Preventing Juvenile Delinquency Essay

Juvenile delinquency refers to young people, less than eighteen years, breaking the federal or state laws and regulations through criminal activities (Tripathi, 2016). Young people below eighteen years of age are considered minors hence cannot be prosecuted in courts when they commit crimes. Teens are considered to be psychologically incapable of conducting themselves like the adults, hence often get involved in crimes, not under their control. Teenagers commit crimes based on various reasons. Therefore, the following paper addresses efforts to combat juvenile delinquency in the community.

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Juvenile delinquency prevention efforts in my local community, Chicago, USA, include fostering functionality of the social structures in place, disrupting the status quo of social meanings, and stopping social judgment bias with regards to the social class. The broken down social structures, for instance, the family setup encourages cases of delinquency among the teenagers. Families are encouraged to develop good interactions especially between parents and their teenage children. A healthy relationship between married individuals is encouraged as the numbers of divorces is considered to be proportional to delinquency cases reported (Smuts & Smuts, 2006). Divorce leads to cohabiting family structures in the society; consequently, such family structures are associated with juvenile delinquencies as parental control is compromised. Disruption of the negative social meaning acquired from interaction with teenage peers who perceive criminal activities to be normal. The police and juvenile courts are working in synergism to stop any negative interaction between teenage peers that could lead to activities of breaking the law. The courts work to interpret these negative social meaning, so the peers recruited into the illegal activities see no good in their involvement (Tripathi, 2016). Social bias regarding class is minimized by not discriminating against race, gender, etc. by implementing social policies and regulations that give everybody equal opportunities in the society. The policies are put in place with the intention of preventing teenage social groupings which feel inferior to the general society, hence posing a threat of committing crimes to compensate for inclusivity.

Fostering functionality of the social structures is based on the anomie theory. The theory suggests that in the absence of effective social norms and regulations, predefined goals can never be realized as the means of attainment are compromised (Tripathi, 2016). The goal of every family is to bring up children beneficial to the society. The theory underlying the disruption of status quo societal meaning is Differential Association, whereby, unlawful behavior takes place when individuals justify their actions to be good, luring people as their accomplices. Moreover, the criminal dissociates from individuals who do not deem their actions to be acceptable. The conflict theory underlines the social judgment with regards to social class. Whereby, both economic and legal power contradictions pose challenges to a group in the society considering them to be minor (Lehman, 2009). Moreover, the conflict is escalated through the creating of labels upon the minor groups associating them with subordination to the rest of the society.

Conclusion

The interventions to prevent juvenile delinquency are on course. However, more focus should be made on the children themselves but not on the societal institutions put in place. For instance, the focus is on juvenile courts to rehabilitate the teenagers who have already committed crimes; it would be wiser to interpret the law to the teenagers before committing the crime. Moreover, to prevent the disintegration of family units, quality lawyers should be involved as a voice of reason. Involvement of family lawyers has worked in New Jersey, USA, ever since instances of juvenile delinquencies have gone down.

References

Lehman, C (2009). Sustainability and governance.

Smuts, A., & Smuts, R. (2006). Science in the service of children, 1893-1935. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Tripathi, D. (2016). Juvenile Delinquency: Overview, Prevention, And Laws In India. The International Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanities Invention. doi: 10.18535/ijsshi/v3i2.11