Rewrite/proofread Written assignment# 4

There are various social factors that contribute to delinquent behavior and criminal behavior among adolescents. These social factors include peer influence and family structure. Family structures that contribute to crimes among adolescents include, poor children upbringing by their parents, the family sizes where these youths come from, home discord, child maltreatment, and finally parents of these youth who are antisocial. The factors mentioned can, therefore, contribute to delinquent and criminal behavior among the youth. As research that was conducted on 250 boys shows that the boys at the age of 10 who were involved in crimes had high chances of having been brought up by their parents. Research shows that the parents of these 10-year-old boys had conflicts with one another and that their parents were a bit aggressive. Some research goes further to explain that part, these children involved in the crime were partly being raised by a single parent[footnoteRef:6]. [6: Widom, C. S., & Wilson, H. W. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of violence. In Violence and mental health (pp. 27-45). Springer Netherlands.]

Another social factor that contributed to crimes includes peer influences. Most of the children that have participated in crimes partly have been due to delinquent peer group and delinquent behavior. Research shows that for children aged between 12 to 14 participated in crime partly due to the presence of antisocial behaviors their colleagues had in their groups. Some of the peer influence factors that lead to these youths involving themselves in crime include peer delinquent behavior, peer approval of being engaged in this negligent conduct, being attached to these peers, peer pressure involved in defiance has been a significant contributor of failure among the youth. Research suggests that adolescents usually engage themselves in the acts of bad influence due to the actions of their peers which encourages them to participate in crimes[footnoteRef:7]. [7: Widom, C. S., & Wilson, H. W. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of violence. In Violence and mental health (pp. 27-45). Springer Netherlands]

Table showing the various causes of Juvenile Delinquency among Students basing on the Social Factors

In table one, we came up with chi-square as 68.09. Similarly, the value in the table for chi-square at 4 df and 0.05 level of significance is 9.488 & 0.01. The level of importance we obtained is 13.276. The hypothesis was rejected because the totals I accomplished for chi-square were more significant than the table values of the chi-square. In the class, over 75.83% of the students were on our side of supporting the effect social factors in relation to causing juvenile delinquency.

What approaches have proven most effective when rehabilitating juveniles found guilty of committing felonies?

The approaches being applied to the juveniles that have been most effective are; individual approaches, therapeutic approaches, community policing, community-based efforts and extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities include various sports activities like art, music, and drama. Such activities help the youth in participating positively in their communities through involving themselves in constructive activities in their societies where they come from[footnoteRef:8]. [8: Widom, C. S., & Wilson, H. W. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of violence. In Violence and mental health (pp. 27-45). Springer Netherlands]

Another approach that has been effective in addressing the youth from involving them in crime is community policing. Community policing takes several forms which includes coming up with community partnerships which helps in solving community problems. Taking the youth to councilors who have issues with their mental health is another important factor. The reason police can succeed in carrying out that task is because it comes across these victims involved in crime every time and again.

Another issue that has contributed to the reduction of crimes among the youth is the use of the community-based method. In this way, there are activities that need to be carried out to modify the environments that we live in. For instance, improving street lighting in areas that are being poorly lit can reduce crime occurrence in those areas[footnoteRef:9]. [9: Nybell, Lynn M.; Shook, Jeffrey J.; editors, Janet L. Finn, (2009). Childhood, youth, and social work in transformation: implications for policy and practice. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231141406]

The other way that has been great in reducing crime among the youth is using the therapeutic approach. The approach helps in improving the means of communication between the child and the parent and finally finding out solutions that are relevant to reducing problems that usually arise. The therapeutic approach can be a good way of curbing down the various factors that lead to antisocial behaviors among these children[footnoteRef:10]. [10: Crawford, A., & Evans, K. (2017). Crime prevention and community safety (pp. 797-824). Oxford University Press.]

How does treatment compare to punishment when trying to rehabilitate juveniles?

At the beginning of the 20th century, the state sentencing policies were concerned more with those adolescents who committed crimes. They changed the way they used to treat them by instead punishing them through sentencing them individually. In 1960's, the national crime rates had raised sharply because of the crimes being committed by these juveniles. In the same period, the solutions the juvenile court had come up with to rehabilitate them seemed not to be a great solution for correcting and intervening the young criminals. As a result, the federal government in the US, for example, changed from rehabilitating policies to offense based sentencing policies to correct the young adolescents from continuing with the act[footnoteRef:11]. [11: Haynes, S. H., Cares, A. C., & Ruback, R. B. (2014). Juvenile Economic Sanctions. Criminology & Public Policy, 13(1), 31-60.]

As a result, there was a shift in the Juvenile court from rehabilitating the young offenders to now punishing them. That was catalyzed in the 1990's when new policies came up to increase punishments for these young offenders. That was because of the prediction that had been made by a political scientist who foretold about a generation of juveniles who could commit more crimes by murdering their fellows. Similarly, Dilulio and Wilson predicted that there would be an increase in juvenile-related crimes in the years between 1995 to 2010 since there was an increase in the youth aged 18 years. As a result, most countries around the world adopted laws that would make the juvenile court system as more punitive than ever before. As a result, the juvenile legal codes considered most of the crimes being committed by the Juveniles as more serious thus incarcerating more offenders in detention centers and jails. Many states took on scary approaches and boot camps that adopted military styles while handling these Juveniles. That was done by the prosecutor because they wanted to transfer their public policy towards harsh and enacting policies that were harsh on these young offenders[footnoteRef:12]. [12: Van Ness, D. W., & Strong, K. H. (2014). Restoring justice: An introduction to restorative justice. Routledge.]

However, more studies reveal that the changes in the transfer of laws or practices being applied to punishing the children do not produce a positive effect. Because of punishing these juveniles through convicting them in adult prisons, are likely to be victimized. Also, the transfer of these Juveniles from the juvenile court systems to the adult systems can affect their education. Most of the studies that have come up on transferring the juveniles to the adult prisons seem not to support the idea of punishing them that way. Most of the studies reveal that the incarcerated juveniles are more likely to be re-arrested for committing the same crimes even more violent than before[footnoteRef:13]. [13: Widom, C. S., & Wilson, H. W. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of violence. In Violence and mental health (pp. 27-45). Springer Netherlands.]

Conclusion

In the research, it is found out that the poor upbringing of children significantly contributed to the way the children behaved in the society. That was accompanied by the social factors that do exist in society most especially among the schools where children who failed to catch up with their peers would end up falling in for crimes. However, that could only be solved through education as we saw in our research since people spent more time in school thus diverting them away from committing crimes.

References

Bachman, R. D., & Schutt, R. K. (2017). Fundamentals of research in criminology and criminal justice. Sage Publications.

Bean, P. (2013). Rehabilitation and Deviance (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Crawford, A., & Evans, K. (2017). Crime prevention and community safety (pp. 797-824). Oxford University Press.

Haynes, S. H., Cares, A. C., & Ruback, R. B. (2014). Juvenile Economic Sanctions. Criminology & Public Policy, 13(1), 31-60.

Van Ness, D. W., & Strong, K. H. (2014). Restoring justice: An introduction to restorative justice. Routledge.

Widom, C. S., & Wilson, H. W. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of violence. In Violence and mental health (pp. 27-45). Springer Netherlands.

Nybell, Lynn M.; Shook, Jeffrey J.; editors, Janet L. Finn, (2009). Childhood, youth, and social work in transformation: implications for policy and practice. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231141406.

Butts, Jeffery; Bazemore; Saa Meroe (2010). "Positive Youth Justice: Framing Justice Interventions Using the Concepts of Positive Youth Development." Coalition for Juvenile Justice.: 13.