Common Factors of Juvenile Delinquent Acts

Dr. Anna C. Bocar

Marde P. Mercado

Junry R. Macahis

Neil S. Serad

A Research Report

by

Estayani, Von Justin L.

France, Gien Annecy M.

Flores, Jared Matthieu D.

Introduction
 The prevention of juvenile delinquency is crucial for crime prevention in society,

as an increasing number of youths are getting involved in criminal activities such as theft,

robbery, and murder. The peace officers in the country are concerned with all types of

youth in a community, but the major portion of work with the youth is more on

delinquency and prevention activities. The youth apprehended by peace officers after the

commission of a crime are directly turned over to the City Social Welfare Development

Office, as they are considered minors and not criminally liable. However, there has been

an increase in crimes involving minors, and cases of drug use have also risen. The

researchers aim to determine the common causes of juvenile delinquent acts as perceived

by their respondents, which will aid them in dealing with youth that are into delinquent

acts and establish a good relationship.

Statement of the Problem

The study aimed to investigate the perception of the respondents on the factors of

juvenile delinquent acts. Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents as regards their:

1.1 grouping

2. As manifested by the respondents which of the factors of juvenile delinquency namely:

family, environment, school, and other departments or agencies of the government

2.1 push the youth or juvenile to engage in delinquent acts at all times

2.2 never push the youth or juvenile to engage in delinquent acts?

Significance of the Study

 This study is helpful to the following groups of people:

Parents. The study will help parents understand what causes youth delinquency,

allowing them to provide the necessary support and guidance to their children.

Police Officers. The study will provide police officers with knowledge on the causes of

youth delinquency, allowing them to conduct seminars and address the root causes of

criminal behavior.

Local Government. The study will guide local government in developing prevention

programs to reduce youth delinquency, while social workers can use it as a guide to

provide counseling and treatment to redirect youth offenders from committing crimes.

Teachers/Criminology Professors. The study will help teachers/professors identify the

causes of youth delinquency and provide guidance to students, family members, and

relatives to prevent delinquent behavior.

Department of Criminal Justice Education. This would serve as a supplement and

would aid the department in resolving matters and issues that deal with juvenile

delinquency.

Other Researchers. This study would become a good reference for further research and

would encourage them to examine deeper the issues which are related to this study.
Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for the research study involves identifying the various

factors that contribute to the occurrence of delinquent behaviors among young people.

This framework helps to guide the research design and methodology to ensure that all

relevant factors are considered.

The framework includes family, environment, school, and other departments and

agencies of the government that have been shown to contribute to juvenile delinquency.

These factors can be measured using surveys and questionnaires. The conceptual

framework also recognizes that these factors are interconnected and can influence each

other, so it is important to consider the complex relationships between them.

The researchers used a quantitative or qualitative approach, or a combination of

both. A quantitative approach involves collecting numerical data that can be analyzed

using statistical methods to identify patterns and relationships between variables. A

qualitative approach involves collecting non-numerical data such as interviews or

observations to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and perspectives of

individuals.

Theoretical Framework

Juvenile delinquency is a significant issue that involves anti-social behavior

committed by youths against societal norms and regulations. Guevara and Bautista (2008)

define juvenile delinquency as acts that go against the norm, culture customs, and

regulations of society. Factors contributing to juvenile delinquency include parental

conflict, paternal aggressiveness, lack of maternal affection, and paternal criminality

(Smith, Tolan, Loeber & Henry, 1998), as well as economic disempowerment, permissive

parenting styles, and heavy job-time overload (Ngale, 2009). Villanueva (2006) identifies

the four factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency as family, environment, school,

and other government agencies.

Family. The family is where children learn to control their desires and follow rules, but if

they experience certain issues like lack of guidance or unfair treatment, they may become

delinquent due to their family's influence.

Environment. The child's community and friends can influence them to become

delinquent, with causes including association with criminal groups, alcohol and drug

addiction, crime-inducing situations, and imitated instincts like selfishness and violence.

Schools. Schools shape behavior by instilling societal values and goals but can contribute

to juvenile delinquency if they fail to develop character or provide adequate resources.

Other Departments and Agencies of the Government. Influences such as political

interference, unfair court decisions, police treatment, and media exposure can contribute

to youth delinquency.
 Review of Related Literature

“Juvenile Delinquency” (2009) concluded that there has been an increase in the

involvement of juveniles in the act of criminal activities. These unlawful behaviors are

often associated with gangs and groups which disturb the community. Conversely, it is

crucial to recognize that the community also influences the individuals.

Guevara and Bautista (2008) investigated the influence of media violence on the behavior

of the youth. The investigation has led to the conclusion that exposure to diverse forms of

violent media has increased physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive

thoughts, and aggressive emotions.

Juvenile delinquency is almost an outcome of rapid urbanization and

industrialization and has almost become a universal problem in the majority of

industrialized countries, according to Hossain (2011). It also states that there is no

definite singular cause or explanation for the development of delinquent behavior; there

are multiple causes of delinquency, which are family aspects of delinquency, physical

factors, and biological factors.

As stated by Green (2005), social-science evidence strongly suggests the

influence of parents as the major reason for juvenile crime. Results from a recent study

show that criminal parents are more likely to raise criminal offspring; 43% of prisoners

had family members who were convicted, and 35% had been in prison.

The child's harsh and cruel upbringing also leads to the development of violent

conduct. Maltreated children are more likely to commit crime as adults than non-

maltreated children as stated by Honkatukia and Kivivuori (2006).

 Bobbio, Arbach and Redondo Illescas (2020) conducted an investigation wherein

the researchers analyzed the relationship between individual, social and environmental

risk factors and juvenile delinquency behavior.

Mwangangi (2019) concluded in his study that the family has a major role in the

growth of the child to whether they engage in delinquent acts. The family greatly

contributes to the development of children's values, skills, and sense of self.

In their study, Song et al. (2022), they discussed on the psychological

characteristics models of delinquency in which is divided into four (4) which are:

rebellious psychology of juvenile delinquency groups, weak awareness of the rule

of law among juveniles, teenagers’ imitation and curiosity and teenagers’ comparing

psychology.
 Methodology

Research Design

The study is conducted using qualitative descriptive survey method in which the

researchers ‘gathered data from the respondents to their perception on the predictors that

encourage the youth/juvenile to engage in delinquent acts.

Participants

The respondents of the study were fifty (50) police officers, fifty (50) students at

La Salle University 1st semester of SY 2012-2013, fifty (50) parents and seventy seven

(77) full time teachers which were selected through random selection.

Research Setting

The location chosen for this study is in Ozamiz City, a second-class city in the

province of Misamis Occidental in Region X Northern Mindanao. The parents, as

respondents, were selected from Barangay Maningcol, Carmen Annet, and Tinago since

these barangays are accessible to the researchers. The students and full-time teachers are

selected from La Salle University, one of the prestigious schools in the city, the study

was also conducted in the same university.

Research Instrument

The self-devised questionnaire on the factors of juvenile delinquents acts with the

predictors sourced from the book of Villanueva (2006) and Ngale (2009). This was used

as the main tool to gather the data from the respondents. There are two (2) parts in the

research instrument. The first part was about grouping the responses and the second part

was on the predictors on the four factors of juvenile delinquent acts which were (1)
family, (2) environment, (3) school, and (4) other departments or agencies of

government.

Data Gathering Procedure

In this study, the researchers wrote a letter requesting that the fifty (50) selected

police officers in the city be administered a survey questionnaire, which was delivered to

the Chief of Ozamiz City Philippine National Police. For the selected parents in each

selected barangay, the researchers requested the assistance of Health Workers in

gathering the data. For the LSU teachers and students, the survey questionnaires were

directly administered to them. The answers to questionnaires are then collected for each

item to be tallied, tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted.

Treatment of Data

The respondents were asked to check their preferred answers from the scale of

measurements provided. The researchers set the scale of measurement with qualitative

description corresponding with numeric values. There are four (4) qualitative descriptions

which are Never (N), Occasionally (Occ), Often (Oft), Always (A) with the numeric

value from 1 to 4 respectively. The response for every item would be interpreted using

the weighted mean; moreover, percentage and frequency distribution were also utilized in

this study.
 Results and Discussion

The study surveyed 227 respondents, including teachers, students, parents, and

police officers, to determine their beliefs about the factors contributing to juvenile

delinquency. Family, environment, school, and other government agencies were

identified as factors contributing to juvenile delinquency. Police officers perceived these

factors to frequently push youth to break the law, while students and parents believed

these factors only occasionally lead to delinquent acts. Teachers recognized that the

environment often plays a significant role in juvenile delinquency, supporting the idea

that association with antisocial peers can lead to delinquent behavior.

School was seen as a contributing factor by police officers, who believed it

frequently led to delinquent behavior. However, teachers, students, and parents only saw

it as a sometimes factor, with frustration and annoyance being identified as potential

triggers for delinquency. Other government agencies were seen as a factor by teachers,

students, and parents, but not by police officers.

Overall, the study found that different groups had varying beliefs about the factors

contributing to juvenile delinquency. While police officers perceived family,

environment, school, and other government agencies to frequently push youth towards

delinquent acts, students and parents believed these factors only occasionally lead to

delinquent behavior. Teachers recognized the environment as playing a significant role in

juvenile delinquency and saw the mass media as a frequent driver of youth delinquency.

However, unfair treatment by the court was not seen as a cause for delinquent acts by any

group.
 Summary, Conclusion, Recommendation

The researchers found that different groups of respondents have varying

perceptions of what causes youth to become delinquents. None of the four factors always

leads to breaking the law. The environment is often a cause of misbehavior, while the

family and school occasionally contribute to conflict with the law. Police officers were

the only group who did not consider other government agencies as a factor, while the

other groups acknowledged that they sometimes encourage delinquent acts.

The researchers made several recommendations based on their study's findings.

Firstly, parents should avoid arguing in front of their children and show love instead of

abusive disciplinary actions. They should also monitor their children's activities and

friends. Secondly, police officers should maintain visibility to prevent crimes, especially

at night when young people roam the streets. Thirdly, local governments should conduct

prevention programs to divert youth from delinquent acts to productive ones.

Additionally, social workers should create rehabilitation programs for juvenile offenders

to redirect their minds and prevent further crimes.

Furthermore, teachers should use creative teaching techniques to keep students

interested and attentive in class, encouraging them to stay in school until the end of

classes. Moreover, the Department of Criminal Justice Education should educate students

on preventing juvenile delinquency and impose procedures for them to follow. Lastly,

future researchers should conduct further studies related to this issue. Overall, the

recommendations aim to prevent juvenile delinquency by addressing the factors that

contribute to it and providing solutions for rehabilitation and prevention.

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