The Causes of Juvenile Delinquency

It has become apparent in my generation that the rate of teenage and even younger children becoming juveniles is growing each and every year. So much has changed over the past few decades, but what has caused our families to be torn apart by those who are half of our age and have not even graduated high school yet? In my lifetime alone, I have seen the rate of juvenile delinquency skyrocket and it continues to threaten all innocent people as they go about their daily routines that life gives them. Could it be the family's fault that they did not care for their child or did not pay enough attention to him or her? Does divorce or separation of the child's parents have an impact on the child's behavior? Not to mention, how much pressure does a group of friends really have on a teenager's actions? It is real, and it is happening every where around us, but the only question is why?

It is a common assumption that children get their behaviors from their family and their friends. What many parents do not realize is that, from the minute of birth, all children have a natural attraction to their parents. As the children grow up, often times the parents are too busy to pay any attention to them, basically allowing them to do whatever they want and to be with whomever they please. The next thing they know, their baby boy is on the cover of the local newspaper for selling drugs or shooting the older man down the street. Often times, the crimes are now that severe but are usually juvenile acts such as vandalism, abuse, or breaking into another's house. So, all of this stems from the parents not paying enough attention to their children, some may be asking themselves? Sometimes this is true; however, the biggest influence on children's behavior is yet to come. By definition, parenting is the rearing of a child or children, especially the care, love, and guidance given by a parent.

Anything less than this just may be the reason why so many innocent kids have turned to juvenile delinquency as their way of living their lives." As stated by Rolf Loeber, "Poor parental child-rearing practices cause children to grow up as delinquents or delinquent parents produce delinquent children." Heredity often time plays an important factor in a child's development. Just as in the case of a parent having a disease such as alcoholism or diabetes, parental delinquency makes the child more prone to such behaviors. A lack of care for their children, often times means that the parents have a lack of care for one another. This leads into a completely different and more severe cause of juvenile delinquency, divorce and separation. Think back to the days when you were growing up and wonder what it would be like if you had only had one parent to comfort you when you had a problem or in some cases, no parents.

It is sad to say but as well as juvenile delinquency, divorce is also a rate that has risen over the past several decades. Have our values changed that much over the last twenty years that a family can not even stay together? I know that my grandparent's and even my parents have never dreamed of getting a divorce, which honestly is probably why my family seems to stay out of trouble. It is a proven fact, and a sad one at that, but divorce has a direct effect on the rise of juvenile delinquency. It could be because they only have one set of eyes to provide guidance over them, allowing them plenty of time to possibly hangout with the "bad influences" of the world. This leads into a third perspective on what causes teenage delinquency and why it has risen so frequently in the past two decades.

Possibly the only other group outside of parents that have a huge influence on a child's behavior is his or her friends. More often times than not, a teenager is with his or her friends more than they are with their family. Obviously, if parents had that big of an influence on their children, then one can only imagine what the child adopts from his or her friends. Just as in the case with a child adopting his or her parents' unfavorable diseases or habits, the same can be said for them adopting habits, good or bad, off of their friends. This leads to the question, is it really the friends that influence the child? "The Peer Influence model suggests that ineffective parenting leads to association with deviant friends which, in turn leads to delinquency," as stated by Frank Vitaro. So, it all traces its way back to the child's parents. If the parents poorly treat their children, their children are most likely going to turn to kids that have the same type of problems as they do.

Picture this, a group of unhappy and angry kids, better known to us all as a gang. What starts out as a few grumpy kids may very well escalate into a massive group of destructive behaviors that love nothing more than to terrorize the streets and other innocent people. Growing up in a happy home, it is hard for me to imagine that these aggressive behaviors are a direct result of the parents' mannerisms.

In my opinion, I am in complete agreement with the above arguments over the causes of child delinquency. Along with the parents and friends of the delinquent, I also believe that one's social class and race play a big part in his or her behavior. Being in a low social class, it is obvious that these people are not equipped with the same opportunities as the rest of us. They are just making it by and they are not "cool" enough to fit in with the innocent people of their age group. This causes them to find comfort in other people like them, who are more times than not, delinquents themselves. The same goes for one's race, according to a study done by Rolf Loeber and Larry Kalb. In Pittsburgh, of the over five-hundred delinquents interviewed, over three-hundred of them were African American, while the remaining were Caucasian in race.

As sad as it may sound, this is what keeps the ongoing struggle with racism alive yet today. Along with committing crimes, juvenile delinquents are more probable to have poor grades, to be more active in gang fights, to carry a weapon, to use and sell drugs, and often times are involved in serious assault.

Over the past several decades, it has become apparent that juvenile delinquency is a problem on the rise around the world. The problem is a lingering threat for the years to come for the generation of the young adults of today, such as myself. There are probably a million beliefs on what actually causes this delinquency among children and teenagers, but in the end, they all seem to be linked back to poor parenting and a lack of care by their loved ones. The end to this problem is no where in sight, but as a simple suggestion to parents, love those whom you have brought into this world and do not allow them to fall victim to the society that surrounds them.