OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR COLLEGE-SAN MANUEL, INC

District 3 San Manuel, Isabela – 3317

COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Academic Year 2021-2022
Second Semester
Prelim-Final

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND JUVENILE

JUSTICE SYSTEM
CRIM5
Chapter I Basic Concepts and Definition

History

Since ancient times, enlightened legal systems have distinguished between juvenile delinquents and adult
criminals. The immature generally were not considered morally responsible for their behavior. Under the Code of
Napoleon in France for example, limited responsibility was ascribed to children under the age of 16. Despite the
apparent humanity of some early statutes, however the punishment of juvenile offenders until the 19 th century was
often severe.

House of Refuge – the first institution expressly for juveniles and was founded in New York City in 1825 so that
institutionalized delinquents could be kept apart from adult criminals.

In 1700’s, Juvenile delinquents did not receive special treatment or recognition. Discipline then is what we now call
abuse.
There were some major assumptions about life before the 1700’s. the first assumption is that life is hard, and you had to
be hard to survive.
At the end of the 18th century, a new cultural transition appeared. This period of history is sometimes known as the
beginning of reason and humanism. People began to see children as flowers that needed nurturing in
order to bloom. They had finally began to emerge as a distinct group

Juvenile - is a person who has not reached the adulthood or the age of majority (usually 18).
- Are generally regarded as immature or ones whose mental and emotional faculties are not fully
developed, thus making them incapable of taking full responsibility of their actions.
- They are required to attend school between the ages of 6 and 18; they are expected to obey their
parents; they are forbidden to purchase alcohol or cigarettes or drive motor vehicles; they may not
marry without parental permission; they cannot enter to business or financial contracts; and they are
not permitted to vote, enter the military and runaway from home .

Delinquent - is a person, of whatever age, whose gratitude towards other individual , towards the community, toward
lawful authority is such that it may lead him into breaking the law.
- is also defined as one who repeatedly commits an act that is against the norms observed by the
society.

Juvenile delinquents may be grouped in three ways:

1. children aging below 7 years old
2. children aging from 7 to 12 years old – juveniles who have doll incapax (not capable of having
criminal intent)
3. youths aging above 12 but below 18

Juvenile delinquency
- commonly the term is used to describe a large number of disapproved behaviors of children and
youths. In other way, anything the youth does that other do not approve or like can be called juvenile
delinquency.
- Also refers to an anti-social act or behavior of minors which deviates from the normal patter of rules
and regulations, customs, and culture which the society does not accept and which, therefore justifies
some kind of admonishment, punishment, or corrective measures in the public interest.

Legally, juvenile delinquency is defined as:

 Criminal law violations that would be considered crimes if committed by adult;
  An act committed by a minor that violates the penal code of the government with authority over
the place in which the act occurred;
 The committing of those things considered crimes by the country
 Any act, behavior or conduct which might be brought to court and judged whether such is a
violation of the law

Juvenile Crime
In its simplest definition, “crime” is any specific act prohibited by the law for which society has provided a
formally sanction punishment. This can also include the failure of a person to perform an act specifically required by the
law.

Legally speaking, a crime is an illegal act committed by a person with a criminal intent. Before the establishment
of juvenile courts, children under the age of seven were never held responsible for criminal acts.

Juvenile crime, in law, denotes various offenses committed by a children or youths under the age of 18. Such acts
are sometimes referred to as juvenile delinquency.

Unlawful acts committed by juveniles can be divided into five major categories:
 Unlawful acts against person
 Unlawful acts against property
 Drug and alcohol offenses
 Offenses against the public order
 Status offenses – acts that only juveniles can commit and that can be adjudicated only by a
juvenile court.

JUVENILE JUSTICE
Like adults juveniles can be charged with violations of the criminal law, but because of their special status, an
alternative system has evolved for dealing with juvenile law breakers

` Major difference between adult and juvenile justice systems involves the purpose and nature of the sanctions
imposed.
Adults – retribution, vengeance, incapacitation, deterrence,, and rehabilitation
Juveniles – in the best interest of the child

DEVELOPMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE

The roots of the juvenile justice system are two thousand years old. These can be traced to classical Roman Law.
There are two roots:
1. Punitive
2. Support and Care

STAGES OF DELINQUENCY
a) Emergence – the child begins with petty larceny between 8 and sometimes during the 12 th year.
b) Exploration – he or she then may move on to shoplifting and vandalism between ages 12 to 14.
c) Explosion – at age 13, there is a substantial increase in variety and seriousness
d) Conflagration – at around 15, four or more types of crime are added.

CLASSIFICATION OF DELINQUENCY
1. Unsocialized Aggression – reject or abandonment, no parents to imitate and become aggressive
2. Socialized delinquency – membership in fraternities or groups that advocate bad things.
3. Over-inhibited – group secretly trained to do illegal activities like marijuana cultivation.

PATHWAY TO DELINQUENCY
1. Malicious – expression of defiance
 2. Negativistic – changeable attitudes like not being satisfied with status
3. Non-utilitarian – vandalistic attitude like graffiti
4. Hedonistic – doing bad things for pleasure

TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH

Delinquent youths may be grouped according to manner in which their personality types define and affect their
delinquent behavior. They are:
1) Socialized delinquents – they become delinquents as a result of their social association with people from
whom they learned deviant values. They are more likely to become property violators than violent
offenders.
2) Neurotic delinquents – these youths become delinquents as a result of distortions of their personality and
their ideas and perception of the world around them. They may commit delinquent acts because of their
insecurities about their masculinity. They may become deviant because of some anxiety or neurotic
compulsion.
3) Psychotic delinquents – there are youths with severe personality disorders have a significantly distorted
perception of the society and people around them.
4) Sociopathic delinquents – these youths are characterized by an egocentric personality. They have limited
or no compassion for others. Because of this character defect, they can easily victimize others with little
or no anxiety or guilt.

OTHER WAYS TO CLASSIFY DELINQUENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

a) Environmental delinquents – they are the occasional law breakers
b) Emotionally maladjusted delinquents – these delinquents are the chronic lawbreakers who make breaking of laws
a habit they cannot avoid or escape from.
c) Psychiatric delinquents – they are persons who become delinquent due to mental illness or serious emotional
disturbances in the family.

EARLY CONCEPTUALIZATION IF CHILDHOOD

Childhood dates only to somewhere between the 14th and 17th centuries. Prior to this time, “small people” were
either accorded no special presence at all, or were regarded as miniatures of adults.

Children as non-human
Practices which reflected children as non-human include:
 Infanticide – especially illegitimate, deformed, poor, later born, and girls.
 Abandonment – often left on the streets, on door stoops and in orphanages; another
common forms was wet nursing.
 Swaddling – involved depriving the child of use of limbs by wrapping them in endless
bandage; child could be left unattended

Children as miniature adults

Practices which reflected children as miniature adults include:

 Adult punishment for misdeeds – punishments for children were severe, even the death
penalty for minor offenses.
 Slavery and apprenticeship – children were commonly sold into slavery, prostitution and
apprenticeship, sometimes as security on debts or as political hostages.
 Morality, sex and prostitution – children were exposed to adult sexuality form an early
age, and even used as prostitutes.

THE INVENTION OF DELINQUENCY

The following laws paved the way to the invention of delinquency:

1) Roman law and Canon (church) Law – approximately 2000 years ago. Roman Law and Canon Law made
distinction between juveniles and adults based on notion “age of responsibility”
2) Ancient Jewish Law – The Talmud (body of jewish civil and religious laws) specified condition under which
immaturity was to be considered in imposing punishment.
 3) Codification of Roman Law - in 5th century B.C. this law resulted in the Twelve Tables which made it clear that
children were criminally responsible for violation of law and were to be dealt with by the same criminal justice
system as adults. Punishments for some offenses, however , were less severe for young people than for adults.
4) Anglo Saxon Common Law – this law was influenced by Roman and Canon Law, which emerged in England
during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The distinction made between adult and juvenile offenders in England at this time is most
significant. Under common law:
 Children under 7 were automatically presumed innocent because of their age.
 Children over 14 were automatically judged as an adult
 Children between 7 and 14 were presumed innocent because of their age, but could be
found guilty under certain circumstances.

CREATION OF THE INSTITUTION

As result of the increasing recognition of the problem of delinquency, several institutions for juveniles were
established in the east between 1824 and 1828. These institutions were oriented toward education and treatment rather
than punishment, through whippings, long periods of silence and loss of rewards were used to punish the uncooperative

THEORIES OF DELINQUENCY
Various theories have been propounded to understand the deviant behavior of juveniles. They are classified as
follows:

A. Early general theories on the causes of delinquency

1) Demonological theory – this was developed during the middle ages. Hence, it is the oldest perspective of
theory. It was based on the belief of primitive people that every object and person is guided by a spirit.
This theory promoted the notion that persons should not be held responsible for their actions when they
do evil things because their body is possessed by evil spirits.
2) Classical theory – postulated by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, classical theory was consistent
with the utilitarian view that people weigh the benefits and costs of future action before they decide to act.
- It promoted the idea that people choose criminality the same way when they choose conformity, that
youths commit crime because they think or imagine that greater good things can be earned through
conformity. This is because people by nature are hedonistic.

`Classicist have four good reasons why delinquent persons and offenders should be punished:
a) General deterrence – punishment of delinquents and criminal offenders will strike fear in the hearts of
other people, thus making them less likely to commit acts of delinquency or crimes.
b) Specific deterrence – punishment will strike fear in the hearts of wrongdoers, thus making them less
likely to offend others again.
c) Incapacitation – the simplest form of jurisdiction; wrongdoers should be locked up in jail since while they
are imprisoned in an institution, they cannot commit offenses against other people in the outside world.
d) Retribution – this reason objects the idea that anything good or useful will follow result from punishing
offenders;
 Criminals or delinquents should be punished because they deserve it; a punishment is morally
right and just in light of the harm and damage caused by the offense.
 Punishing criminals have no positive purpose or no positive effect on the minds and hearts of
the people.
3.) Positive or Italian theory – this theory was developed by Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, and Raffaele
Garofalo. Positive theory promoted the idea of determinism as a way of explaining crime and delinquency.
Determinism means every act has a cause that is waiting to be discovered in the natural world.
4.) Critical theory – this theory is much more significant criminological analysis on the causes of juvenile
delinquency. Critical criminologist and sociologist view juvenile delinquency as a by product of existing social
arrangements. The concepts of power, influence, inequality and conflict guide this theory in exploring and
clarifying the nature of juvenile delinquency. This theory blames delinquency on the imbalance power within the
human society.

B. Biological theories
 Early biological theories claim that criminal behavior is a result of biological or genetic defect in the individual.
Contemporary biological theories focus more on variations in genetic and other biological factors in interaction
with the environment, and are less likely to refer to biological defects or abnormalities.
1) Lombrosian theory – it was developed by Dr. Cesare Lombroso, a prison doctor in Turin Italy and known
as the father of criminology. His job was to examine hundreds of criminals. This theory holds the
following assumptions:
a. Criminals have many stigmata (distinctive physical features) such as symmetrical faces, enormous
jaws, large or protruding ears, and receding chins.
b. Criminals are atavistic beings who look differently and think differently. Having the mentality of
primitive people, they are incapable of living in modern society.
c. Criminals are classified as epileptic, insane and inborn.
2.) General Inferiority Theory/ Hooton’s Theory – this was proposed by Earnest Hooston. This theory has the
following assumptions:
a. Crime is the result of the impact of environment upon low-grade human organisms and that criminals
were originally inferior people.
b. crimes exist because there are some inferior people who are responsible for them.
c. Man with mediocre builds are people who tend to break the law without preference because crimes
are like physical make-up, characteristics.
d. Criminals should be permanently exiled to self-governing reservations, isolated from the society,
sterilized to prevent future offspring.

3.) William Sheldon’s Theory – according to Sheldon, body type affects the person’s entire personality or
temperament. People are classified in three ways:
a. Endomorphs – people who tend to be fat, round and soft, and to have short arms and legs.
b. Mesomorphs – people who have athletic and muscular physique; with active, assertive and aggressive
personality. Delinquency exist because there are mesomorphic men or youths who are responsible for its
occurrence.
c. Ectomorphs – people who are basically skinny with lean and fragile bodies.
4.) Genetic Theory – this theory assumes that:
a. Crime and delinquency is committed by people who have abnormal genetic structure or chromosomal
abnormalities.
b. DNA is the transmitter of genetic materials (genes)
c. Extra Y chromosome is responsible for aggressiveness and thus, criminal activity. Men with extra Y
chromosomes are taller and have a 10 to 20 percent greater tendency to break the law that genetically normal
XY males.

C. Psychological Theory
These theory assumed that:
a. Delinquency is a result of internal, underlying disturbances.
b. These disturbances develop in childhood and tend to become permanent features of the individual
character.
c. Since the individual has problems, he or she must be the focus of attention if the problem is to be solved.