...can have various possible reasons. This paper focuses on determining the possible reasons for early pregnancy among teenagers. Victims of child abuse and/or neglect are at increased risk for delinquency and running away. However, existing research indicates that the relationship is not inevitable, because the majority of childhood victims do not manifest these problem behaviors. Significantly less is known about connections between childhood victimization and other problem behaviors, such as teenage pregnancy, alcohol and illicit drug use and abuse, and self-destructive behavior. Current knowledge about these outcomes is sparse and only suggestive. Further research is desperately needed to document whether abused and/or neglected children are at increased risk for these adolescent problem behaviors, in comparison to control children and adolescents, and to indicate the extent or magnitude of these relationships. Despite the paucity of research, one can still speculate on some of the potential mechanisms that may link childhood victimization and adolescent problem behaviors (Lamb and Ketterlinus 140). Childhood victimization appears to increase risk for the development of a range of problems in adolescence, including delinquency and violence, running away, sexual promiscuity and teenage pregnancy, and alcohol and drug use and abuse. However, although there are extensive clinical accounts and speculations about the prevalence of these problem behaviors among adolescents who were...
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...Individual Theories CJS/240 10/06/2014 Juvenile delinquency is one of the largest issues dealt with in our society today. The immediate assumption to this issue is that individuals lacking a good lifestyle and low social class are more likely to commit any type of crime. But then there are those individuals with the same life situation who are law-abiding citizen, and sometimes end up obtaining a college degree. There are also those individuals who come from an established household with good parenting and a proper upbringing who commit crimes. The question is why do some juveniles commit crime while others who are in the same situation do not? Many experts believe the answer to juvenile misbehavior is on the individual itself, and not the social or economic level. Considering this, there are two different major theories about juvenile crime. Psychodynamic theory places it emphasis on the notion that one of the main causes of juvenile delinquency is children’s abnormal personalities that were created and developed in earlier life. This psychodynamic approach states that traumatic experiences during early childhood can prevent the ego and superego from developing properly, therefore leaving the Id with greater power (Palmerin, n.d.). The Specific deterrence theory refers to the effect that punishing one wrongdoer has on preventing others from committing offenses in the future. To determine the effect one has to ask what most individuals will believe will happen to...
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...devastatingly murder crimes being committed by young individuals at school, homes and other social places. The increase of media reports of notorious murder by young people may skew the public perception of its actual prevalence. In our case study, we look at Mary Jo Buttafuoco who is murdered by a teenage girl at her home on Adam Road West Long Island, N.Y., on May 19, 1992. Moral Development Theory explanations of delinquency in which propositions identify certain concepts and describe and how they are related to delinquent behavior, this theoretically predicts relationships that may be tested through research. For instance, one simple proposition of differential association theory is that attitudes favoring delinquency may be learned in the context of inmate personal groups, in our case, the girl suggests to Mary Jo that they should have a talk about her husband, where she notices a car with a young man of which the girl claims to be her boyfriend. Mary Jo becomes upset and orders the girl to leave. The girl shoots her in the head without a second thought (Regoli, Hewitt, & DeLisi, 2014). The predicted relationship portrayed here is that youths develop attitudes, in this case we find the teenage girl getting angry and not even persuading Mary Jo to talk. The delinquent behavior is then an expression of these attitudes; peer group relations, delinquent attitudes and delinquent behavior. These are the key important factors that are necessary for one to understand the origin of Juvenile...
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...penitentiaries. Since few other options existed, youth of all ages and genders where often confined with hardened adult criminals and the mentally ill in large overcrowded institutions. At the same time, American cities were dealing with high rates of child poverty and neglect putting pressure on city leaders to find a solution to this growing social issue. In response, reformers Thomas Eddy and John Griscom, organized the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in stead of housing youth in adult jails and prisons and the creation of a new type of institution. Their work led to the establishment of the New York House of Refuge in 1825, the first institution designed to house poor youth who were seen by authorities to be on the path towards delinquency. The New York...
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...Title: Juvenile delinquency and the relationship to bad parenting Name Institution Juvenile delinquency alludes to solitary illicit conduct showed by youngsters. Adolescents in spite of their age are equipped for carrying out certain violations. The reasons for teenage wrongdoing are numerous and easily proven wrong. In any case, the general public and law upholding bodies comprehend that the obligation of adolescent wrongdoings cannot be pegged altogether on the adolescents. Consequently, it is essential that the general public finds satisfying answers to oversee Juvenile wrongdoing. The advancement of the juvenile court framework was done for guaranteeing that the youngsters were allowed to change and develop into dependable beings in the society. The initial step in determining any issue is to distinguish its reason or inception. Child crime occurs in most cases due to peer pressure, exciting activities, money, respect, urbanization and socio-economic factors. Lack of discipline is also a resultant of child delinquency. The study dwells on the notion that parents should indeed be held responsible for juvenile delinquency. Parents of youngsters are regularly accused of the delinquent conduct of their kids. In a few courts parents are punished for the unsociable behavior of their children. Scholars differ on the sorts of misconduct and childhood measurements that are explored, on how the builds are measured, and on the populaces from which the examples are drawn (Siegel...
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...the ages of 15 through 19 (Editorial Board, 2012). This resulted in 442,000 births among teenagers in 2006 (Maynard, 2008). The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate than any other industrialized country in the world. About a third of these teens abort their pregnancies, 14 percent suffer a miscarriage, and 52 percent take their pregnancy to a full term, 72 percent of these teenagers are out of wedlock (Maynard, 2008). Many of these teenage girls that become pregnant end up with disastrous results they either leave school altogether or miss an entire year due to the pregnancy, thus graduating a year later. They receive low grades or fail due to excessive absences related to health issues. Once the child is born some teenage mothers do not have time to complete homework assignments because they are too tired after seeing to their child’s needs. Teen pregnancy is an important social issue because becoming a mother at such a young age, the risk of social and economic disadvantage tends to be greater. The majority of teenage mothers come from very low income families and...
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...characteristics. UCR and Self-Report Data Complete the matrix below. To complete this matrix, list two pros and two cons of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data and two pros and two cons of self-report data. |Statistical Information |Pros |Cons | |Official Information: | | | |Uniform Crime Report (UCR)|Most widely used source of national crime and |The number of arrests and people arrested are not the | | |delinquency. |same. | | |Compiled from statistics sent to the FBI from |The number of teenage arrests is not the same as the | | |more than 17 thousaind police departments. |actual numbers of delinquent acts done by youths. | | | | | | | |...
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...today’s civilization there are a lot more youths that are committing delinquent crimes. The juvenile justice system’s officials are continuously trying to find resources as to what causes an youth to turn out to be delinquent and fall down hill into a bad lifestyle. It is very expected that adolescents will become juvenile delinquents if there’s not enough structure given to them from their families or their inner feelings or pride of their specific gender. There are so many different variables that are concentrated on the important of adolescents into delinquency like family function, disorders, two parent households and different genders. Inheritance plays a big role mostly because of all the environmental sources. Family can affect delinquency mainly if the economics influence for low-income housing and where the residences reside in a poorly appealing neighborhood where there is high crime. Family makeup affects delinquency because when there’s a big family it has a larger attraction of the low-income is coming in the household. The families behavior also plays a role because if you decide to sell drugs to make a escape from not having enough to cover bills or from reality or family members trying to find a easy way out from the obligation through the bad activities rather than focusing for the kids receiving the proper education to be able to get a good job. Parent(s) needs to take a positive roll for their children’s life, not ignoring the children’s, belittling your kids...
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...connecting delinquency to early childhood detachments from parents, or difficulties that were not conquered during childhood. These theories surmise that there is a connection between personality formation in childhood and that of subsequent criminal behavior. Freud believed that mental disturbances triggered by dissention between the id, ego and superego influence criminality – or inappropriate fixations during one of the stages of development. The id is a part of the unconscious that holds all the urges, impulses including the libido. The id limits response to the pleasure principle – meaning if it feels good do it – and does not respond to anything else – it is like a “devil” on a person’s shoulder goading them to do the wrong thing. The ego is the solitary part of the conscious personality. The awareness of when a person thinks about themselves and what they try to project to others is their ego. It is dominated by the reality principle and acts as a perpetual mediator to demands of the id and prohibitions of the superego. The superego is a part of the unconscious that is the “angel” on a person’s shoulder acting as the voice of conscience and also the origin of self-criticism. Freud suggested that we go through several stages of development that are motivated by our sexual desires. A lack in progression during the stages of development in childhood can result in personality defects that turn into criminality. Bowlby (1947) researched juvenile delinquency and revealed...
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...Juvenile delinquency is a term given to juveniles who are under the age of 18 that have committed crimes from the petty crimes like vandalism, stealing to more sever crimes like murder. When people usually hear the word delinquent and juvenile together of course they immediately assume the individual must be a threat to society, but sometimes the child involved in criminal activity was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. What some people don’t realize is there is a reason why a child would take part in criminal activity whether it is rebelling, peer pressure, etc. Juveniles are defined as those who haven’t reached adulthood; in other words a juvenile is anyone under the age. The number of children in especially difficult circumstances is estimated to have increased from 80 million to 150 million between 1992 and 2000 (Unicef, 2003). Alyssa Bustamante was 15 years old when she stabbed and strangled Elizabeth Olten. Elizabeth was walking home from Alyssa’s half-sister’s home when she was lured in the woods by Alyssa. According to her diaries, Alyssa enjoyed the act of hurting someone other than herself. Alyssa wanted attention and enjoyed expressing herself on Social Media. She would often post statements about hurting people and hurting herself. Alyssa is a product of the Foster care system. She was born by way of a teenage mother and no father who was able to care for her. We do not know what happened but by the time she reached the home of the guardians who cared...
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...RUNNING HEAD: PRO CHOICE 1 Pro Choice or Pro Life? Richard W. Emmendorfer PHI 103 Dr. Stephen Carter 28 October 2013 Abortion, sometimes viewed as a permanent solution to a temporary problem, should be or remain legal for specific cases involving victims of rape, significant medical conditions that would jeopardize the safety of the birth or guarantee severe birth deformities. Unwed adolescent parents are who are deemed unfit or who would not be able to provide adequate care should also be determined as a qualifying circumstances. Victims of rape would have a constant reminder of the experience weighing heavily on their mental health and would hold prejudice toward this child versus other children. An article from The Nation (2009) details that Regina Alves, a psychologist at a domestic violence center in Brazil, insists that when it comes to working with a victim of violence, “what matters is what she says.” (Sokoloff-Rubin, 2009) A testimony from a woman who was made pregnant from a rape when she was 15 accounts how different the child resulting from the rape is compared to her other children. "My first husband verbally abused her. I never have had, and still don't have, the maternal feelings for her that I have for my other kids. We're good friends and I so love her, but it's like we're sisters. I wish she could have had a more normal life.” (Meehan, 2013, p. 33) The mental stability of the victim and how the victim sees the child is through...
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...Project Philippe Francois the problem of juvenile Delinquency This paper explains that juvenile delinquency, it will make the argument on how to reduce it and bring light to this problem which is fast becoming one of the largest problems facing urban America. It can lead to law-breaking juvenile, which often can lead to adult lives as career criminals. Over the years experts have given us many theories on the causes of juvenile delinquency, including one's economic background, parents level of education and abuse in the home, gangs organizations, repeated neighborhood delinquents, increased availability of weapons and new technology violent games have something to do with the growing of our young people getting in trouble and becoming part of the juvenile delinquent system. However in my opinion the number one cause of juvenile delinquency is the breakdown of families, including lack of parental control over their children. It is ironic in America, in todays age, a person must poses a driver's license to operate a vehicle, a permit to own a gun and even a license to have a pet, but one does not have to have proper training or a license in order to become a parent. Without specialized educational or programs in child development and parenting, many of our future parents will not have a chance at becoming successful parents and worse, many of todays parents are already contributing to the increasing problem of juvenile delinquency simply by not knowing how to raise their children...
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...Literature Review Family Structural Changes and Juvenile Delinquency To develop a well-formulated theory on family structural changes playing an impact on juvenile delinquency, it is imperative to discern what other information exists surrounding the topic. There are multiple sources that seek to determine what factors influence kids/teens to turn into delinquents, from either a stable, loving home or a place filled with toxic disasters. This study is focused on analyzing how these various factors within a family within a family impact a child's likelihood of experiencing juvenile delinquency, but more specifically how family changes are a factor. My proposed research studies the question by studying individuals, making persons my phenomena. Using the existing studies as a basis of knowledge will provide the framework for a new theory involving the significance of family structural changes. One of the major functions of the family is to protect, teach, and train children so that they become competent, productive adults and if that job is not done properly, then it can be assumed that the family has failed to do its job (Kunz, 2001b). Variable: DIVORCE We first have to look into whether juvenile delinquency is related to divorce. Cynthia Price and Jenifer Kunz created a meta-analysis, involving 72 studies where meta-analysis is the quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance...
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...hPresent an outline of subcultural theories of crime and deviance and asses the values of these theories. Functionalism is a consensus structuralist theory which sees the source of crime and deviance looted in the structure of the society. Social order is bases on value consensus and social control aims to protect this by controlling the threat posed by crime and deviance. A former functionalist Merton, attempted to explain why deviance arises in the first place. He believes that the society survives because al the members of society have shared norms and values which he calls the collective conscience. Parson calls this the central value system (CVS). merton's theory of crime attempts to explain why some groups in society are forced to abandon their shared norms and values and replace them with deviant ones. He says in order to achieve the American dream (CVS) they must accept the cultural goals which is the accepted success goals of society. E.g. jobs, house, car. Merton believes that you have to accept the institutionalised means which is of legal ways of achieving that accepted success. Merton's theory is the strain theory. He believes that while some people are able to follow this patch to success, others are blocked because of their position in the social structure. Some groups have lower educational achievement so there is a tension between an individual's needs and the needs of the society. Some people are socialised into goals but enable to achieve them. Merton...
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...Individual Theories Stacey Simmons University of Phoenix July 29, 2012 History has proved over time that there are two types of young adults in the world, those who make the decision to be successful and those with the “I don’t care attitude “and intrigue with the life of criminal behavior. The reasons that young adults make the choices that they do vary greatly in difference. Three of the reasons mentioned by young adults as to why they choose the bad road involves having a horrible younger life, peer pressure and even the excuse of boredom. We have young adults who choose to entertain criminal behavior therefore, we must also have in turn a system that can be measured in the deterrence of criminal behavior among youth. Our current system does not seem to be as effective in improving this rising problem. To effectively be able to deter some of this criminal activity in youth, we need to gather information on why a youth chooses to be involved in this type of behavior, and there are many theories to this question. One of those theories is labeled as the Genetic Theory. The genetic theory states that criminal behavior is inherited just as hair color or eye color is. It is theorized that embedded in these offenders is a genetic code that causes them to make certain decisions and be involved in criminal behavior. This theory also states that anyone can look at a child’s parents and determine whether or not the child is going to be an offender. ...
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