First and foremost delinquency connotes a person’s behavior that goes against the required standard social norms whether criminal or non-criminal (Coon 87). Hence any behavior exhibited by a juvenile that is in total contrast with the value demands of the larger society can be termed as Juvenile Delinquency. In simple terms juvenile delinquency refers to commission of criminal acts by persons who have not attained the majority age (juveniles) (Coon 76).
That being the case, there has been an age old debate revolving around the concepts of nature and nurture in resolving causes of Juvenile Delinquency.
On the one hand, it is believed that Juvenile Delinquency is a result of the way a juvenile is nurtured (Coon 109). Thus a juvenile’s personality depends on the experience he has acquired. This school of thought views juvenile delinquency to be dependent purely on an individual’s upbringing. The opinion of holders of this thinking is that, juvenile’s delinquency, merely reflects a delinquent’s family system or the macro societal environment such as poverty, racial as well as ethnic segregation, level of social ills, unemployment, divorce and child neglect among others. Thus, as far as they are concerned, a person’s associates models his/her behavior (Coon 70).
On the other hand, a quite number of psychologists view juvenile delinquency to be associated with natural factors. They consider a person’s amount of IQ as well as personality (his/her) to be genetically influenced. Thus with time, a person increases his/her intelligence due to gene pool passed down by his/her parents. Various researches on brain development indicate that prefrontal cortex, being the brains main crucial part to be the last part to develop (Coon 45).
Consequently, since this part plays the role of assisting a person to make sound decisions, lay priorities, suppress emotions as well as weigh the repercussions, leads teenagers to act irresponsibly as well as make wrong decisions (Coon 63). This school of thought further associate teenagers high dependency on the amygdale (emotional center of the brain responsible for primal feelings) to be responsible for impulsive reactions exhibited by teenagers. Adrenal sex hormones are also said to play a key role in a teenager’s behavior (Coon 79).
To modern psychologist both concepts play interacting roles in development, hence nature and nurture argument is naïve and an indicator of old-fashioned state of know-how. However modern psychologist’s position is that whereas the concept of nature is crucial in exploring a person’s path in life, in evolutionary terms, nonetheless environmental influence more often than not puts a teenager at greater risk (Coon 93).
Work Cited
Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior with Psych.Trek CD-ROM (11th ed.) Thomson Learning. 2007. pp. 45-112.