CRIM 223 MIDTERM NOTES

FACTORS AFFECTING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Family factors- the family is the first and most important social unit to affect children. Failure of the parents to
provide the basic needs of their members, fail to inculcate moral values, fail to protect their children, the
behavior of their children would be inappropriate and will destroy their positive development. Children who
are aggressive are more likely to have been brought up by parents or caretakers who are aggressive. Individuals
learn the attitudes, behaviors and social roles considered appropriate for them from parents and other family
members.

 personalities, characters, values, and beliefs of children are initially shaped.

 serve as role models, transmitting educational values and providing environment in which children can
safely develop a sense of independence.

 primary source for teaching children self-control

 primary providers of the material well-being of their members.

 provides emotional security to its members through giving encouragement, support and unconditional
love.

We have this family conditions that influence the development of juvenile delinquency:

Family conditions

 Broken family
 Parental rejection
 Frequent quarrel among parents
 Step motherly treatment with the child
 Single-parent household
 Absence from home for sake of livelihood
 Death of parents
 Criminal parent
 Teenage pregnancy
 Lack of parental guidance

FAMILY STRUCTURE

1. Family Size

 Parents of larger families tend to give less parental attention to their children.

 Children of large families are having a greater chance to become delinquent.

 Members of large families had been found to be lacking in educational success. They perform poorly in
school and score low in IQ test.

2. Child’s birth order in the family

• Birth order affects the delinquent behavior with delinquency more likely among middle children than
first or last children.

• The first child receives individual attention and affection of parents, while the last child benefits from
the parents’ experience of raising children, as models.

PARENTING SKILLS

1. Notice what the child doing.

2. Monitor it over a long period of time.
3. Model social skill behavior.
4. Clearly state house rules/policies.
5. Consistently provide same punishments for transgressions and disobedience.
6. Provide reinforcement for conformity.
7. Negotiate disagreements so that conflicts and crisis so not escalate.
CHILD ABUSE
- causing or permitting any harmful or offensive contact on a child’s body; and, any communication or
transaction of any kind which humiliates, shames, or frightens the child.

TYPES OF CHILD ABUSE

1. Physical child abuse –burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating, or otherwise harming a child.
2. Emotional maltreatment/ psychological child abuse – scolding and ridiculing.
3. Child neglect – is the failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational,
or emotional
4. Sexual child abuse – is any act of maliciously molesting the child sexually whether the sexual act is
consummated or not. It includes fondling a child’s genitals, making the child fondle the adult’s genitals,
intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, and sexual exploitation.

Typology of Child Abusers

1. Mentally disordered abusers – a person who has defective mental ability.

2. Parentally incompetent abuser – an individual whose practice of disciplining the child is in the same
way he was disciplined.
3. Situational abuser – a parent who only abuses the child when he/she is confronted with a particular
situation, one who is usually non abusive but “fly off the handle” when some circumstance develops.
4. Accidental abuser – a parent who exercises poor judgment in his/ her parenting decisions; poor
judgment result to child abuse.
5. Self-identified abuser – parent who are abusive; although some of these kinds of abusers want to stop
abusing their children, they cannot and they are afraid to make their discipline practices known.
6. Institutionally prescribed abusers – some institutions are grounded with beliefs that are abusive to
children.

Peers

 Influence of a group that encourages others to change their attitudes, values or behaviors to conform
to the group norms. GANGS

 For many juveniles, the one they truly spend the most time with and are closest to emotionally is the
family right? But for many others, it is their “barkada” or peer group.

 Peer group is a group of youths of similar age levels and interest where they can share their problems
and happiness and comfortable with. Inorder for them to be accepted and to feel important, they turn
to delinquent activities because of their peer’s influence. Examples are using drugs, wars and sexual
activities.

Four Categories Of Gangs:

1. Social gang – involved in few delinquent activities and little drug use other than alcohol and marijuana.
Membership is more interested in the social aspects of group behavior.

2. Party gang – concentrates on drug use and sales, forgoing most delinquent behavior, except vandalism.
Drug sales are designed to finance members’ personal drug use.

3. Serious delinquent gang – engages in serious delinquent behavior while eschewing most drug use.
Drugs are used only on social occasions.

4. Organized gang – heavily involved in criminality and drug use and sales. Drug use and sales reflect a
systemic relationship with other criminal acts. For example, violent acts are used to establish control
over drug sale territories.

Environment

 The outside environment where a youth resides is also influential. It is where the child is exposed to
after his first highly formative years.
 Crime prone areas. Children who resides in a place where crime always exist or a day to day event.
  Children roaming in the street most of the time in the company of adults whose words and behaviors
are not fit to be heard and seen by a growing child.

Possible influences of environment:

a. Associations with criminal groups

b. Alcoholism and drug addiction
c. Impulse of fear
d. Crime inducing situation that caused criminalistics tendencies
e. Imitated instinct like selfishness, violence and anti-social wishes

School

Some instances of delinquent conduct to the school-child relationship:

a. Failure of the school in character development of the children and youth

b. Use of methods that create the conditions of failure or frustrations on the part of the students
c. Lack of facilities for curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Academic performances and delinquency

- Poor academic performance has been directly linked to delinquent behavior
Social failure and delinquency
- Children who fail at school soon feel frustrated, reduce self-esteem, angry and rejected.
Believing they will never achieve success through conventional means, they seek out like-
minded companions and together engage in antisocial behavior.

Mass Media

 Films, video games, and television shows that depict violence are harmful to children.

 It embraces all kinds of communications where a child is exposed to. It covers up everything that a child
hears and sees that leaves behind in his or her imagination. It could be anything a child saw on
television, heard over the radio, read from a book or magazine, or even saw in a movie house. Ex: sex
videos, massacre movies, use of guns.

 The information fed by media to the child, If not properly screened by parents to be fitted to his or her
age level and not within his or her comprehension, would be very detrimental to the proper upbringing
of the child.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS TO JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

1. Government

• Some departments or agencies of the government also create factors that influence the youth to
become delinquent, such as:

a. Political interference of the higher positions

b. Unfair decisions of the court
c. Police carelessness and unfair treatment

2. Religion

• Shapes the child’s spiritual belief. It serves as guide in his or her moral preferences as he grows up.

• The molding of the character of the child’s character starts from his spirituality which is brought about
by the teachings of his or her church.

3. Exclusion
 • The growing gap between rich and poor has led to the emergence of “unwanted others.” The exclusion
of some people is gradually increasing with the accumulation of obstacles, raptured social ties,
unemployment and identity crises.

• Study shows that the act of labeling may lead to the self-adoption of a delinquent image, which later
results in delinquent activity.

4. Gender and delinquency

• Police records indicate that the crime rates of male juvenile and male young adult offenders are more
than double those of young females, and conviction rates are six or seven times higher

5. Social class and delinquency

• If youth crime is purely a lower-class phenomenon, its cause must be rooted in the social forces that
are found solely in lower-class areas: poverty, unemployment, social disorganization, culture conflict,
and alienation.
1. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
A. Lombrosian theory
- Cesare Lombroso
- Criminals are born not made

Lombroso changes the theory and develops a new Classification of criminals in 3 categories:

1. Born criminals (30% of all criminals)

2. Abnormal criminals( idiots, imbeciles, paranoids, melancholic, paralytics, epileptics, demented
persons, alcoholics and hysterics)
3. Occasional criminals
a. Criminaloids- difficulties during their childhood and can occasionally behave delinquently.
b. Pseudo criminals- insane persons and those who committed crime in self-defense
c. Criminals out of habit- had a poor education or have been in social interaction with criminals
during childhood.

B. William Sheldon’s theory

Somatotyping
a. Ectomorph- narrow hips, shoulders, face, chest, skinny arms and legs, high forehead
o Personal characteristics: socially awkward, self-conscious, introverted and private, artistic,
thoughtful.
b. Endomorph- round with wide shoulders and hips, High body fats in all areas
o Outgoing, funny, loving, attention-seeking
c. Mesomorph- broad shoulders and narrow waist, muscular body
o Outgoing, courageous, competitive, risk taker

C. General Inferiority Theory/Hooton’s Theory

- Earnest albert Hooton, an American physical anthropologist was known for his work on racial
classification and studied the race of American Indians.
- Believed in Lombroso’s theory
- He suggested that human somatotype can determine which type of crime a person will commit:
tall-slender- murder and robbery; tall-medium heavy man- forgery; medium-height heavy- anti-
social behavior; short slender- burglary and larceny; short-medium heavy- arson; short heavy men
for sex offenses.

According to him:

a. Criminals are less often married and more often divorced

b. Often have tattoos
c. Thinner beards and body hair and their hair is more often reddish- brown and straight
d. Often blue-gray or mixed colored eyes and less often dark or blue eyes
e. Low sloping foreheads, high nasal bridges and thin lips
f. Ears have rolled helix

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

A. Low IQ theory

- Criminals and delinquents possess low intelligence and that this produces criminality.
- persons with low IQ were discriminated and has disadvantages to the community.

B. Freudan Psychoanalytic theory

- Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis

The Id
- is concerned with instant gratification of basic physical needs and urges. For example, if your id
walked past a stranger eating ice cream, it would most likely take the ice cream for itself. It doesn’t
know, or care, that it is rude to take something belonging to someone else; it would care only that you
wanted the ice cream.
- about criminal offenders who have no concern for anyone but themselves
 The Ego
- is the rational, pragmatic part of our personality.
- its job is to balance the demands of the id and superego in the practical context of reality. So, if you
walked past the stranger with ice cream one more time, your ego would mediate the conflict
between your id (“I want that ice cream right now”) and superego (“It’s wrong to take someone
else’s ice cream”) and decide to go buy your own ice cream. While this may mean you have to wait
10 more minutes, which would frustrate your id, your ego decides to make that sacrifice as part of
the compromise– satisfying your desire for ice cream while also avoiding an unpleasant social
situation and potential feelings of shame.

The Superego
-is concerned with social rules and morals—similar to what many people call their ” conscience ” or
their “moral compass.” It develops as a child learns what their culture considers right and wrong. If
your superego walked past the same stranger, it would not take their ice cream because it would know
that that would be rude. However, if both your id and your superego were involved, and your id was
strong enough to override your superego’s concern, you would still take the ice cream, but afterward
you would most likely feel guilt and shame over your actions.

C. Attention-deficit-hyperactivity theory (ADHD)

- a mental disorder which is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity or difficulty
controlling behavior.
- Appears before a person is 12 years old, are present more than 6 months and cause problems in at
least two settings (school, home or recreational activities).

D. Frustration-aggression theory
- Otherwise known as frustration-aggression displacement theory proposed by John Dollard, Neal E.
Miller and Leonard Berkowitz.
- Aggression is the result of blocking or frustrating, a person’s effort to attain a goal.
- Scapegoat; ex: a man disrespected and humiliated at his work but cannot respond for fear of losing his
job, he may go home and take his anger and frustration out on his family.

E. Rational choice theory

- it was originated from the work of Cesare Beccaria where it asserts that criminals make a choice to
commit a crime after weighing the costs. They will also consider the benefit of not committing the
crime, but ultimately determine that the rewards of the crime are greater benefit of not committing
the crime.

F. Drift theory (neutralization theory)

- introduced by Gresham Sykes and David Matza
- idea that people who violate the law learn to neutralize the orthodox attitudes and values of society,
allowing them to drift between outlaw and orthodox behavior.
Methods:
a. Denial of responsibility- many delinquents try to argue their illegal actions are not their fault.
Maybe they had a rough childhood, framed, or it was an accident.
b. Denial of injury- they try to neutralize their behavior by downplaying the injuries inflicted on the
victim. They might try and say they weren’t stealing, they were merely borrowing.
c. Denial of victim- insisting their victim had it coming. Most common crime that is used under is rape.
By claiming the girl was dressed too provocatively or getting drunk in a party.
d. Condemnation of condemners- many criminals sees the world as a dog eat dog place. Because
many judges and policeman are all on the take and many parents show favoritism with their
children or vent their frustrations on those children, they feel these people have no room to point
any fingers at them. By placing blame elsewhere, delinquents can neutralize their feeling that their
actions were wrong.
e. Appeal to higher loyalties- young delinquents often feel the strain of who to place their loyalties to.
The group loyalties most often win out because their demands are immediate.

H. Labeling theory
- People are given labels based on how others view their tendencies or behavior.
- Frank Tannenbaum considered the grandfather of labeling theory who introduced the idea of tagging.
He found that negative tag or label often contributed further to delinquent activities. This may cause
individual to adopt it as part of their identity.
3. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

A. Social Disorganization Theory

- inability of the community members to achieve shared values or to solve jointly experienced
problems.
- the theory links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of this theory
is that place matters. In other words a person’s residential location is a substantial factor that a person
will be involved in illegal activities.
- Sutherland adopted such concept to explain the increase in crime that accompanied the
transformation of preliterate and peasant societies- in which “influences surrounding a person were
steady, uniform, harmonious and consistent” which he believed was characterized by inconsistency,
conflict and un-organization.
- It key proponents were Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay (1942), who used spatial mapping to
examine the residential locations of juveniles referred to court. Shaw and McKay found that patterns of
delinquency were higher in areas characterised by poor housing, poor health, socio-economic
disadvantage and transient populations. This led them to suggest that crime was a function of
neighbourhood dynamics and not due to individual actors and their actions.

B. Strain theory
- developed by Robert Merton which states that the society puts pressure on individuals to achieve
socially accepted goals (such as American dream) though they lack the means, this leads to strain which
may lead to commit crime. Examples: selling drugs or becoming involved in prostitution to gain
financial security.
- American sociologist Robert Merton (1957) drew on this idea to explain criminality and deviance in
the USA. His theory argues that crime occurs when there is a gap between the cultural goals of a
society (e.g. material wealth, status) and the structural means to achieve these (e.g. education,
employment). This strain between means and goals results in frustration and resentment, and
encourages some people to use illegitimate or illegal means to secure success.

C. Social Learning theory

- learning and social behaviors which proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and
imitating others. Learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process
known as reinforcement.

D. Routine activity theory

- in order for a crime to be committed, 3 specific criteria must be involved: motivated offender, suitable
target (person, object or place) as well as absence of a capable guardian.
- it creates opportunities for crime. In other words, the daily routine activities of the people- including
where they work, the routes they travel to and from school, the groups with whom they socialize, the
shops they frequently go.

E. Differential association theory

- developed by Edwin Sutherland, states that they learn other behaviors through exposure to primary
and intimate social contacts.

F. Differential Oppression theory

- Because children lack power due to their age, size and lack of resources, they are easy targets for
adult oppression. Children are exposed to different levels and types of oppression that vary depending
on their age, level of development, socioeconomic class, race and the beliefs and perceptions of their
parents.