Kids Who Kill and Juvenile Justice

Kids Who Kill and Juvenile Justice. With juvenile delinquency being a significant factor in society today as more youths get involved in violent crime, it is important to understand the factors driving criminal behavior in the youths. The influences driving youths into crime emanate from individual and environmental factors, where the juvenile’s direct environment plays a major role in shaping behavior. Interventions and solutions to the problem are dependent on the knowledge around the factors that lead up to juvenile offences in the population.

• In a study conducted by Nourollah, Fatemeh, and Farhad (2017) on a group of 450 juvenile delinquents aged 9-18 years, results indicated that 50.8 percent of the subjects did not live with their parents. The study confirms the notion that parental involvement shapes moral and ethical values likely to deter involvement in crime.
• Broken familial relationships also contribute to a high level of juvenile delinquency and this may be shaped by divorce or detached families as a result of work or other factors. In a survey of 26 adolescents, 61.5 percent had stolen and over 50 percent spent less than twenty minutes with their families weekly (Doggett, 2018).
• For juveniles living in poverty, there is a higher likelihood of being involved in violent crime linked to the use of firearms as compared to the middle and high income earners. The rate of gun related violence for those in poverty is at 3.5 per 1000 people compared to a rate of 0.8-2.5 for those in the middle and high income earning group (Vittana, 2018).
• Some areas have an unemployment rate of 20 percent for those between 16 and 24 years, where a third live in poor neighborhoods and have the highest likelihood of committing crime (Vittana, 2018). Unemployment therefore has a direct impact on juvenile delinquency.

It is assumed that increased parental involvement in the child’s life can contribute to a decline in the rate of juvenile delinquency. With both parents working, there is sometimes little involvement and hence the limited ability to shape the moral and ethical standing of the child. Increased involvement will help shape behavior and limit the involvement in crime.

Kids Who Kill and Juvenile Justice

            With the family environment playing a significant role in shaping behavior, it is assumed that if adolescents spend more time with their families there will be a lesser likelihood of engagement in crime. Familial involvement is shaped by work related factors, divorce, or the teens detachment from the family through immersion in technology. It is also assumed that lowering technological immersion by teens and increasing their familial social involvement will help reduce the level of juvenile delinquency.

Poverty contributes to an increase in the level of crime among the youths and hence the assumption that lowering the rate of poverty in the population will significantly lower the rate of crime in a neighborhood, state, or nation. The assumption is that addressing poverty from a macro-economic point of view will help to bring down the rate of crime in the country. such implies that an increase in the level of economic involvement will reduce involvement in crime.

It is also assumed that increasing the rate of employment will lead to a lower rate of criminal activity among the youths. The assumption is that unemployment and the strain from the financial obligations contribute to an increase in criminal behavior such as theft. Ensuring the availability of employment will lower such rates of crime.

References

Doggett, A. (2018). Juvenile delinquency and family structure. Retrieved from             http://facstaff.elon.edu/ajones5/Anika’s%20paper.htm  

Nourollah, M., Fatemeh, M., and Farhad, J. (2017). A study of factors affecting juvenile   delinquency. Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal, 8(3).

Vittana. (2018). 26 poverty and crime statistics. Retrieved from https://vittana.org/26-poverty-     and-crime-statistics