Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Franjic S
Keywords : Juvenile; Behavior; Crime; Justice
Juvenile delinquency, as
a form of socially unacceptable behavior, is a current socially negative
phenomenon that imposes the need for greater community engagement in solving a
number of unresolved problems that are accumulating and deepening from year to
year. Juveniles commit crimes alone, in peer groups and with adults. The number
of committed criminal acts is also increasing, during which juveniles show
special ruthlessness, cruelty, and persistence in committing property criminal
offenses committed in a short period of time.
A theory is an
explanation [1]. It tells why or how things are related to each other. A theory
of crime explains why or how a certain thing or certain things are related to
criminal behavior. For example, some theories assume that crime is a part of
human nature, that human beings are born evil. In those theories, human nature
is the thing explained in relation to crime. Other theories assume that crime
is caused by biological things (for example, chromosome abnormalities, hormone
imbalances), psychological things (such as below-normal intelligence,
satisfaction of basic needs), sociological things (for instance, social
disorganization, inadequate socialization), economic things (such as poverty,
unemployment), or some combination of all four kinds of things. In the chapters
that follow, a variety of things associated with crime are examined. (Note
that, unless indicated otherwise, the term crime includes delinquency.)
Scientific theories are
comprised of (1) concepts, (2) definitions of concepts, and (3) propositions.
Those “things” mentioned in the previous paragraph, including criminal
behavior, are called concepts. Concepts are words or phrases that represent
some phenomenon in the world. The object of theory is to explain the
interrelationship of concepts, that is, how concepts are related to each other.
For example, through theory, we might attempt to explain how the concepts of
crime and poverty are interrelated. Does poverty cause crime? Does crime cause
poverty?
Adolescent crime has been
studied using many labels [2]. The most common label for adolescent criminal
behavior has been delinquency. Delinquency encompasses a range of norm-breaking
behaviors that apply to adults and minors. Behaviors for which adults are
criminally responsible include drug use and violent offenses against other
persons (e.g., assault), property (e.g., vandalism, arson), and public order.
In addition to criminal violations, minors also are responsible for status
offenses.
Research has shown that
children who engage in problem behaviors are likely to be exposed to multiple
risk factors. Multiple-risk factors (e.g., childhood defiant behavior,
impulsivity, parental impulsivity, and aggressiveness) contribute directly to
engagement in problem behaviors as well as other negative outcomes (e.g.,
undermined parenting practices). These other negative outcomes, in turn,
further contribute to problem behaviors as when lax parental monitoring leads
to negative peer associations and overall declines in monitoring of negative
behaviors. The earlier a child engages in problem behaviors, the more likely he
or she is to continue such behaviors throughout his or her adolescent and adult
years.
In addition to the
negative impact criminal behaviors have on offenders, their families, and their
victims, there are external costs to society in terms of loss of productivity,
legal costs, treatment, rehabilitation, and/or incarceration.
Explanations of juvenile
delinquency require consideration of two sets of elements [3]. These are, on
the one hand, the driving forces, the reasons or motives behind the act and, on
the other, the obstacles that stand in its way, the restraints that inhibit its
occurrence. In principle, it is possible to construct an explanation of
delinquency that gives each set of elements, if not equal weight, at least some
role in the outcome. In practice, equal treatment of motives and restraints
turns out to be difficult. Once the theorist tends in one direction or the
other, logic quickly takes him to an extreme position. As a result, theories of
delinquency usually focus on one set and ignore or exclude the other. Theorists
favoring motives of course find support for their position in human nature, the
logic of science, and in the brute facts of experience. Those favoring
restraints find, in the same places, equal support for their views. The choice
between these extremes then takes on the character of an all-or-none political
or ideological decision, with the student asked to choose between causation and
deterrence, between social science and law, between the liberal and
conservative approaches to public policy.
The notion that parents
are responsible for or otherwise influence their children’s positive and
negative behaviors has existed for thousands of years [4]. Ancient Greeks,
Romans, Chinese, and others considered the roles of parents in ensuring that
children become responsible, productive, and law?abiding adults. And this
emphasis continues today, perhaps more so now that at any point in human
history. The large number of popular parenting books, media, and academic
research attest to its depth and breadth.
The concept of parenting
has biological, legal, and social aspects. The notion of a biological parent
has been complicated in recent years by advances in reproductive technology,
which, in turn, have affected the legal status of parenting. Although a
subsequent section on family structure will return to some biological and legal
characteristics of parenting, at present the most important aspect involves the
social. Parenting as a social endeavor involves various facets of childrearing
responsibilities, including relations between parents, with children, and with
the broader social structure that has concerns about socializing children
(e.g., educational institutions). Childrearing is also seen as entailing moral
responsibilities. Parents are accountable for making decisions that are in the
best interests of their children, protecting them from harm, and providing resources
that allow their children to develop physiologically, mentally, and socially.
While divorce is a
reality in our society, parents can work together to provide a united message
about the importance of education for their children [5]. Reinforcing the
importance of education in both homes provides the child with consistency with
regards to academic success. In addition, as difficult as it may be, parents
could attempt to be present at school functions, provide academic resources in
both homes and present a uniform message regarding homework and grades, again
reinforcing the importance of school and the educational experience. When
parents are present at school events and school activities involving their
child, it not only reinforces the parent-child bond, but also validates the
student’s involvement in school improving the student-school bond.
Parents can also be
present in the life of their children by knowing who their kids are hanging out
with and what they are doing. Of particular note inquiring about how their
child is doing in school and within the school environment. A parent can make a
substantial difference in the life of their child simply by monitoring how he
or she is doing. Parental involvement can potentially lead to higher grade
point averages and lower levels of participation in delinquency, drug use and
association with delinquent peers. All of which will improve a student’s bond
to school. Delinquency research consistently identifies association with
delinquent peers as the strongest predictor of juvenile delinquency. If parents
know their child’s friends it might make a significant impact on their child’s
delinquent behavior and help ensure that the student is successful in the
school environment.
A general trend toward
socialization occurs during this time [6]. With respect to physical aggression,
this downward trend continues through adolescence. Two things change as
children move into adolescence, however: opportunities for engaging in problem
behavior increase, and adults react differently to misbehavior. Alcohol, other
drugs, and weapons become more available to youths, thus increasing the
potential harm to self and others resulting from their antisocial behavior.
Work becomes available, providing discretionary money with which to purchase
illegal commodities. Parental supervision diminishes. Association with
delinquent peers becomes easier. These increases in opportunities for problem
behavior explain the increase observed in certain types of problem behavior during
adolescence. Also, whereas delinquent acts in early and middle childhood are
usually responded to informally by parents and teachers, delinquent
preadolescents and adolescents are more at risk for of?cial sanction by police
and the courts. This shift in response creates the appearance of a rapid
increase in antisocial behavior in early adolescence when only of?cial records
are examined.
One advantage to being
able to identify genetic or neuropsychological predictors of criminality is
early intervention [7]. A primary objective of such research is identifying the
potential of juvenile offenders to reoffend. However, using genetic,
biopsychological, or other physiological measures to identify juveniles with a
greater likelihood to reoffend poses a number of ethical and social challenges.
The risks of labeling
juveniles as biologically predisposed to reoffend seem clear. Labeling is
particularly powerful in children, influencing their scholastic careers in
addition to future employment. The impact of biological labeling on children
can be greater than that of behavioral labeling. We know, for example, that a
finding of “low IQ” influences how children are treated beyond the impact of
the intelligence level itself. While most teachers and others who work with
children understand that children go through developmental phases, so that the
misbehaving child today may mature into a well-behaved adolescent later, what
kind of developmental benefit-of-the-doubt would a teacher give a student who
is believed to be biologically predisposed to bad behavior?
The impulse, should we
believe we have biological predictors for delinquent behavior, would be to
track or intervene early in selected juveniles. Yet research shows that there
are significant risks in separating juveniles out of the mainstream, even to
administer justice. For example, juveniles who offend similarly are much more
likely to end up in the adult penal system later in their lives if they get
involved in the juvenile justice system in the first place—in other words,
those that get caught, or those caught who are not released with a warning but
arrested or turned in, are far more likely to reoffend than those who get away
or are let go. So it is worrisome that “potential” juvenile off enders might be
placed in a preventive program, or that “biological” offenders might be given
more intense or different involvement in the juvenile justice system. The
entire enterprise could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Characteristics and/or
risk factors are generally considered those factors that are associated with an
increased probability that a juvenile will engage in illegal acts [8]. A
variable may be identi?ed as a “risk factor” if it is associated with the youth
before he or she is adjudicated as a juvenile delinquent and if it still exists
after other possible confounding variables have been controlled. A variety of
risk factors appear to place certain youth at risk for engaging in illegal
acts, although the mere presence of such risk factors does not imply causation
or indicate that a particular individual will, in fact, engage in such acts.
Such risk factors only suggest that there will be an increase in the
probability that a youth will engage in delinquent behavior—they do not make it
a certainty. It is notable, however, that research has found a cumulative
effect of risk factors, in that having multiple risk factors places a youth at
a greater risk of engaging in illegal acts and problematic behaviors.
Four types of prevention
can be distinguished [9]. Criminal justice prevention refers to traditional
deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation strategies operated by law
enforcement and criminal justice agencies. Situational prevention refers to
interventions designed to reduce the opportunities for antisocial behaviour and
to increase the risk and dif?culty of committing antisocial acts. Community
prevention refers to interventions designed to change the social conditions and
social institutions (e.g. community norms and organisations) that in?uence
antisocial behaviour in communities. Developmental prevention refers to
interventions designed to inhibit the development of antisocial behaviour in
individuals, by targeting risk and protective factors that in?uence human
development.
Prevention methods should
be based on knowledge about risk and protective factors [10]. Numerous risk
factors have been identi?ed for different types of antisocial behaviour, but
there has been insuf?cient research on risk factors for the antisocial syndrome
in general or for APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) or psychopathy. It is
unclear how far risk factors are the same for all types of antisocial acts.
Important risk factors include conduct disorder,
hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention de?cit, low intelligence and attainment,
inconsistent or harsh discipline, poor parental supervision, divorce/separation
of parents, and socio-economic deprivation. However, little is known about the
in?uence of these risk factors on different stages of antisocial careers such
as onset, persistence, escalation, duration or desistance, or about the
independent, interactive or sequential effects of risk factors.
Scholars, professionals,
and lay people debate what causes young people to commit crimes [11]. Some
argue that there are “bad” individuals who already from childhood are out of
control and that many of them become life-course persistent delinquents. Others
argue that juvenile delinquents are to a high degree a product of their
environment: the worse their environment, the worse their behavior over time.
Childhood is usually seen
as a period in which individuals have not yet fully developed self-control and
their impulses tend to lead to misbehavior and acts of delinquency. This is why
parents, teachers and other adults during the period from childhood into
adolescence help to modulate children’s poor internal controls, teach them
skills to navigate problems in life, and help them avoid inflicting harm on
others. Thus the years across childhood and adolescence are seen as a crucial
period in which to bring about in young people a shift from external to
internal controls. However, in late adolescence and early adulthood the
appearance of physical maturity does not necessarily mean that mental maturity
has been fully achieved and that internal controls are completely formed and
are regularly exercised by the young person.
The presence and growth
of internal controls can be evidenced in several complementary ways:
·
More
mature judgment.
·
Better
decision-making in offending opportunities.
·
Better
executive functioning, reasoning, abstract thinking, planning.
·
Less
influence exerted by immediate undesirable consequences than longer-term
possible desirable consequences.
·
Better
impulse control, less likely to take risks and commit crimes for excitement and
more likely to make rational prosocial choices.
·
Better
emotion regulation and self-regulation.
·
Less
susceptibility to peer influences
·
Avoidance
of self-harm.
The legal route in
assigning criminal responsibility to juveniles begins with an arrest [12]. A
similar process is in place for adult offenders. There are exceptions, however,
such as the fact that police officers are required to notify the parent or
guardian of an arrested juvenile offender. Like adult offenders, juveniles as
offenders are fingerprinted and charged at central booking. Then the arresting
police officer describes to the prosecutor on duty verbally and through the
officer's paperwork the circumstances of the charges and the availability of
victims and witnesses. A "complaint" is generated only after the
prosecutor and the arresting officer make an assessment of "probable
cause" based on available evidence and after they agree on the charges to
be brought before the criminal court. This assessment is not purely
discretionary; it is constrained by law and evidence.
As is the case with adult
offenders, after the grand jury indicts, the case is then moved to trial court
for the determination of a hearing date. At that point, there is usually a
bench conference involving the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the judge.
The juvenile's plea of innocence or guilt is considered along with any
considerations for the unique circumstances of the juvenile. At the hearing,
the juvenile's defense counsel may argue that his client played a minor role in
a group offense or that circumstances beyond the juvenile's control led to the
offense. The defense counsel at times refers to the juvenile's need for
treatment and might tell of the juvenile's troubled family situation. In turn,
the prosecutor counters by relating, as required by statute, the severity of
the crime, the injuries inflicted, prior record, and the general strength of
the state's case.
About 1.6 million youths
under age 18 are arrested each year for crimes ranging from loitering to murder
[13]. Though most juvenile law violations are minor, some young offenders are
extremely dangerous and violent. More than 800,000 youths belong to street
gangs. Youths involved in multiple serious criminal acts, referred to as repeat
or chronic juvenile o? enders, are considered a serious social problem. State
juvenile authorities must deal with these offenders while responding to a range
of other social problems, including child abuse and neglect, school crime and
vandalism, family crises, and drug abuse.
Clearly, there is an
urgent need for strategies to combat juvenile delinquency. But formulating
effective strategies demands a solid understanding of the causes of
delinquency. Is it a function of psychological abnormality? A reaction against
destructive social conditions? The product of a disturbed home life? Does
serious delinquent behavior occur only in urban areas among lower-class youths?
Or is it spread throughout the social structure? What are the effects of family
life, substance abuse, school experiences, and peer relations?
The study of delinquency
also involves the analysis of the juvenile justice system—the law enforcement,
court, and correctional agencies designed to treat youthful offenders. How
should police deal with minors who violate the law? What are the legal rights
of children? What kinds of correctional programs are most effective with
delinquent youths? How useful are educational, community, counseling, and
vocational development programs? Is it true, as some critics claim, that most
efforts to rehabilitate young offenders are doomed to failure? The reaction to
juvenile delinquency frequently divides the public. While some people favor
policies that provide rehabilitation of violent offenders, other Americans are
wary of teenage hoodlums and gangs, and believe that young offenders should be
treated no differently from mature felons. Should the juvenile justice system
be more concerned about the long-term effects of punishment? Can even the most
violent teenager one day be rehabilitated?
The informal nature of
the juvenile court operation is also exemplified by the options available to
the judge upon a finding of delinquency [14]. These options are often called
dispositions. Dispositions include informal probation, or taking the case under
advisement for a period of time to see whether the offender is able to change
his or her behavior. The judge can also order the child to pay restitution to
the victim, such as repairing damaged property or giving the victim monetary
compensation for losses. The offender may also be ordered to pay a fine to the
court or the community. All of these dispositions may be included as part of
probation, formal or informal. Under formal probation, the offender is ordered
to be supervised by a probation officer and to adhere to specific rules and
regulations, such as attending counseling sessions, observing curfews, and
attending school. At the end of a specified period of time (six months to a
year, for example), the offender is brought back to court and his or her
behavior is once again examined. At this point, however, the particulars of the
original case are less relevant than the subsequent behavior of the offender,
as attested by the supervising probation officer.
Besides restitution and
probation, all of which occur in the community, juvenile court dispositions
include placements outside the offender’s home. One type of placement is an
order to live with another relative or perhaps a referral to the state’s foster
care system. The most restrictive disposition is commitment to the state system
of juvenile correction.
Since social circumstances favor the increase of juvenile
delinquency, the problem becomes much more complex, both in terms of combating
this socially negative phenomenon, and in terms of canceling the harmful
consequences of committing a crime. Juveniles represent the most sensitive
category that is most affected by the crisis of the social community, so their
reaction to these phenomenon is reflected in both antisocial behavior and the
commission of crimes. In such conditions, the question arises as to the
effective reactions of the entire legal system and enhanced social control over
the criminal behavior of young people, both in criminal sanctions and in
special prevention programs for certain groups of juveniles who show behavioral
disorders. The notion of delinquency is closely related to the conflict with
society, its value system, norms and laws. It includes more severe forms of
antisocial, anti-social, socio-pathological and criminal behavior. The
occurrence of delinquent behavior is particularly affected by critical periods
such as war and post-war circumstances, strained social relations, economic
crisis, poverty, unemployment, housing and material difficulties, refugees,
moral crisis, crisis of value systems, crisis in the family, etc. Juvenile
delinquency is a product of the troubles, dissatisfaction, crises, problems,
and hopelessness of young people.