NOTES ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Objective of the Study of Juvenile Delinquency

1. To determine its nature and extent and crime in the Philippine today.

2. To ascertain the various factors, reasons, causes that made up juvenile

delinquency, and

3. To adopt adequate measures toward the prevention, suppression and

recurrence of juvenile delinquency in the Philippines.

Juvenile Delinquency - An act committed by a minor who violates the penal

code of the government.
- An anti-social behavior or act which does not conform with the
standards of society
- Youth behavior which is against the norms and regulations of society
which if left unchecked would give rise to criminality
Juvenile - persons below the age of majority, that is, below eighteen years old
- a child or a young person, who, under the legal system may be dealt
with for an offense in a manner different from that of adult
Delinquent - is a person who is a child, a youngster, a youth whose behavior is
forbidden by law or not accepted by society

TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH

1. Social - an aggressive youth who resents authority of anyone who makes an
effort to control his behavior
2. Neurotic - one who has internalized his conflicts and is preoccupied with his
own feelings
3. Asocial - one whose delinquent acts have a cold, brutal and vicious quality
for which the youth feel no remorse; one who lacks moral conscience
4. Accidental - one who is essentially sociable and law-abiding but happens to
be at the wrong time and place and becomes involved in delinquent acts not
typical of his general behavior
Three Competing World Views of Delinquency
1. CLASSICAL SCHOOL (Choice Theory)
People choose to commit crime after weighting the benefits and costs of their
actions. Crime can be deterred by certain, severe and swift punishment.
Cesare Beccaria – leader of the classical school.
Principal Arguments of the Classical School:
1. People has free will
2. Behavior is guided by hedonistic calculus (pleasure/pain calculation)
3. Crime is the result of free will and hedonism
4. Punishment should fit the offense
5. Bad people are nothing more that the result of bad laws
2. NEO-CLASSICAL SCHOOL - A group of intellectuals in the BritishParliament
headed by Sir William Blackstone
- argued that certain individuals cannot exercise free will intelligently by
reason of age, mental condition, minority, insanity, or duress.
- They criticized the harsh legalism of classical school because it fails to
exempt those kinds of offender. They sought the exemption of certain individuals
from the application of penal laws.

3. POSITIVIST SCHOOL

Cesare Lombroso – leader of the positivist world view. An Italian

physician who studied the brain of criminals. He has been called as the
father of Modern Criminology.

Lombroso maintained that:

- Criminals were born with a predisposition to crime
- Needed exceptionally favorable condition in life to avoid criminal
behavior

Principle of Positivist Theory:

An individual action is determined not by free will but by biological and
cultural factors

Breed vs. Jones 

- A US court decision where it held that juveniles cannot be tried when
acquitted in juvenile court then tried again in adult criminal court.
- Double jeopardy applies to juveniles as well as adults.

LEGITIMATE CHILD
- are those children who are born in lawful wedlock or both parents are legally
married.

ILLEGITIMATE CHILD
- are those children who were born out of wedlock or parents who are not
legally married to each other.
*LEGITIMATED CHILD
- from illegitimacy … then subsequent valid marriage of the parents comes.

AGE OF MAJORITY
- majority commences at the age of eighteen (18) years (R.A 6809)

SOCIALIZATION
- process where a child learns the ways of living in a society and how to
function as a person within it.

EMANCIPATION
- freedom from parental authority, both over his person and property
R.A 6809
- the law amending the age of majority
- lowered the age of majority from twenty- one (21) to eighteen (18) years

DISCERNMENT
- The mental capacity to distinguish right from wrong.

COMMUNITY
- A local government together with society of individuals or institutions.

PROHIBITED VICES
- common unlawful acts committed by minors

STATUS OFFENSE
- Certain acts or omissions which may not be punishable socially or
legally if committed by adults but become anti-social or illegal
because the offender is a minor, such as:

1. Truancy, or frequent, unreasonable absenteeism from school

2. Uses of profane language
3. Running away from home
4. Smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages
5. Disobedience to parents, guardians or school officials
6. Mendicancy or begging in the streets
7. Association with delinquent gangs

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
- Characterized by disobedience to, or disrespect for, authorities
 
OFFENSES NOT APPLICABLE TO CHILDREN & CANNOT BE
PROSECUTED:
1. Vagrancy & prostitution under R.P.C
2. Mendicancy under P.D 1563
3. Sniffing of rugby under P.D 1619

* Provided, that said persons shall undergo appropriate counseling and

treatment program.

PARENS PATRIAE – it simply means father of the country

- It views minor who violate the laws as victims of improper care,
custody and treatment at home
- Assumption by the State of the role of guardian over children whose
parents are deemed incapable or unworthy
- The authority of the state to act on behalf of the children

DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF DELINQUENCY.

1.BIOGENIC APPROACH

- gives an explanation that law violatios and delinquency are a result of physical defects.

2. PSYCHOGENIC APPROACH

- argues that the critical factors in delinquency are personality problems to which misbehavior is
presumed to be RESPONSE.

3. SOCIOGENIC APPROACH

- views youthful misdeed as a result of learning process through interactions with other members of
society.

Causes of behavioral disorder

1.Predisposing factors

Internal propensities which may not considered as criminal unless the

attempt was made.

2. Precipitating factors

Conditions and elements which provokes crime such as personal

problems curiousity, ignorance, necessities, diseases, traumatic
experience and the like.
THREE TYPES OF DELINQUENCY

1. ENVIRONMENTAL DELINQUENCE – characterized by ocassional law-

breaking.
2. EMOTIONALY MALAJUSTED DILIQUENCE – characterized by chronic
law breaking a habit which this type cannot avoid or scape from.
3. PSYCHIATRIC DELINQUENCE – Characterized by serious emotional
disturbances within the Individual and in some cases associated with
tendencies towards mental illness.

DIFFERENT THEORIES CONCERNING DELINQUENCY Choice THEORY

–

- Based on the classical school of criminology that views an individual as having free will
in choosing his actions and that the calculates what he will gain or lose if he commits
and act.
- Views the deliquent as a motivated offender who breaks the law because he or she
perceives an abundance of benefits and an absence of threat.

BIOSOCIAL OR TRAITS THEORY

- Based on the view that both throught and behavior have biological and social bases.
- Contemporary explanation of the biogenic approach.
- Has three sub theories biochemical, neurological and genetics.

1.BIOCHEMICAL

- Views that crime and delinquency Specially violence are the result of diet, vitamin intake hormonal
imbalance and other biological causes.

2. NEUROLOGICAL

- Explains that crime in delinquency occur because the individual suffers from brain impairment or
abnormality in the structure of the brain.

- learning disabilities such as attention deficit /hyperactive disorder or minimum brain dysfunction are
related to anti social behavior.

3. GENETIC

- Explains that deliquent traits and predisposition criminality from inherited from parents

- criminality of parents can predict delinquency of children

- supported by research on twin studies and adoption studies.

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

- Views delinquency as a result or emotional and mental disturbance of individual.

- Contemporary explanation of the psychogenic approach
- Has three sub theories psychodynamic, behavioral and cognitive.

1.PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

- based on the psycho analytic theory of Sigmund Freud

- DELINQUENCY is the result of imbalance of the three components of personality, I’d, ego super ego

- DELINQUENCY is the proceduct of abnormal personality structure form in early life and which
thereafter controls human behavior choices.

2. BEHAVIORAL THEORY

- believes that individual learn by observing how people react to their behavior, behavior is reinforced
by by some possitive reaction and behavior is extinquish if punished

- miss-behavior of children of left unchecked will persist until adolescence.