Juvenile Delinquency: Features, Causes, and Solutions

Juvenile Delinquency 1 Juvenile Delinquency: Features, Causes and Solutions Shen Cheng Class: 110 Teacher: Stephanie February 29, 2012 Juvenile Delinquency 2 Outline I. Introduction Thesis statement: Nowadays, there is no denying that Juvenile Delinquency has become one of the hottest social issues. The features, causes, and solutions of Juvenile Delinquency will be discussed about in this research. II. The features of Juvenile Delinquency A. The average age of juveniles who commit crimes tends to be lower B. Knowledge level of the juvenile offenders is low C. Juvenile offenders get involved in sinister gangs and tend to be in groups.

D. Juvenile delinquency is prone to be more violent. E. Criminal means of juvenile offenders are more mature. F. Juvenile delinquency is occasional and at random III. The causes of Juvenile Delinquency A. Social factors. B. Family factors C. School factors D. Individual factors IV. The solutions to Juvenile Delinquency A. Prevention from individual B. Prevention from family C. Prevention from school Juvenile Delinquency 3 D. Prevention from society E. Prevention from justice V. Conclusion Juvenile Delinquency 4 Abstract With the development of economics and the improvement of society, the rate of juvenile delinquency is at a high level.

Juvenile delinquency has already been a very hot social issue nowadays. The causes of juvenile delinquency have been summarized in this research, such as personal? family? school and society factors; what features juvenile delinquency have and how we can control the delinquency effectively so that the youths can grow up healthily have also been discussed in this research. Keywords: juvenile delinquency, causes, features, control. Juvenile Delinquency 5 Juvenile Delinquency In recent years, juvenile delinquency has been a prominent social issue and attracted the attention of the whole society at the same time.

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Experts, scholars and volunteers who are enthusiastic about the prevention of juvenile delinquency have come up with a lot of insightful ideas about how to control juvenile crimes. However, it’s still not that effective to decrease the high rate of juvenile delinquents. According to statistics, not only did the number of juvenile delinquency increase, but also the types of juvenile delinquency have become varied. Juvenile delinquency occupies the highest proportion of all crimes. It accounts for more than 70% of the total.

The percentage of juvenile (under 15 years old) committing crimes accounts for more than 70% of the juvenile criminal cases (Bang. 2004). Today, the juvenile crime has been regarded as the world's third largest public nuisance. Juvenile delinquency not only endangers public security, but also affects a country's stability. Therefore, how to prevent and control juvenile delinquency effectively has become an essential task of the whole human society. To solve this problem, we must know about the characteristics and causes of juvenile delinquency so that we can find appropriate methods to solve this problem effectively.

The features of Juvenile Delinquency 1. The average age of juveniles who commit crimes tends to be lower. A few years ago, the average age of juveniles committing crime was still older than 17, but now the average age is only about 15. 7 years (Gao. 2010). Juvenile Delinquency 6 2. The education level of the juvenile offenders is low Most juvenile offenders have a low education level and some of them are even illiterate. Lack of education makes them have wrong values and attitude towards life, which causes them to commit crime at last. Lack of education is a major feature of juvenile delinquency. . Juvenile offenders get involved in sinister gangs and tend to be in groups. On the one hand, young people are short of adequate physical strength, intelligence, courage and experience. That’s why committing crimes individually is often difficult to succeed.

They are more likely to commit crimes together with other members. On the other hand, young people are much eager to get what they can’t have both in schools and families. Then some idle people take advantage of them and divide them into small groups which usually form the predecessor of criminal gangs (Abruzzese. 1997). ?? ???????????? . Juvenile delinquency is prone to be more violent. According to statistics, property crime is the main type of juvenile delinquency. The top five crimes are: robbery, rape, theft, intentional injury causing death, and murder. The young offenders nowadays use more cruel criminal means to achieve their objectives than before (McNeece. & Roberts. 1997)

5. Criminal means of juvenile offenders are more mature. Modus operandi of juvenile offenders inclines towards being more "mature. " Juvenile crimes in the past were mostly along with less criminal circumstances than Juvenile Delinquency 7 oday. In recent years, young offenders would prefer rigorous plans and clear division of who does what in their criminal behaviors. Today, young offenders seem to have a clear understanding of what they are doing, and some are even experienced in committing crimes (Li. 2007). 6. Juvenile delinquency is occasional and at random As young people are immature in both mental and physical growth, it’s common to see that they have frequent emotional fluctuations. Failing to understand things right and objectively and strong desires to monopolize make them easy to go on extreme ways.

They would take some crazy actions on the spur of the moment which may harm other innocent people badly. The causes 1. Social factors. The social reality scenes are corrupting young people’s innocent hearts. Juveniles can’t live without a colorful world which also is full of various temptations. It’s inevitable that disharmonious and evil phenomena exist along with the rapid development of economics and spiritual civilization. First, numerous students graduated from colleges can’t find a job, which made bad impacts on young people’s motivation to study, even worse they may be against or give up learning.

High unemployment rate causes that a lot of adolescents to have nothing to do. Going on in this way, these young dawdlers would have tendency to commit crimes. Second, films, televisions and the internet can spread unhealthy things, like violence, Juvenile Delinquency 8 obscenity and so forth. For example, there was a kidnapping case which happened five years ago, the criminal suspect Zhenghong Lin(20 years old) and Cai Jiang(19 years old) watched a famous Hong Kong drama “You can’t be an abscond forever” and then imitated the way how to kidnap in the drama.

They abducted their friend’s father Mr Wu , a mine owner , for RMB 60,0000 (Yu. 2010). Third, the obvious wealth gap and the wrong value “money is supreme” actually influence youths. Fourth, theft? robbery? pornography? gambling? fighting and other criminal cases which happen in our community have also influenced juveniles directly. 2. Family factors. Undesirable family education and indifferent family environment can result in irreversible harm to juveniles. The family is the first class of young people; parents are the first teachers. A proper family education is extremely important for youths to grow healthily.

Incorrect home education will cause serious psychological blocks to adolescents and then they will finally form a wrong view of life. First, parental discord, divorce, frequent quarrels, offensive words and destructive behavior will lead to mental harm to juveniles; second, family’s financial problems will limit the child’s pocket money and also make him feel inferior in front of other children who have wealthy families. Hence, some children will get what they want in an extreme way, like stealing and mugging. Third, the methods of parental education are violent and crude.

Some parents either scold or beat their children when they make mistakes indeliberately or they fail exams. This heavy stress will definitely cause mental Juvenile Delinquency 9 problems to those immature adolescents; fourth, some parents’ behaviors are out of order, like fooling around, gambling and excessive drinking, which will affect the juveniles’ world view badly; fifth, some parents spoil children and ignore the ideological and moral education, which will make these spoiled young people hard to accept by the society and eventually do something wrongful.

If one person grows up in those inappropriate environments, his loneliness, low self-esteem, resentment and arrogance can easily be exploited by bad guys and he will commit crimes eventually. 3. School factors On the one hand, some middle and high schools are not capable of offering overall education. Those schools pay too much attention on academic records so that they ignore legal and mental education to juveniles, especially in some remote rural places. On the other hand, some irresponsible teachers who have low qualities often insult students and abuse corporal punishment.

These extremely excessive actions will hurt innocent juveniles seriously since they are not mature enough to react and protect themselves correctly. These reasons also contribute to increasing delinquency rate because of youths’ resentment to school, even the society (Galaway. 1995) 4. Individual factors Young people are at the immature stage, both physically and mentally. Their ability to distinguish between right and wrong is not good enough and self-control is weak. Besides, they are also not capable of avoiding external temptations.

What’s more, juveniles behave impulsively and have strong ability to imitate. Juvenile Delinquency 10 That’s why youths will be easily tempted to commit the crime. The solutions to Juvenile Delinquency In order to prevent and control juvenile delinquency validly, the society, families and schools should take the responsibility and find efficient measures to help the young generation grow healthily. 1. Prevention from individual Even though young people are mentally and physically immature, they still have to handle problems and distinguish what is right or wrong.

Families and school teachers should train them to comply with the law and ethics, establish a correct outlook on life, enhance the ability to protect themselves and resist the temptation of criminal behaviors consciously. 2. Prevention from family The family is the cornerstone to control juvenile delinquency, which plays an absolutely significant role in the entire education system. Adolescents’ parents should take the initiative to absorb all kinds of knowledge first, such as legal knowledge, moral knowledge and things about how to educate children well.

Only keep this way can parents be qualified to guide and influence their children properly. What’s more, parents neither have to spoil their children nor push so much pressure to adolescents. Instead, parents should also pay attention on children’s moral education, not just on the academic achievements. 3. Prevention from school Juvenile Delinquency 11 It’s impossible for youngsters to grow healthily without school. More legal education should be provided by school. The youngsters must be taught to communicate with parents and teachers when facing unlawful attacks.

Necessary skills to avoid dangers are also essential. In addition, teachers have to respect juveniles, care about them and give assistance when they need. Scolding and corporal punishment must be forbidden at school. 4. Prevention from society Building a favorable social environment for young people to grow healthily is one of the most important tasks in our society. Government shoulders the responsibility to create more job opportunities for youths, reduce the unemployment rate of young people and minimize the effects of eroticism and violence on youngsters.

Besides, media should promote more affirmative things, because positive publicity is helpful for juveniles to establish positive life attitudes (Gao. 2010). 5. Prevention from justice Improvement of legislation is a critical method to prevent juvenile delinquency. The government should consummate the legal system to protect young people’s rights and make all people realize that there would be a serious consequence if someone wanted to hurt the youths or tempted them to go the wrong ways (Kang. 2008). Conclusion Consequently, young people are the future of a nation. Whether they can grow healthily matters most to a nation’s destiny.

After analyzing the features and causes of Juvenile Delinquency 12 juvenile delinquency, we find that it’s an arduous and pressing work to control juvenile delinquency effectively. Hence, we should gather all useful methods which come from family, school and society to create an ideal environment for youths to grow healthily and keep away from committing crimes. Juvenile Delinquency 13 References Abruzzese, G. (1997). Juvenile Crime: Approaching the Millennium. Journal of Delinquency now, 1 (5):23-25 Bang, H. (2004). Criminal Psychology. Beijing: Science Press Galaway, B. , et al. (1995).

Specialized foster family care for delinquent youth. Federal Probation 59 (30): 19-27. Gao, L. (2010). How to build defense system of Juvenile Delinquency. Beijing: Modern Communication. Kang,S. (2008). Ten Years’ Research of Juvenile Delinquency. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishers. Li, S. (2007). Analysis of Juvenile Delinquency’s Causes and Characteristics. Beijing: Peking University Publishers. McNeece, C. , & Roberts, A. (1997). Policy & Practice in the Justice System. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall Publishers. Yu, X. (2010). How to suppress factor of unhealthy culture’s effects to Juvenile. Beijing: RUC Publishers. .

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