Introduction
Juvenile delinquency refers to a large variety of disapproved behaviors of children and adolescents which the society does not approve of, and for which some kind of admonishment, punishment, or corrective measure is justified in the public interest. The term has extensive meaning and includes rebellions and hostile behavior of children and their attitude of differences towards society.
Schools play a great role in shaping the life of a child; schools go along the way in not only importing the necessary knowledge to children which is their primary objective but also imparting discipline as well teaching the child moral ways of behavior.
However, if not administered well, some unwanted behavior might originate especially in a rigid school, has blasé credentialing mechanisms, where some students are favored and given credentials allowing entity into preferred occupations and where others are discouraged, denied access to important credentials, and thus relegated to the bottom of the occupational ladder (Illich, 1975), Foster 1993, Gandara 1903.)
Problem statement
Numerous factors are often associated with juvenile crime. Many duties have sought prevention as a means of dealing with such crimes juvenile justice practitioners. Policymakers and other institutions are some of those whose concern leads to studies of this nature. The issue of juvenile delinquency has this over the years been a pronounced embedment among African – American societies. The poverty that at times results in school dropouts, drug, and substance abuse, finally and community structure are catalysts to cremate among the African – American communities.
Parenting has therefore taken a different direction. This current study shall Endeavour to investigate the reasons why some students in schools tend to violate the law amidst many who abide by the same law while schooling.
Research objective
The study shall endeavor to:
- Determine the nature of the law-abiding student.
- To and delinquents the relationship between the environment and students’ behavior.
- To evaluate the causes of delinquency in schooling.
Research questions
- How much does the nature of students contribute to delinquent behavior in schools?
- Does the resident’s environment affect school students behavior
- What are the common causes of delinquency in school
Scope
This study shall extend to the delinquent behavior among schooling students, the research shall extend to how much student behavior in schools leads to delinquency, schooling environments, and law regarding schools.
Review of literature
Introduction
Crimes by juveniles are a serious problem in the developed west especially the USA but it is no less in developing nations where it is threatening to go out of hand at any moment. To deal with this problem, the broader criminal justice system of a country operates a separate but inter-related system of juvenile justice, paying specific attention to the policing, courts, and corrections of youthful offenders, Rohinton Mehta (199)
Juvenile delinquency involves wrongdoing by a child who is under an age specified by the law of the concerned place. This generally refers to a large variety of disapproved behaviors of children and adolescents which the society does not approve of, and for which some kind of admonishment, punishment, or corrective measures is justified in the public interest.
It is sometimes argued that delinquency is not a criminal status. But this view has been repelled by Paul W. Tappan, (Kamal 2004) who asserted that euphemistic terminology such as hearing instead of trial or disposition instead of a sentence.
In his work Kamal (2004) outlines the cause of juvenile delinquency as family atmosphere, poverty, failure in school life, irresistible impulse, Industrial development and economic growth, movies, matrimonial disputes, sex indulgence associational impact, and Adolescence instability.
Nature and extent of the crime problem
News televised on various channels provides coverage of at least one shocking and distributing act of criminal violence involving juveniles. This includes Nightly reports of drive-by shootings, teens as young as 14 being remanded to adult court to stand trial for murder, gang initiator, ceremonies involving sadistic and brutal acts of rape, and caches of drugs and weapons being confiscated from elementary schools. There are more sensitizations through newscast or reach in towns.
A large proposition of juvenile violence is being perpetrated upon the offender’s classmates, neighbors, and members of their age cohort. Snyder and Sichmund (1995) in their report of 1991 on the National Crime victimization survey reveal that nearly half of the juvenile violent crime victims were attacked by another juvenile.
The most pronounced difference between the youth crime of today and juvenile crime of the prior decade are its lethality, Elliot (1993) Further, adolescent homicide rates doubled between 1988 and 1991 it was a total cause of total injuries among youth under 20 (Elliot, 1993, Snyder and Sichmund, 1995)
The increase in youth violence has dramatically affected and altered the nature and procedural operations of the juvenile justice system. Property-related offenses continue to constitute the largest percentage of the systems work activities and caseload patterns the rise in juvenile violent crime has exerted the volume and complexity of law enforcement, juvenile court, and juvenile detention agencies workloads.
The rates of arrests and petitions have exercised an influence on the nation’s public juvenile confinement facilities. These reports available from the North Caroline Department of Human resources, 2994) also indicate that the admission rate for the state’s training schools has undergone a 6% increase since 1992 (North Carolina office of state planning, 1993).
The causes of Juvenile delinquency include familial factors in which the rate and influence of family in shaping a child’s subsequent behavior. Parenting process the structure and organizational composition of the homes was under focus. Loeber and stouthamer Loeber (1986). The studies concluded that the greatest predictors of future delinquency were parental supervisor parental rejection and parent-child involvement.
Parental abuse is yet another common cause that exerts abusive discipline techniques upon the level of a child’s antisocial and aggressive behavior. Wright and Wright (1994), there is also a link between mental discord and delinquency has been consistently demonstrated with the frequency, duration, and intensity of this disharmony moderating the extent to which this behavior functions as an adequate predictor of juvenile delinquency (ibid).
Demography and community structure (Kornhouser, 1978) comments that such attributes as age, gender, and race are the most frequently cited and heavily related crime. Some studies by Wilson and Herrnstein, (1985) revealed that the relationship between race and crime repeated especially African, Americans within the adult criminal justice system pronounced Racial disparity among the African American Juveniles found at the initial stages (Pope and foyer here, 1991).
In the case of community structure and degree of organization within this community has been significant in various communities and respective crime rates. An increase in urbanization, high population density, and excessive residential mobility exercise the level of crime within a community Hawkins Catalan and miller 1992.
Economic Indicators also contribute to youth delinquency especially in areas of extreme poverty and high unemployment rates. Farrington, (1991) observes that poverty functions as a critical nexus for a multitude of other behavior problems that relate to crime and delinquency. Children from economically deprived communities are more likely to develop problems with school dropout, teen pregnancy, alcohol and substance abuse (Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller, 1992)
Critical analysis/Conclusions
The rates of Juvenile delinquency among African – American Juveniles have been changing phenomena. The assortment of the many issues that cause delinquency has lead to numerous research works. There is no one single answer to juvenile, problems since these diverse problems call for diverse focuses.
Juvenile delinquency among African Americans has been over-emphasized by different agencies and this keeps various as per the context.
Bibliography
Butts, J.A., Snyder, H.N., Finnegan, T.A., Aughenbaugh, A.L., Tierney, N.J., Sullivan, D.P., & Poole, R.S. (1995). Juvenile court statistics 1992: Statistics report. Washington, D.C: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Huizinga, D., Loeber, R., & Thornberry, T.P. (1994). Urban delinquency and substance abuse: Initial findings, research summary. Washington, D.C: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.