A Literature Review on Why Juvenile Delinquency Is Common Amongst the Latinos

Introduction

Research shows that cases of Juvenile delinquencies are common amongst the Latinos in comparison with the general population. Both the State and Federal government ought to assess the reasons why the population of Latinos reports the higher occurrences of juveniles' involvement in criminal offenses. From previous studies, it is evident that various themes are supporting why Latino population high levels of juvenile delinquency. The two major themes in support for high cases of crimes within the Latino population's minors are a racial disparity that causes differential involvement and bias in the juvenile justice system. As the focus of this literature review, this paper will discuss research by scholars in addressing the matter of high incidences of juvenile delinquency amongst the Latinos compared to other races in the United States of America (USA). The paper will begin with an introduction of the two identified themes followed by a literature review in support of these selected thematic points. The discussion will then end with a conclusion, to sum up, the focus of the entire paper.

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Literature Review

The youth who commit crimes in the USA are mostly from Latino population compared to the general population. Perceptions and beliefs of violence and crime have a connection to Latinos than to other races, a situation that leads to differential involvement in criminology statistics and occurrences (Armour &Hammond, 2009). Regarding the risk associated with crime and violence, the environment and lifestyle of the Latinos lead to high chances of their adolescents to get involved in criminal behaviors. Circumstances in the socio-cultural conditions of upbringings like poor ghettos that show a characteristic of racial discrimination and residential segregation of the minority leads to the culture of opposition and deviance. As the Latinos grow up in conditions of racial and residential segregation, they begin having an oppositional culture that causes to law-breaking actions like drug trafficking, robbery at an early age. Also, the Latino youth start to live in opposition to the government as they view themselves discriminated and segregated. Involvement in criminal behaviors creeps in as a way of satisfying the rights of accessing to public services and programs (Maschi, Hatcher, Schwalbe, & Rosato, 2008). As a result, the Latinos young men easily engage themselves in anti-social behaviors like robbery and rape.

Secondly, the theme of racial discrimination as the reason for the high prevalence of underage involvement in crimes gets a back up from the street lives and begging culture in the areas occupied by the Latinos. The lifestyle of street culture and begging leads to follow informal rules in the governance of interpersonal behaviors. Latinos young people are used to street violence that is characterized by robbery, illegal possession of guns, and insults. Staying under the codes of streets leads to high cases of juvenile engagement in crime and particularly violence (Moore & Padavic, 2010). Moreover, there is poor parenting in the lifestyles of street and ghettos, a situation that leads to children having anti-social norms. Therefore, juveniles amongst the Latinos report high rates of crimes because of street codes and ghetto lifestyle.

The theme of bias in the system of Juvenile justice asserts that there is over-representation of Latino juveniles in the general crime reports and statistics. The theme of differential selection denies the chances of discrepancy involvement as criminal justice officials tend to operate discriminatively (Nanda, 2011). The essence is that the Latino youth are not more criminals than those of other races, but it is because of the discrimination posed by juvenile justice officers. I most cases, when Latino minors are charged with a similar offense with a White, for instance, the two will receive different treatment where the later receives favors. The action of labeling Latino youth as criminals and violent individual increases the prevalence of crime amongst them. Labeling leads to identification with crime and violence; a situation leads to police officers arresting the Latinos unlike the Whites for example. Statistics indicate that there is an attachment of offender with a crime where Latinos have consideration as criminals. Since labeling identifies the Latinos juveniles as a crime as seen in reports of arrests, incarceration, and adjudication, there is bias in attending to offenders (Ousey & Kubrin, 2009). In most cases, minor criminal suspects from the Latinos are mentioned guilt because of the hypothesis of differential selection by the juvenile justice system.

Discrimination and prejudice lead to increased rates of juvenile delinquency amongst the Latinos. Bias occurs in cases when there is the vigorous application of the law on Latino youths unlike to their White counterparts (Ryan, Marshall, Herz, & Hernandez, 2008). The difference in the mobilization by the police leads to many Latino juveniles arrested because of violence and crimes. Critical analysis and evidence from researchers affirm that the process of criminal justice administration occur in a biased manner where Latino juveniles are disadvantaged. The outcome is high rates of crime reports within the Latino population. Such procedures within the juvenile criminal system exaggerate the number of criminal behaviors committed by the Latinos (Schwalbe, 2008). Additionally, a bias that results in differential selection by the justice system leads to the deployment of increased policing efforts to the Latino adolescents. Increased police mobilization yield too many chances of criminal behaviors amongst the Latinos than the Whites for example.

Different scholars had identified and argued differently concerning the reasons why there exist many delinquents amongst the Latinos. The theme of racial disparity and bias within the juvenile justice system has remained the main course of arguments by researchers. According to Settersten and Ray (2010), there is a direct relationship between race and crime in reporting incidences of criminal behaviors in the USA. From the general perception, the records of self-report surveys and police records indicate a disproportion in the involvement and occurrence of violence and crimes among the Latinos youths compared to the Whites. In support of Settersten and Ray (2010) research above, Shaw and McKay (2016) showed that crimes that involve serious crimes and violence like drug trafficking from the reports offered by the police occur out of the offender's apprehension. The apprehension of the offender by the police triggers severe crime justice sanctions amongst the Latinos.

There are other studies about racial bias in arrests and imprisonment of delinquents from the Latino population. In their study, Stewart and Simons (2010) argued that there exists a racial prejudice against arrests and detention of Latino's delinquents compared to the Whites in the USA. The study showed that there is minority overrepresentation in prisons. The race group differences when arresting delinquents occur from the minority groups like the Latinos because of racial bias incidences. Armour and Hammond (2009) stated that there is unlikelihood of the occurrence of behavioral differences in showing the overrepresentation of the Latinos by the juvenile justice officials. There is a perception in the juvenile system that Latino's delinquents will have high cases of violence, immoral behaviors, and crime, unlike the Whites young people. The outcome is more overrepresentation of Latino delinquents compared to the Whites.

Researchers have carried survey to compare the occurrence of crime in different races. Maschi et al. (2010) compared estimated on the use of Marijuana by different subgroups in Washington D.C, Omaha, and Chicago. On the other hand, Moore and Padavic (2010) focused on the incidences of arrests in the various police records. Analysis showed that Latinos adolescents have high chances of getting arrested by the police compared to the Whites. The study showed a higher arrest of the Latinos youth involved in the use of Marijuana occurs in Chicago. Conversely, Nanda (2011) found out that the use of Marijuana is high in Chicago than Omaha. Although the two studies revealed an equal arrest probability in the use of Marijuana by the Latinos and Whites youth in Washington DC, reports from self-survey and police records still indicate overrepresentation of crimes by Latinos in the same region.

Researchers have as well carried out studies to show differential selection, and involvement using crimes like assault, rape, and robbery vary across races. Ousey and Kubrin (2009) illustrated a link between theft and race showed that delinquents within the population of Latinos have a high prevalence in comparison to their White counterparts. Ryan et al. (2008) also reported that arrest statistics and crime surveys out of robbery have a connection with the minority population like the Latinos. National Crime Surveys (NCS) statistics showed the overrepresentation of the Latinos youths engagement in theft in comparative with the entire community of America. Additionally, Schwalbe (2008) found out that there exist unexplained race disparities in reporting on the occurrences of arrests of Latino minors. The reports offered by the police had racial prejudice where the young people within the population of Latinos have high labeling as criminals than the Whites for example. The two scholars showed victimization of data on crime statistics with an attributed connection between race and involvement in crime through the labeling of offenders as per their racial identity.

In other subsequent research, studies were carried out to examine the link between race and criminal behaviors. Settersten and Ray (2010) used correlation approached in a race-crime connection survey. From the survey results, there is an existence of race differences in the reported delinquencies by the police and self-surveys as well. The type of offenses also has a link with particular races. The presence of racial disparities in self-reports occurs because of labeling of the offender as per their race (Shaw & McKay, 2016).

In most cases, delinquency reports are high among the Latinos in comparison with the Whites. Racial differences in crime statistics are as well evident in official records because of the hiked police mobilization to Latinos adolescents by the police. Exaggerated police mobilization in the streets and ghettos inhabited by Latinos leads to the high prevalence of arrest and imprisonment of youth in such areas.

There exist researches on the type of offense by gender across the racial groups in the USA. Settersten and Ray (2010) stated that there are delinquency differences in cross races. Sometimes, there are no differences in committing crimes by different racial groups. On the other hand, Shaw and McKay (2016) argued that Latinos youth are less likely to involve in self-report. Self-reported offenses for the Latinos and Whites are 20% and 57% respectively (Armour & Hammond, 2009). Latino youth have a lower likelihood of self-reporting than the White, a situation leading to a hiked police mobilization. The tendency of underreporting of the Latino delinquents occurs because of the level of the offense seriousness. The fear of facing the full force of law after committing a serious offense like drug trafficking, burglary, illegal weapon possession, and rape by the Latinos youth leads to minimal chances of self-report (Stewart & Simons, 2010). Despite the differences in the reported and real incidences of crimes across racial groups, the...