Introduction
The issue of youth crime is a major concern in different countries across the world. The involvement of juveniles in unlawful behaviors has been increasing over the past years. Various socioeconomic factors are the key drivers that facilitate the conduct. Some of the causes include poverty, unstable family, effects of social media, mental status, and peer influence. Most young people engage in assaults, substance abuse, and thefts. Some of the aspects contributing to the rising rate of felonies include poverty, family structure, effects of social media, peer influence, mental status, school policies, neighborhood, and insufficient education (Wylie & Rufino, 2018).
The analysis will focus on determining factors contributing to youth engagement in criminal acts, examining the types of delinquencies they are likely to commit, and establishing the socio-psychological facets associated with the teenagers in the country through the lens of functionalist and conflict theories. Functionalism is a theory, which emphasizes on functions of different institutions in the society to maintain social order (Symbaluk & Bereska 2019). Contrary to the more positivist approach of functionalist theory, conflict theory states that there is a fight over some resources in society (Symbaluk & Bereska 2019). This paper is divided into two parts: the functionalist and conflict theoretical approach. Both parts of the research cover the risk factors and types of crime by explaining them through appropriate theories.
The responsibility for crime disproportionately falls on people, while the societal influence is often avoided from discussion, whereas it can be crucial in explaining certain behaviors.
Sociological Theories
In order to understand the perspective of causes and types of youth crime, the study will draw categorically from the sociological theories which include functionalism and the conflict model. The two models were chosen for youth crime issue because these theories provide opposing views on the emergence of given issue in society. The above models are aimed at linking the various problems that society faces. Each of the theories will offer deep insight and proper connection to the sociological issues encompassing the aspects of youth crime in society.
Functionalism Theory
Based on the functionalism theory, the success of a community is significantly influenced by the value consensus. In other words, the individuals in the given setting agree on various norms and shared values that determine their overall cooperation. Society must have an established social structure consisting of different institutions performing varied roles that guide the whole system. For instance, schools are given the mandate to teach young people about life, and families are tasked with socializing the adolescent to enhance their emotional development. According to the functionalism approach, the behavior of youths is influenced by the social structure of the community (Ormerod, 2020). These institutions also have hidden functions, such as school’s function to socialize people (Symbaluk & Bereska 2019, 10). In the case of youth crime, application of functionalist theory approach explains youth crime as a malfunction of institutions in the society.
Family Structure
The analysis starts by looking at the smallest, yet one of the most important units in the institutional order – family. Family structures vary greatly, and it is a complex unit of a society. As it is important for functionalists to understand the role of an institution in a society, “the traditional concept of family includes responsibilities and functions such as intimacy and affection, security, childbearing and child-rearing” (Mwangangi 2019, p. 53). As a result, when some of these functions are not performed, the society is not in order, which can be a risk factor for youth delinquency.
The risk factors, in case of family malfunction, include but are not limited to divorce in families, parental neglect, substance abuse, and violence experienced within families (Mwangangi 2019). According to research findings, later conviction of male children is strongly linked to parental conflicts, and aggressive punishment they received at their early ages (Assari et al., 2018). Similarly, other studies indicate that single parenting contributes to the likelihood of engaging in violent offenses. This is because the child might fail to obtain the right discipline to thwart unwanted behavior during the early stages of development. Based on this evidence, it can be concluded that family institutions failing its function might be a considerable risk factor, furthering youth crime.
Effects of social media
In the present day, social media has become an integral part of people’s lives. However, in the case of teenagers, it manifests more costs than benefits they derive from using it. Currently, youths have access to an array of gadgets they use to watch different content from various platforms. The situation provides an opportunity for the juveniles to be inspired and express themselves based on the posts videos or posts they watch (Paat & Markham, 2021). After, coming across such exposure, children may opt to copy the lifestyle which might constitute a crime in the real world or on the internet. When a child watches criminal acts, they are more likely to have themselves triggered to behave in such a manner. For instance, watching movies portraying aspects of felony and violence have the potential of influencing teenager to imitate such conduct in real-life scenarios. There are several incidences recorded whereby youths claim their actions of crime were inspired by the content they show online.
Similarly, the impacts of aggressive social media cause contagion effects among the youths. In most cases, after playing violent video games, teenagers are more likely to portray the hostile activities they show and practiced on the platform. For instance, adolescents that have been convicted of mass shootings in schools suggested that their fascination with firearms and other forms of explosives was influenced by video games. Therefore, it is evident that social media is a significant factor facilitating the participation of youths in criminal acts.
Drug and Alcohol
As the risk factors have been discussed, they lead to different types of crime for youth. In the US, drug and alcohol offense is common among youths, especially people of color. Based on their life condition, some teenagers engage in drugs as a way of reducing stress. Currently, drug abuse is posing a major threat to minors in the country (Anderberg et al., 2022). Research studies indicate a rising rate in the number of addictions among adolescents. Based on the functionalist approach, families are to ensure the youths are emotionally stable to prevent them from using illegal substances as the solution. When young people are exposed to factors such as substance abuse from their parents, or other responsible individuals, the risk of being involved in criminal activities linked to drugs is higher. Family institution not performing their function can put the young people at risk of substance abuse, and disturbing the order in society.
Larceny Offenses
Currently, teenagers are more likely to engage in theft, robbery, and burglary criminal acts. For instance, youths prefer stealing from stores where some use force while others snatch the products. Adolescents prefer appropriating items that have market value such as jewelry which are easy to dispose of in exchange for money. In relation to the functionalism model, families are supposed to teach the young ones good morals (Ormerod, 2020). Similarly, society should have effective bodies that handle and correct such behaviors. However, in the current generation, most of the responsible people have neglected their roles allowing teenagers to grow without proper conduct.
Sexual Offenses
In the current generation, sex and pornography is common among teenagers. Most youths commit related offenses due to a lack of knowledge. Most young people commit this crime by sexually assaulting their colleagues (Svensson & Oberwittler, 2021). The sex education and whether it should be taught by parents or in school is heavily debated topic, and it is out of the scope of this research. However, the prevalence of these types of offenses indicates that the education on this topic was not properly provided by either of those institutions. Based on the functionalism theoretical perspective, both the families and schools have ignored their contribution to instilling the proper education and moral conduct to young people.
The Conflict Theory
Conflict theory is a useful sociological model that draws heavily from the Marxist concept of inequality. It suggests that any society functions to allow the participants to maximize their benefits. Through the process, the groups struggle and thus lead to significant changes. Based on the study, the conflict theory is applicable to explore the encounter that exists among the social classes in the community (Dahrendorf, 2022). The model elaborates on different cases where conflict happens due to varied reasons. Concerning the research work, the conflict model will provide proper insight into juvenile crimes since it depicts the enmity that prompts verbal or physical encounters between the rich and the poor.
Poverty
In the US, most of the youths that engage in criminal activities come from marginalized groups. Such communities do not have adequate resources to support their overall well-being including basic wants such as food. For the families to obtain food and money, some teenagers are forced to participate in unlawful acts such as stealing valuables from other individuals. It is the financial and economic status of the parents that drive and motivate the adolescent to engage in the vices (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2019). Even though the federal and state governments have implemented several programs to cater to the welfare of such societies, other issues such as discrimination are prohibiting the groups from benefiting. The individuals are then left with limited options making them source their income through criminal activities. In this case, the conflict theory would suggest that resources are not distributed equally (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2019), which leads to the need to steal and engaged in criminal activity for more disadvantaged groups.
Neighborhood
Residing in neighborhoods that embrace and allow criminal activities to thrive has the ability to influence the participation of youths in the criminal act. Based on the sociological theories of deviance, communities that are disorganized have ineffective social control leading to weak control amongst the people (Dollinger, 2019). The condition results in the isolation of residents causing criminal practices to advance. For instance, when there is no strong monitoring of people’s involvement in malicious acts, the likelihood of committing the offense and goes unnoticed will be high.
Assault
Assault is one of the most common criminal activities committed by teenagers in the country. Following the inability of youths to solve their differences maturely and in a peaceful manner, they are likely to engage in a fight to find a solution. Based on the conflict theory, teenagers have significant differences that are created by the variation in their social class. Some perceive their colleagues as poor while others see themselves as rich. This aspect makes them to developed varied ideologies prompting them to become aggressive against each other (Ybarra et al, 2019). In most cases, they combine both emotional and physical violence to attack their victims.
Summary and Conclusion
The research study examined the youth involvement in criminal activities drawing the findings from existing literature. The focus was to establish major factors contributing to juvenile delinquency, types of offenses, and strategies that can be employed to minimize the unwanted behavior among young people. The research used both functionalism and conflict theory of sociology to develop an effective perspective on the issue. Based on the findings, the common causes of crime include poverty, the structure of society, neighborhood, and family. Some of the key offenses committed include assault, theft, sexual, drug, and alcohol.
It is important to note that although this paper has divided the risk factors and commonly committed crime into functionalist and conflict theoretical explanations, these can often overlap. Therefore, it is important to employ several sociological theories in order to understand this phenomenon. Most teenagers commit various crimes in order to satisfy their social and economic needs. To curb the overwhelming participation of young individuals in criminal activities various approaches have been established to correct immoral conduct. The youth crime is an extremely complex issue to tackle, as it involves multiple institutions and various factors which are difficult to control. This research has attempted to show that often times, the responsibility is shared between the criminal and existing societal order.
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