefore the society needs to ensure there are available resources, equal opportunities, and health atmospheres for children to grow with a mind that is free from crime. Quantitative research will be conducted, and this will entail interviews and questionnaires given to parents, students, teachers, and educators from two schools in California. This topic is essential to society because children and youths are at a high risk of being exposed to violence.
Literature Review
Juvenile delinquency is a serious global problem, and it has troubled a lot of communities. The issue is not a new phenomenon. In the article titled “Appetitive aggression and adaptation to a violent environment among youth offenders” by Weierstall, Hinsberger, Kaminer, Holtzhausen, Madikane, and Elbert, juvenile delinquency is an old problem, and it is widespread. The author also estimates that youths committed approximately 60% of the death crimes that had occurred in a school in the United States between 1990 and 2010 (Dierkhising, Lane, & Natsuaki, 2014). There was an incident in California when a student was shot dead during class hours. An art technical director and human resource officers were also killed by students in the school premises (Siegel, & Welsh, 2014). Even though the rates of juvenile delinquency are relatively low in Japan and India, this is an issue that needs to be addressed with immediate effects. Other studies also agree with these findings. Nourollah, Fatemeh, & Farhad (2015), supports these claims and points to the existence of juvenile misconduct in the United States.
According to Nourollah, Fatemeh, & Farhad (2015), the number of youths who have been convicted via the Juvenile courts has increased. In 1960, 1,100 delinquency cases could be solved daily. In 2009, the courts in the United States could handle more than 4,000 cases per day. In 2013, the rates decreased, and the courts handle 2900 cases every day. The authors assert that the number of delinquency behaviors increased to 30% between 1985 and 2009. But there was a decrease in 2013. Delinquency caseloads involve property offences, drug abuse, and increased public order offences. Young, Greer, & Church (2017), asserts that the government should focus on preventing these juveniles from becoming criminals in adults in the future. Although detainment and incarceration are essential for the minors, long-term imprisonment has done more harm than good. This is because it had led to increased rates of recidivism and continued offending. The authors assert that community-based programs have been more effective in reducing the rate of recurrence and re-offending of the youths. Young, Greer, & Church (2017), estimates that the rate of mental illness among adolescents is consistently higher. Those youths who have been incarcerated have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.
Juvenile Delinquency is a global problem. Studies indicate that, historically, communities have continued to battle with this problem. In the modern world, the rates of juvenile misconducts have increased because of unemployment, ineffective educations systems, rapid population growth, and overcrowding in urban centres. Some theories have been developed to understand the problem. The first theory is adolescence is a developmental phase. According to Young, Greer, & Church (2017), children undergo emotional, physiological and psychological changes. During such periods, they are likely to commit delinquent acts which the society might condemn (Zajac, Sheidow, & Davis, 2015). Social control there is another theory that is used. According to this theory, social disorganization can affect an individual negatively, and this can trigger one to commit a crime. When the environment fails to give positive socialization, in cases like poverty, deviant peer, youths will resort to crime. Theory of crime asserts that social bonds assist teens not to engage in delinquents acts. On the other hand, Anomie and Strain theories argue that society is supposed to impose norms that w...