Paper Example on Peer Influence on Juvenile Delinquency

Introduction

Peer and social influences play a significant role in the determination of individual behaviors. According to Siegel & Walsh (2017), peer influence affects male behaviors more than it affects females. The percentages of male juveniles who are rearrested are is higher than the number of females. Within a duration of two years 80 percent females are rearrested while only 50 percent of the females are rearrested (Jones, 2014). Several studies have been carryout out to demonstrate the correction between peer relationships and juvenile delinquency. The paper will analyze empirical study carried out to prove that peer influence plays a key role in male juvenile delinquency.

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Goodkind, Wallace, Shook, Bachamn, and O'Malley (2009) investigated gender variation in violence and abuse variations in different ethnic groups. The authors wanted to determine if the extent of these crimes varies over time. The results showed an increase in arrests for girls between 1976 and 1995. However, they explain that these arrests were due to changes in judicial systems practices and policies. The number of boys arrested due to violence and substance abuse increase because boys are more aggressive than girls (Goodkind et al., 2009). It, therefore, proves the hypothesis of the current study because males are greatly influenced to commit crimes by peer relationships.

Haynie, Steffensmeier, and Bell (2007) study prove the hypothesis that peer influence plays a major role in male serious violence in the society. The researchers investigated the effect of sex composition, friendship and peer violence experience between young males and females. The results showed that males are more involved in serious violence compared to females. Only 3.5 percent females responded to being involved in serious crimes which are lower than 8.5 males who gave feedback of being involved in serious violence. The results also showed that peer friendship influences more boys to commit delinquencies compared to girls.

After Shweigert (2010) investigated the effect the offender's gender in juvenile sex offenses. The researcher assessed if the gender of the offender influenced the characteristics of the offense or the empathy level that the offender experienced. She was analyzing if the perpetrator's gender has an effect on offense characteristics such as masturbation, fellatio, genital touching and penetration use (Shweigert, 2010). The researcher found that males exhibited high chances of engaging in sexual activities compared to females. The results also indicated that childhood trauma, for example, sexual victimization has a different effect on gender. The author concluded that peer influence has a great significance in males compared to female sexual offenses. The results of the study prove that peer associations influence more boys to commit sexual offenses compared to girls proving that peer influence plays a significant role in male juvenile delinquency.

To determine that peer influence has a different impact on male and female juvenile delinquency, one has to analyze what findings and results from prior literature demonstrate. Gender is significant because of the substantial differences in both the formation and seriousness of delinquent behavior in females and males. Ferrari & O'Donnell (2014), carryout out a qualitative study to compare genders on the influence of peer associations contributing to the delinquent behavior. Data was collected from interviewing ten males and ten females who were in juvenile prisons. Females are more close to their friends than males and they were influenced to commit more crimes than males. Zimmerman and Messner (2010), also demonstrate that male adolescents are highly influenced to commit crimes compared to females. The study was to determine gender difference in a self-reported violent crime. The results proved that peer associations influence female delinquents more than males.

Policy Implication

When a delinquent commits serious crimes, they are convicted in juvenile systems where they interact with other delinquents. In many situations, delinquency among young boys begins at home or schools. They tend to portray bad behaviors such as destroying properties, stealing and violence with other siblings. According to Ambaras, (2005), youths become more deviate from interacting with other deviant peers. When boys associate with other deviant youths, they become more violent. To rehabilitate these boys the American law state that they should be put in juvenile justice where they meet other deviant youths.

Bagopa (2014) conducted a study that proved that a brain of a teenage boy is less developed compared to that of an adult. During teenage years, the brain of a boy is still developing and maturing. The boy is not able to reason out difficult situations and make a right decision. It because easy for his mind to be manipulated by his peer because he wants to make them happy and associate himself with them (Bagopa, 2014).

When compared to girls, boys spend more time with friends than with their parents and family members. They form a group of friends who they play with at when in school and at home. These interpersonal relationships make it easy for them to be influenced by one member of their group, and they follow blindly (Lochan, 2012). At teenage, boys trust their peers more than their parents. They freely express their feelings and thoughts to peers and takes advice from them. Bogopa (2014) explains that a boy may adopt criminal behaviors if he associates himself with a criminal behavior. An adolescent association with adults increases their chances of being engaged in romantic relationships which forms a risk factor which is distracting the youngster from their main activities which are going to school and studying. The juvenile system and other correcting system expose boys to delinquents who influence them to commit more crimes. The public should be educated on the public policy implications for the intervention program.

Limitations

The study was limited to only the study of peer influence between boys and girls. The study ignored other factors that cause bad behaviors among boys and girls. These factors include mental problems, environment and other factors that may turn a child into a delinquent. Children can also learn criminal behaviors from their parents during adulthood, and he or she would behave the way he was taught as a youth. If a child is brought up in a violent family, he or she would grow up knowing that people solve their misunderstanding by violence. Future research should analyze other factors that cause juvenile delinquency. Future research should focus on the role played by poor upbringing, environment, and mental problems in male juvenile delinquency.

The study also failed to examine time factor. It did not explain how long it takes for an adolescent to be influenced by another to commit crimes. The future study should focus mainly on the time frame one being influenced. It should also study whether indirect variables have a direct effect on juvenile delinquency. This was the most proper analytic technique due to the breakdown of data into subscales. Some of the limitations of this type of analysis are that linear regressions tend to only focus on the relationship between the mean of the dependent and independent variables. This then makes the assumption that the relationship between the variables is that of a straight line, which can in some instances not be correct. Additionally, linear regressions make the assumption that the data being analyzed are independent. Moreover, this data is also limited because it does not include other factors such as level of education, family dynamics and more importantly the community conditions.

The study has methodological limitations because it does not explain the extent effect a peer has. Although it proves that peers play significant roles in initiation and exacerbation of bad behaviors it does not prove to what extent and the time it takes. Future studies should research to what extent peer influence leads to male juvenile delinquency.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my research concluded that peer influence plays a significant role in male juvenile delinquency is based on reliable methodology. It is also based on empirical work done by other researchers and came up with the same conclusion. Therefore, my study is reliable and can be used to as a literature review in future studies. It also adds empirical evidence to future research. My research describes the limitations I faced which future research should avoid to come up with accurate results. For instance, my research concentrated on the peer influence on juvenile delinquency. There are also other factors that may cause juvenile delinquency such as prior victimization, poor upbringings, mental problems and environment where the youths are raised. Future research may choose to focus on these factors and examine whether they have a direct relationship with juvenile delinquency.

In future, I would expand my study to examine to what extent peer influence affect juvenile delinquency. The current study only investigated the effect of peer influence on young males without demonstrating its extent. The future study would also investigate how long it takes for a young male to be influenced to juvenile delinquency by his or peers. My future research should concentrate less on the differences between girls and boys and more on those variables that are significant: behavior problems, problems in school, and prior victimization.

References

Ambaras, D. R. (2005). Bad youth: Juvenile delinquency and the politics of everyday life in modern Japan. Univ of California Press.

Bogopa, A. M. (2014). Principals' experiences and strategies for managing learner violence in Katlehong public primary and secondary schools (Doctoral dissertation, University of Johannesburg).

Ferrari, J. R., & O'Donnell, C. R. (2014). Juvenile Delinquency: Peer Influences, Gender Differences and Prevention. In Culture, Peers, and Delinquency (pp. 83-96). Routledge.

Goodkind, S., Wallace, J. M., Shook, J. J., Bachman, J., & O'Malley, P. (2009). Are girls really becoming more delinquent? Testing the gender convergence hypothesis by race and ethnicity, 1976-2005. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(8), 885-895.

Haynie, D. L., Steffensmeier, D., & Bell, K. E. (2007). Gender and serious violence: Untangling the role of friendship sex composition and peer violence. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 5(3), 235-253.

Jones, D.L. (2014). Trends in juvenile delinquency. The Commons - NMU Master's Thesis. Retrieved from https://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=theses

Lochan, D. (2012). Students' perceptions of indiscipline at three primary schools in one educational district in Central Trinidad (Doctoral dissertation).McGloin, J. (2009). Delinquency balance: Revisiting peer influence. Criminology, 47(2), 439-477.

Schweigert, K. (2010). The Effect of Gender on Perpetration Characteristics and Empathy for Juvenile Sex Offenders.

Siegel, L.J. & Welsh, B.C. (2017) Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Zimmerman, G. M., & Messner, S. F. (2010). Neighborhood context and the gender gap in adolescent violent crime. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 958-980.