Criminology 5

Introduction to Juvenile Delinquency

What is Juvenile?
 It is a person who has not reached adulthood or the age of majority.
 usually, 18 years old.
 Generally regarded as immature or ones whose mental and emotional faculties are
not fully developed thus, making them uncapable of taking full responsibility of their
actions.
 In legal terms. A person subject to juvenile court proceedings because a statutorily
defined event or condition caused by or affecting that person was alleged to have
occurred while his or her age was below the statutorily specified age limit or original
description of a juvenile court.
The Delinquent Person
 A person of whatever age, whose attitude toward other individuals, community,
lawful authority is such that it may lead him/her into breaking the law.
 One who repeatedly commits an act that is against the norms more observed by
society.
Juvenile Delinquency
 Used to describe a large number of disapproved behaviors of children and
youth.
 Refers to an anti-social act or behavior of minors that deviates from the normal
pattern of rules and regulations, custom and culture which society does not
accept and which therefore, justifies some kind of admonishment, punishment,
or corrective measures in the public interest.
- Juvenile delinquents are grouped into three ways:
 Criminal law violations that would be considered crimes of committed by an
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 a law.
Juvenile Crime
 In law, it denotes the various offenses committed by children or youths under the
age of 18.
 The following are the unlawful acts committed by juveniles can be divided into five
(5) major categories:
1. Unlawful acts against person
2. Unlawful acts against property
3. Drug and alcohol offenses
4. Offenses against the public order
 Status offenses (are acts that only juveniles can commit and that can be adjudicated
(to make official decision who is right) only by a juvenile court. Range from
misbehavior/misdemeanor, such as violations of curfew, underage drinking, running
away from home, and to offenses that are interpreted very subjectively, such as
unruliness and ungovernability-beyond the control of parents and guardians.)

1. Children aging below 7-years-old JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM and ADULT JUSTICE SYSTEM
2. Children aging from 7 to 12-years-old – juveniles who have doll incapax (not
capable of having criminal intent)
Juvenile Justice System
3. Youths aging above 12 but below 18-years-old
 Has evolved over the years based on the premise that juveniles are different from
- Defined legally as: adult and juveniles who commit criminal acts generally should be treated differently
from adults.
  Separate court detention facilities, rules, procedures and laws were created for
juveniles with the intent to protect their welfare and rehabilitate them, while
protecting public safety.
 The special status of children requires that they be protected and corrected, not
necessarily punished.
 In the “best interest of the child”
 Based on the notion that every child is treatable, and that judicial intervention will
result in positive behavioral change.
 A young person can come to the attention of the juvenile courts in variety ways:
 The juvenile may indeed be found to have violated the criminal law.
 He or she can charge with having committed a status offense.
 A child may fall within the jurisdiction of the court because of the behavior of an
adult. That is, should a juvenile be a victim of abuse, neglect or abandonment by a
parent or guardian, the courts may intervene.
Adult Justice System
There are five competing philosophies that guide sentencing in adult courts:
1. Retribution
2. Vengeance
3. Incapacitation
4. Deterrence
5. Rehabilitation
That delinquent behavior is a symptom of some underlying emotional Disorder.
(Fact is, many delinquent acts are committed by youths who are emotionally disturbed and
that some usually normal-looking people commit criminal acts when under great emotional
stress. Some delinquent behavior is a symptomatic acting out of a deeper and bigger
problem)
Symptomatic behavior of emotional disturbance is likely to receive more attention
when shown by a person charge with or convicted of an act of delinquency. (A certain
amount of delinquent behavior is a result of underlying emotional problem);
However, there is a greater focus on the emotional background of the delinquent
youth, than on the average person, more emotional problems may be given to delinquent
than to law abiding youth. (The deviant, but in some cases, there may not be any causal
connection between the two. In other words, a delinquent may be emotionally disturbed,
but the emotional disorder may not be related to the delinquent behavior.
Delinquent behavior may cause emotional- disorder. (Delinquent youths may
develop an induced emotional disturbance as a result of detention, long-term incarceration,
or a variety of abnormal social forces involved in the administration of justice. An example
would be a normal delinquent youths who are committed to psychiatric wards of hospitals
due to drug abuse, where the emotional stress produces personality problems not related to
the use of prohibited drugs.)
STAGES OF DELINQUENCY
Emergence
 The child begins with petty larceny between 8 and sometime during the 12th year.
Exploration
 He or she then may move on to shoplifting and vandalism between ages 12 to 14.
Explosion
 (. At the age of 13, there is a substantial increase in variety and seriousness,
Conflagration
 At around 15, four or more types of crime are added.
CLASSIFICATION OF DELINQUENCY
 Unsocial Aggression - Rejected or abandoned, no parents to imitate and become
aggressive
 Socialized Delinquency - Membership in fraternities or groups that advocate bad
things.
 Over-inhibited - Group secretly trained to do illegal activities like marijuana
cultivation involved in doing illegal;
 - those with severe personality disorders have a significantly distorted perception of the
society and people around them. They are likely to commit acts of violence including
PATHWAY TO DELINQUENCY
murder.
Authority-conflict Pathway
4. Sociopathic
 Begins at an early age with stubborn behavior. Leads to defiance and then to
- characterized by egocentric personality. They have limited or no compassion for others.
authority avoidance.
Many violent gangsters are sociopathic.
Covert Pathway
5. Accidental
 Begins with minor, underhanded behavior that leads to property damage. This
- he is less identifiable in character, essentially socialize law abiding but to happen to be at
behavior eventually escalates to more serious forms of criminality.
the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes involved in some delinquent act not typical
Overt Pathway of his general behavior.

 Escalates to aggressive acts beginning with aggression and leading to physical

fighting and then and then to violence.
DIFFERENT APPROACH TOWARDS DELINQUENCY

 Biogenic Approach – faulty biology

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY TENDENCIES  Psychogenic Approach – personality problem
 Sociogenic Approach – influence of social structure and learning process.
 Malicious - Expression of defiance.
 Negativistic - Changeable attitudes like not being satisfied with status.
 Non-Utilitarian - Vandalistic attitude graffiti.
FAMILY
 Hedonistic - Doing bad things for pleasure.
 a group of people bound by ties of marriage and blood kinship.
TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH
 a group of people composed of father, mother and child.
1. Social (Socialized)  the smallest unit of a society.
 foundation of nation
- those who become delinquent due to their association with people in the society to whom
they learned deviant values and later become an aggressive type who recent the authority F - father
of anyone who make an effort to control his behavior.
A - and
2. Neurotic
M - mother
- those who become delinquent as a result of distortion in their personality and their ideas
I - I (me)
and perception of the world around them. Internalize his conflicts and pre-occupied with his
own feelings. L - love

3. Psychotic Y - you
  Mass Media
 Religion
CAUSAL FACTORS IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
 Political interference
1. The family - the basic and most important social unit to affect children.  Police carelessness, unfair treatment or abuse
 Poverty
 Family Background (faulty development of the child)  others
 Lack of Parental Guidance
 Parental Rejection Religion
 Broken Family
 A child’s development usually involves the inculcation of a set of moral belief that
 Migration
lead the direction of socially approved behavior. Religion becomes a causative factor
 Single Parent
in juvenile delinquency when its traditional role in the area of delinquency
 Nuclear vs. Extended Family
prevention fails, much more when its religious leaders or spokesperson remain
(Nuclear – legal aged but still living with their parents. Extended – living with more
unforceful in delinquency problem. When members of the religious community take
than one group of family in a household)
an active part in the problem of delinquency behavior among the youth, with its full
2. Environment blast of support and mobilization, the juvenile problem will be minimized, if not
totally eradicated. Additionally, the religious community can facilitate the
 Peer group participation of the private sector in the delinquency prevention programs.
 Association with delinquent groups
 Alcoholism and drug addiction
 Impulse of fear
Juvenile Gang
 Crime inducing situation that causes criminal tendencies
 Imitated Instinct  Self-informed association of peers bound together by mutual interest, with
identifiable leadership, well-developed lines of authority, and other organizational
PEERS, COMPANIONS and JUVENILE GANGS
features, who act in concert to achieve a specific purpose which generally to include
- these group of people interact with the youth in a positive and negative ways. In a negative the conduct of illegal activity and control over a particular territory, facility or type of
outcome of a relationship, the results are problems which are practically derived from enterprise.
different values, personality structures, and emotional composition of people around the
youth. Most importantly group behavior continues to be the source of delinquent acts.

3. School

 Failure of the school in developing character building activities

 Use of methods that create a condition of failure or frustrations
 Truancy
 Lack of facilities for curricular and extracurricular activities

Other Contributory Factor