JUVENILE

 Is a person who has not reached adulthood or the age of majority (18 yrs old).
From this point, it can be assumed that the term covers a child, an adolescent, a
minor, a youth, or a youngster below 18 yrs old.

Introduction to juvenile delinquency

DELINQUENT PERSON

 Is a person, of whatever age, whose attitude toward other individuals, toward

the community, toward lawful authority is such that it may lead him into
breaking the law.
 One who repeatedly commits an act that is against the norms or mores
observed by the society.

3 GROUPS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENT

1. Children aging below 7 years old.

2. Children aging from 7 to 12 years old - juveniles who have doll incapax (not capable
of having criminal intent).
3. Youths aging above 12 but below 18 yrs old.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

 Used to describe a large number of disapproved behaviors of children and youth.

 An anti-social act or behavior of minors which deviates from the normal pattern of
rules and regulations, custom, and culture which society does not accept.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY (LEGAL ASPECT)

Criminal law violation that would be considered crimes if committed by an adult;

 Criminal law violation that would be considered crimes if 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;

5 MAJOR CATEGORIES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

 1. Unlawful acts against person
2. Unlawful acts against property
3. Drug and Alcohol offenses
4. Offenses against the public order
5. Status offenses

STAGES OF DELINQUENCY

EMERGENCE

 The child begins with petty larceny between and sometime during 12 th year.

EXPLORATION

 He or she then may move on to shoplifting and vandalism between ages 12 to 14.

EXPLOSION

 At 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

Unsocialized 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 of society trained to do illegal activities like marijuana cultivation.

pathway to delinquency

Authority-conflict Pathway

 Begins at early age with stubborn behavior. This leads to defiance and then to
authority avoidance.
Covert Pathway

 Begins with minor, underhanded behavior that leads to property damage. This
behavior eventually escalates ro more serious forms of criminality.

Overt Pathway

 Escalates to aggressive acts beginning

TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH

Socialized Delinquents

 They become delinquents as a result of their social association with people from
whom they learned deviant values. They are more likely to become property
violators than violent offenders.

Neurotic Delinquents

 These youths become delinquents as a result of distortions in their personality and

their ideas and perception of the world around them.

TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH

Socialized Delinquents

 They become delinquents as a result of their social association with people from
whom they learned deviant values. They are more likely to become property
violators than violent offenders.

Neurotic Delinquents

 These youths become delinquents as a result of distortions in their personality and

their ideas and perception of the world around them.

Psychotic Delinquents

 There are youths with severe personality disorders have a significantly distorted
perception of the society and people around them.

Sociopathic Delinquents
  These youths are characterized by an egocentric personality. They have limited or no
compassion for others.

OTHER WAYS TO CLASSIFY DELINQUENTS

ENVIRONMENTAL DELINQUENTS

 They are the occasional lawbreakers.

EMOTIONALLY MALADJUSTED DELINQUENTS

 These delinquents are the chronic lawbreakers who make breaking of laws a habit
they cannot avoid or escape from.

Gang Delinquents

 They generally commit the most serious infractions, most often sent to a
correctional institution, and most often continuous in a pattern of semi-professional
criminal behavior as adults.

Maladjusted Delinquents

 The activity, stems from personality disturbance rather than gang activity or slum
residence. They have "weak ego," "the asocial," experienced early and severe
parental rejection.

HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD AND DELINQUENCY

Children as “Non-Human”

 Practices which reflected children as non-human include:

 Infanticide
 Abandonment
 Swaddling

Children as "Miniature Adults“

 Practices which reflected children as children include:

 Adult punishment for misdeeds
 Slavery and apprenticeship
 Morality, sex and prostitution
  Early conceptualizations of childhood

THE INVENTION OF "DELINQUENCY“

Roman Law and Canon (Church) Law

 proximately two thousand years ago, Roman Law and Canon Law made distinction
between juveniles and adults based on the notion "age of responsibility."

Ancient Jewish Law

 The Talmud (body of Jewish civil and religious laws) specified condition under which
immaturity was to be considered in imposing punishment

Codification of Roman Law

 In 5th century B.C., this law resulted in the "Twelve Tables which made it clear that
children were criminally responsible for violation of law and were to be dealt with by
the same criminal justice system as adults.

Anglo Saxon Common Law

 Children under 7 were automatically presumed innocent because of their age.

Children over 14 were automatically judged as an adult. Children between 7 and 14
were presumed innocent because of their age, but could be found guilty under
certain circumstances.

THE CREATION OF THE INSTITUTION

As a result of the increasing recognition of the problem of delinquency, several institutions

for juveniles were established in the east between 1824 and 1828.

Two types of juvenile institutions were established, the houses of refuge, which housed
juvenile offenders, and the orphan asylums, which housed abandoned and orphaned
children.

Creation of the Juvenile Court

Through a series of court decisions, the concept of parens patriae (responsibility of the
courts and the state to act on behalf of the child and provide care and protection equivalent
to that of a parent) became broadened and the state became increasingly involved in
determining the fitness of families.

The first separate juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1899.

Nineteenth Century Changes

In 1818, New York Committee on Pauperism gave the term "juvenile delinquency," its first
public recognition by referring it as a major cause of pauperism.

Albert K. Cohen was the first man who attempted to find out the process of beginning of
the delinquent subculture.

Theories of Delinquency Various theories have been propounded to understand the

deviant behavior of juveniles. They are classified as follows:

Early General Theories on the Causes of Delinquency

DEMONOLOGICAL THEORY

 This was developed during the middle ages. Hence, it is the oldest perspective or
theory. It was based on the belief of primitive people that every object and person is
guided by a spirit.
 This theory promoted the notion that persons should not be held responsible for
their actions when they do evil things because their body is possessed by evil
spirits.

CLASSICAL THEORY

 Proposed by Cesare Beccaria Jeremy Bentham.

 Classical Theory was consistent with the utilitarian view that people weigh the
benefits and costs of future action before they decide to act. This was on the
assumption that people are rational, have free will, and therefore able to
choose.
 Hedonistic is a doctrine that pleasure is the highest good in life and that moral duty
is fulfilled through the pursuit of pleasure.
 Classicists have four good reasons why delinquent persons and offenders should be
punished:
a) General Deterrence
b) Specific Deterrence
c) Incapacitation
 d) Retribution

General Deterrence

 Punishment of delinquents and criminal offenders will strike fear in the hearts of
other people, thus making them less likely to commit acts of delinquency or crimes.

Specific Deterrence

 Punishment will strike fear in the hearts of wrongdoers, thus making them less likely
to offend others again.

Incapacitation

 The simplest form of jurisdiction; wrongdoers should be locked up in jail since while
they are imprisoned in an institution, they cannot commit offenses against other
people in the outside world.

Retribution

 Criminals or delinquents should be punished because they deserve it.

 Punishing criminals has no positive purpose or no positive effect on the minds and
hearts of the people.

POSITIVE OR ITALIAN THEORY

 This theory was developed by Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri and Raffaele Garofalo.
 Positive theory promoted the idea of determinism as a way of explaining crime and
delinquency.
 Determinism means that every act has a cause that is waiting to be discovered in the
natural word.
 Positive theory blames delinquency on biological, psychological and sociological
factors.

Critical Theory

 Critical criminologists and sociologists view juvenile delinquency as a byproduct of

social arrangements. The concepts of power, influence, inequality and conflict
guide this theory exploring and clarifying the nature of juvenile
delinquency.
  This theory blames delinquency on the imbalance of power within the human
society.

BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

Early biological theories claim that criminal behavior is a result of biological or genetic
defect in the individual.

Lombrosian Theory

 This was developed by Dr. Cesare Lombroso (FATHER OF CRIMINOLOGY). This

theory holds the following assumptions:
a) Criminals have many stigmata (distinctive physical features)
b) Criminals are atavistic
c) Criminals are classified as epileptic, insane, and inborn.
 Born criminals have physical quirks; they are insensitive to pain and characterized by
a lack of moral sense, including an absence of repentance and remorse.

*Lombrosian theory was flawed as it was based only on his findings from examining
criminals and he did not conduct studies on non-offenders’ character.

GENERAL INFERIORITY THEORY/HOOTON'S THEORY

 Crime is the result of the impact of environment upon low-grade organisms and that
criminals were originally inferior people.
 Crimes exist because there are some inferior people who are responsible for them.
 Men with mediocre builds are people who tend to break the law without preference
because crimes like physical make-up, are characterless.
 Criminals should be permanently exiled to self-governing reservations, isolated from
the society, sterilized to prevent future offspring.

WILLIAM SHELDON'S THEORY

People are classified in three ways:

a. Endomorphs - people who tend to be fat round and soft, and to have short arms and legs.

b. Mesomorphs- people who have athletic and muscular physique; with active, assertive
and aggressive personality.

c. Ectomorphs- people who are basically skinny with lean and fragile bodies.
GENETIC THEORY

This theory assumes that:

 Crime and delinquency is committed by who have abnormal genetic structure or

chromosomal abnormalities.
 DNA is the transmitter of genetic materials (genes).
 Extra Y chromosome is responsible for aggressiveness and thus, criminal activity.
Men with extra Y chromosomes are taller and a 10 to 20 percent greater tendency
to break the law than genetically normal XY males.

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY

These theories assume that:

 Delinquency is a result of internal, underlying disturbances.

 These disturbances develop in childhood and tend to become permanent features of
the individual character.

PSYCHOGENE THEORIES

 These are theories which blame delinquency on impulses that are rooted in the child
rather than in his environment.
 Psychogenics believe that it is easier to change a person than it is to change an
environment.

FREUDAN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

 The proponent of this theory was Sigmund Freud.

 Freud believed that people develop in a series of stages. When abnormalities occur, the
person is more likely to experience conflict.

FREUDAN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

The Four Elements in Freud's Theory:

1. Human nature is inherently anti-social.

2. Good behavior comes through effective socialization.
3. The life-long features of the human personality originate in early childhood.
4. Delinquent behavior is the result of a defective superego.

The Three Parts of Human Psyche (personality):

ID — it is the unconscious portion of personality dominated by the drive (cravings) for
pleasure and by inborn sexual and aggressive impulses.

Ego — this is the rational part of the personality; it grows from the ID. It represents problem
solving dimensions of personality.

Super ego — it grows out of ego. It represents the moral code, norms and values the
individual has acquired. Hence, it is responsible for feelings of guilt and shame.

THE LOW IQ THEORY

This theory claims that:

 People with low intelligence are easily led law-breaking activities by the wiles of
more clever people.
 People with low intelligence are unable to realize that committing offenses in a
certain way often leads to getting caught and eventual punishment.

ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY THEORY

This theory claims that:

 Juvenile delinquency is caused by immaturity and hyperactivity.

 Grade schoolers usually experience attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is
characterized by:
a) short attention span
b) day dreaming
c) sluggishness
d) preoccupation
e) impulsiveness

FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION THEORY
 This theory claims that people who are frustrated will act and people who engage in
aggression are frustrated.
 Frustration is a behavior directed at anticipated goals or expectation. It develops
when a person the blocking of some goal. It involves hopes and unfulfilled
expectations.
 Aggression is a behavior whose goal is to damage or injury on some objects or
persons.

SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY

  This theory wag recognized early in the twentieth century by sociologists Clifford
Shaw & Henry McKay.
 According to this Theory, disorganized areas cannot exert control over acting-out
youth; these areas can be identified by their relatively high level of change, fear
instability, incivility, poverty and deterioration, these factors have direct influence
on the area" delinquency rate.

ANOMIE THEORY

 Advocated by Emile Durkheim, anomie is normlessness produced by rapidly shifting

moral values. This occurs when personal goals cannot be achieved using available
means.
 Anomie refers to a breakdown of social norms and a condition where norms no
longer control the activities of members in society.

STRAIN THEORY

 Strain theory by Robert Merton contends that certain classes are denied legitimate
access to culturally determined goals and opportunities, and the resulting frustration
results in intimate activities or rejection of society's goal.

DIFFERENTIAL OPPORTUNITY THEORY

 Delinquent subcultures, according to Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, flourish in

the lower- classes and take particular forms so that the means for illegitimate
success are no more equally distributed than the means for legitimate success.

Three types of delinquent gangs (Cloward & Ohlin):

 The Criminal Gang - emerges in areas where conventional as well as non-

conventional values of behavior are integrated by a close connection of illegitimate
and legitimate businesses. This type of gang is stable than the ones to follow. Older
criminals serve as role models and they teach necessary criminal skills to the
youngsters.
 The Conflict/ Violent Gang — non-stable and non-integrated, characterized by an
absence of criminal organization resulting in instability. This gang aims to find
reputation for toughness and destructive violence.
 The Retreatist Gang — equally unsuccessful in legitimate as well as illegitimate
means. Members are known as double failures, thus retreating into a world of sex,
drugs and alcohol.

CLASS CONFLICT THEORY

  According to Richard Quinney and William Chambliss, conflict theory is based upon
the view that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces
operating within the society.

DIFFERENTIAL OPPRESSION THEORY

 John D. Hewitt and Robert Regoli proposed that much serious juvenile delinquency
is a product of the oppression of children by adults, particularly within the context of
family. The maltreatment of children has been found to be highly correlated with
both serious and moderate delinquency as well as other problem behaviors.

INTERPERSONAL THEORIES

DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY

 This theory asserts that criminal behavior is learned primarily within the
interpersonal groups and that youth will become delinquent if definitions they have
learned favorable to violating the exceed definitions favorable to obeying the law
within the group. This theory was introduced by Edwin Sutherland.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

 This theory views that behavior is modeled through observation, either directly
through intimate contact with others, or indirectly through media.

SITUATIONAL THEORIES

Drift Theory (Neutralization Theory)

 Proposes that juveniles sense a moral obligation to be bound by the law. Such a bind
between a person and the law remains in place most of the time. When it is not in
place, delinquents will drift.
 DRIFT is a process by which an individual moves from one behavioral extreme to
another, behaving sometimes in an unconventional manner and at other times with
constraint.

Five Techniques of Neutralization:

a. Denial of responsibility
b. Denial of injury
 c. Denial of victim
d. Condemnation of the condemners
e. Appeal to higher loyalties

SOCIETAL REACTION THEORIES

LABELING THEORY

 Developed by Howard Becker, labeling theory views that youths may violate the law
for a variety of reasons including poor family relations, peer pressure, psychological
abnormality, and pro- delinquent learning experiences.

CONTROL THEORIES

SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY

 This theory by Travis Hirschi states that members in society form bonds with other
members in society or institution in society such as parents, pro-social friends,
churches, schools, teachers, and sports team.

SELF-DEROGATION THEORY

 Introduced by Howard Kaplan, Self-Derogation Theory states that all motivation to

maximize our self-esteem, motivation to conform will be minimized by family, school
and peer interactions that devalue our sense of self. Interactions and behavior may
be self-defacing or self-enhancing.

INTERACTIONAL THEORY

 Originated by Terrence Thornberry, this theory states that weakening of a child's

social bond is the fundamental cause of delinquency.

SELF-CONTROL THEORY

 argues that it is the absence of self-control rather than the presence of some forces
or factors such as poverty, anomie, opportunities for deviance, delinquent peers,
exposure to definitions favorable to deviance, etc. that leads to deviance.

SELF-CONTROL THEORY
  argues that it is the absence of self-control rather than the presence of some forces
or factors such as poverty, anomie, opportunities for deviance, delinquent peers,
exposure to definitions favorable to deviance, etc. that leads to deviance.

OTHER THEORIES

CULTURE DEVIANCE THEORY

 This theory links delinquent acts to the formation of independent subcultures with a
unique set of values that clash with the main stream culture. It argues that children
learn deviant behavior socially through exposure to others and modeling of others'
action.

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

 Advocates of this theory argue that in many cases, deviance is a result of high
calculation of risks and awards. Prospective deviants weigh their own chance of gain
against the risk of getting caught, and thereby decide a course of action.

ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY

 The Routine Activities Theory was developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus
Felson. This theory claims that crime is a normal function of the routine activities of
modern living; offenses can be expected by capable guardians.

The routine activities approach gives equal weight to the role of both the victim and
the offender in the crime process

LEARNING THEORIES

 This set of theories advances that delinquency is learned through close relationship
with others. It asserts that children are born "good" and learn to be 'bad" from
others.

Behavior of Juvenile Delinquents

Behavioral Disorders

Juvenile delinquents manifest any of the following behavioral disorders:

1. Anti-social behavior — It is characterized by disrespect or disobedience for authority.

 2. Lying — It does not cure lies by attacking the liars, for lies indicate needs which require
attention. Among the most important needs of a child are love, security, praise, peace,
attention, happiness, understanding, respect, and acceptance.
3. Stealing — This behavior often stems from: undisciplined desire for possession loose
morals in the home parental indifference lack of proper clothing and other school
requirements undisciplined pleasure seeking
4. Truancy — This is cutting classes without any reasonable cause. This is often brought
about by:
a. unattractive school life
b. fear of punishment
c. proximity to place of vices
5. Vagrancy - This is wandering away from home. Possible causes are: disagreeable home
conditions feeble-mindedness misdirected love for adventure

Emotional Disorder – They include:

a. jealousy reaction
b. temper tantrums
c. fear reaction

Indicators of being on a Normal course of moral development

a. Obsessive concern for bodily appearance

b. Fear of abandonment expressed as assertion of independence
c. Desire to be different in terms of “fads”
d. Sexual desire and manipulativeness
e. Wanting to be like other races or cultures
f. Indicators of being on a Normal course of moral development
g. Persistent wisecracking as long as it is witty
h. Obsessive desire for success and recognition
i. Lack of self-identity or distinct self-concept
j. Emotional extremes expressed criticism as sensitivity to criticism.

Indicators of being on an abnormal course of moral development

a. Driven by whim or caprice rather than purpose or gain

b. Unmoved by overtures of help and harms helpers
c. Shows no loyalty to other adolescents
d. Words are inconsistent with feelings, language is strange, humor missing
e. Claims to have always been the first to do something
f. Pathological lying for no good reason
 g. Superficially charming but unable to maintain intimate relations

INDICATORS OF BEING AN “AT-RISK” YOUTH

a. Frequent absenteeism, tardiness, or suspension

b. Academic performance below grade level or repeating a grade
c. Oppositional stance towards authority
d. Drug or alcohol involvement
e. Police or probation involvement
f. Being a “latch-key” child (child lacking adult supervision)
g. Coming from a single parent family or foster home

Factors affecting the development of juvenile delinquency

A. FAMILY
 The family is the first and most important social unit to affect children; it is the first
social world the child encounters. Individuals learn the attitudes, behaviors and
social roles considered appropriate for them from already socialized individuals,
typically parents and other family members.

Family Conditions that Influence the Development of Juvenile Delinquency

a. separation of parents/broken home

b. family desertion
c. both working parents
d. parental rejection
e. single-parent household
f. in-law problems
g. lack of parental guidance
h. family displacement
i. low income of parents
j. teenage pregnancy
k. latchkey children

Family size

 Parents of larger families tend to give less parental attention to their children.
Children of large families are having a greater chance to become delinquent, and
this is ä predictive factor. It was found that delinquency is associated with the
number of brothers in the family, but not with the number of sisters.
Child’s Birth Order in the Family

 Birth order affects the delinquent behavior with delinquency more likely among
middle children than first or last children. The first child receives individual attention
and affection of parents, while the last child benefits from the parents’ experience of
raising children. In some cases, the delinquent child is the first or last child.

Relations Between Parents and Children

 The strongest predictive factor for delinquency is having criminal parents. While a
very small part of this effect may be accounted for by genetic factors, most of it
must be related to the relationship of parents toward their children.

Relations between Parents and Children

FAMILY REJECTION

Studies found a significant relationship between parental rejection and delinquent behavior.
Some children are rejected by their parents. As a result, they are deprived of one or both of
their parents through abandonment, hospitalization, divorce, death, or intervention of
public agencies.

A child who is deprived of his mother goes through three phases:

1. Protest — cries and screams for mother, shows panic, clings when she visits, and howls
when she leaves.
2. Despair - after a few days, child becomes withdrawn, sucks thumb.
3. Detachment — loses interest in parents and is not concerned whether they are there or
not.

DISCIPLINE IN THE HOME

Inadequate supervision and discipline in the home have been commonly cited to explain
delinquent behavior. Where discipline is erratic or harsh, children tend to become
delinquent in adolescence. Such parents differ from normal parents in punishing harshly,
and in giving many commands. Certain children are difficult to discipline; shouting and
incessant commands are a parental reaction to the child’s constant misbehavior

Three types of home that breeds three types of behavior:

 1. A loving, friendly and just home that breeds
 Conforming Behavior
2. A loving, liberal and open-minded home that breeds
 Critical Behavior
3. A loveless, lonely and problematic home life at breeds
 Deviant Behavior

FAMILY MODEL

1. THE CORPORATE MODEL The father is the chief executive officer. The mother is the
operating officer, and implements the father’s policy and manages the staff (children)
that in turn have privileges and responsibilities based on their seniority. The father
makes the most; he is the final word in the corporate family. Intimacy runs to the profit
motive.
2. THE TEAM MODEL — The father is the head; the mother is the chief of the training table
and cheerleader. The children, suffering frequent performance anxiety, play the rules
and stay in shape with conformity calisthenics. In the team family, competition is in the
name of the game; winning is everything.
3. THE MILITARY MODEL - The father is the genera. The mother is the guard duty with a
special assignment to the nurse corps when needed. The kids are the grunts. Unruly
children are sent to stockade, insubordinate wives risk discharge. Punishment is swift,
and sadism is called character building.
4. THE BOARDING SCHOOL MODEL - The father is the rector or head master, and is in
charge of training school minds and bodies. The mother is the dorm counselor who
oversees the realm emotion, illness, good works, and bedwetting. The children are
dutiful students.

QUALITY OF HOME

BROKEN HOME

 This does not refer to the separation of parents leaving their children behind, but
includes the presence of parents who are irresponsible that children experience
constant quarrel in the home. Broken homes are associated with an increase risk in
deviant behavior.

Effects of Family Breakdown to the Children:

  Being brought up by one parent instead of two decreases the amount of
surveillance, which protects against delinquency.
 Divorce plunges the family into poverty, which is associate with deviance and forces
the family to find accommodation in a high delinquency area.
 People who divorce are less stable character than normal, and pass their instability
unto their children.

SINGLE PARENT FAMILY

 Majority of single parent families are the products of divorce. Part of the effect is
simply that of the strained relationships between the parents prior to family
breakdown.

EFFECTS OF SINGLE-PARENT FAMILY:

 Single parents are much more likely to be living in poverty, or living in a high-
delinquency area than are married persons.
 Single-parents may find it more difficult to control their children during late
childhood and adolescence.

EFFECTS OF SINGLE-PARENT FAMILY:

 The fathers of the children of single-mothers may have criminal behavior or

alcoholism which may have influenced their children prior to family break-
down.

PARENTING STYLES

1. Authoritative parents -They are warm but firm. They set standards for the child’s
conduct but form expectations consistent with the child’s developing needs and
capabilities.
2. Authoritarian parents - They place a high value obedience and conformity tending
to favor more punitive, absolute and forceful disciplinary measures. These parents
are not responsive to their children and show little warmth and support.
Authoritarian parents believe that the child should accept without question the rules
and standards established by the parents.
3. Indulgent parents - They behave in responsive, accepting, benign or kind, and more
passive ways in matters of discipline. They place relatively few demands on the
 child’s behavior, giving the child a high degree of freedom to act as he or she wishes.
Indulgent parents are more likely to believe that control is an infringement or
violation on the child’s freedom that may interfere with healthy development.
4. Indifferent parents - They are fairly unresponsive to their child and try to minimize
the time and energy they must devote to interacting with the child or responding to
the child’s demands.

Two General Views Concerning family and Delinquency

1. The Alarmist View — this is the belief that the family is a very serious condition; it is in
critical condition and is getting progressively worse. Alarmists believe in the myth of
declining family.

Five Trends Indicating that the Family is Declining:

a. Marriage is something that fewer and fewer people want.

b. Being a homemaker (housewife) is something that fewer and fewer women
want.
c. Fewer and fewer people want a large number of children.
d. Sacrifice and self-denial are things that fewer and fewer people are willing to
practice.
e. Hedonism and self-fulfillment are things that more and more people are
pursuing. Hedonism is a cultural norm which pursues or seeks only pleasure
and gratification.
2. Reassuring View — this view contradicts the belief of the declining family. According
to this view the family condition would eventually improve as soon as the society’s
economy will stabilize.

CHILD ABUSE

 Child abuse can be defined as causing or permitting any harmful or offensive

contact on a child's body; and, any communication or transaction of any kind which
humiliates, shames, or frightens the child.
 Any act or omission, which fails to nurture or in the upbringing of the children.

TYPES OF CHILD ABUSE

  Physical Child Abuse — is an act of deliberately inflicting physical injuries on a child.
This may include burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating, or otherwise
harming a child.
 Emotional Maltreatment/Psychological Child Abuse - is when an adult demeans the
child’s worth or dignity as a human being by constant scolding and ridiculing. This
could lead to a child with very low self-esteem and many hang ups and psychological
problems.
 Child Neglect — is the failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be
physical, educational, or emotional. Physical neglect can include not providing
adequate food or clothing, appropriate medical care, supervision, or proper weather
protection. It may include abandonment
 Child Neglect — is the failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be
physical, educational, or emotional. Physical neglect can include not providing
adequate food or clothing, appropriate medical care, supervision, or proper weather
protection. It may include abandonment
 Sexual Child Abuse — is any act of maliciously molesting the child sexually whether
the sexual act is consummated or not. it includes fondling a child’s genitals, making
the child fondle the adult’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism,
and sexual exploitation. To be considered child abuse these acts have to be
committed by g person responsible for the care of a child (for example a baby-sitter,
a parent, or a daycare provider) or related to the child.

TYPOLOGY OF CHILD ABUSERS

1. Mentally disordered abuser — a person who has defective mental ability.

2. Parentally incompetent abuser — an individual whose practice of
disciplining the child is in the same way he was disciplined.
3. Situational abuser — a parent who only abuses the child when he/she is
confronted with a particular situation, one who is usually non- abusive but
“fly off the handle” when some circumstance develops.
4. Accidental abuser — a parent who exercises poor judgment in his/her
parenting decisions; poor judgment results to child abuse.
5. Institutionally prescribed abusers — some
are grounded with beliefs that are abusive to children. Child abuse may occur
in:

a. Homes b. Schools public or public

 c. Day care centers d. Preschools

e. Detention centers f. Correctional facilities

B. PEERS
 For many juveniles the most important institution, the one they truly spend the
most time with and are closest to emotionally, is the family. But for many others, it
is their barkada or peer group. The peer group is a group of youths of similar age
levels and interest that often can empower young people in their sense of
worthwhile and important.

The Structure of Peer Relations

Does having antisocial peers cause delinquency, or are delinquents antisocial youths who
seek out like-minded companions because they can be useful in committing crimes? There
are actually five independent viewpoints this question.

1. According to the Control theory approach articulated by Hirschi, delinquents are as

detached from their peers as they are from other elements of Society. While they
appear to have close friends, delinquent actually lack the social skills to make their Peer
relations rewarding or fulfilling. If delinquency is committed in groups it is because
“birds of a feather flock together.”
2. Delinquent friends cause law-abiding youths to get in trouble. Kids who fall in with a bad
crowd are at risk for delinquency. Youths who maintain friendships with antisocial peers
are more likely to become delinquent regardless of their own personality or the type of
supervision they receive at home.
3. Antisocial youths seek out and join up with like-minded friends; deviant peers sustain
and amplify delinquent careers. Those who choose aggressive or violent friends are
more likely to begin engaging in antisocial behavior themselves and suffer psychological
deficits.
4. As youths move through their life course, antisocial friends help them maintain
delinquent careers and obstruct the aging out process. In contrast, non-delinquent
friends moderate delinquency. If adulthood brings close and sustaining ties to
conventional friends, marriage and family, the level of deviant behavior will decline.
5. Troubled kids choose delinquent peers out of necessity rather than desire. The social
baggage they cart around prevents them from developing associations with
conventional peers. Because they are impulsive they may hook up with friends who are
dangerous and get them into trouble.
Peer Rejection/Peer Acceptance

 Peer rejection may help increase and sustain antisocial behaviors because outcast
kids become suspicious of other people’s motives, see them as hostile, and become
more likely to respond in an antisocial manner. Because the most popular kids reject
them, these troubled youths have fewer positive social options and may be drawn to
lower status and deviant peer groups.
 Hoping to belong and be accepted in at least one peer group, no matter its damaged
reputation, they feel compelled to engage in more antisocial activity in an effort to
gain standing and approval.

Gangs

 Gangs are groups of youths who collectively engage in delinquent behaviors. Yet,
there is a distinction between group delinquency and gang delinquency. The former
consists of a short-lived alliance created to commit a particular crime or engage in a
random violent act. In contrast, gang delinquency involves long-lived, complex
institutions that have a distinct structure and organization, including identifiable
leadership, division of ‘labor (some members are fighters, others burglars, while
some are known as deal makers), rules, rituals, and possessions (such as
 Gangs are groups of youths who collectively engage in delinquent behaviors. Yet,
there is a distinction between group delinquency and gang delinquency. The former
consists of a short-lived alliance created to commit a particular crime or engage in a
random violent act. In contrast, gang delinquency involves long-lived, complex
institutions that have a distinct structure and organization, including identifiable
leadership, division of ‘labor (some members are fighters, others burglars, while
some are known as deal makers), rules, rituals, and possessions (such as
headquarters and weapons).
 Any congregation of youths who have joined together to engage in delinquent acts
 A cohesive group that holds and defends territory or turfs
 An interstitial group, a phrase coined by gang expert Frederick Thrasher. He used
the term to refer to the fact that gangs fill the “cracks” in the fabric of society. To be
considered a gang, a group must maintain standard group processes, such as
recruiting new members, setting goals (such as controlling the neighboring drug
trade), assigning roles (appointing Someone to negotiate with rivals), and developing
status (grooming young members for leadership roles).

GANG TYPES
 1. Social Gang - involved in few delinquent activities and little drug use other than
alcohol and marijuana. Membership is more interested in the social aspects of group
behavior.
2. Party Gang — concentrates on drug use and sales, forgoing most delinquent
behavior, except vandalism. Drug sales are designed to finance members’ personal
drug use.
3. Serious Delinquent Gang - engages in serious delinquent behavior while eschewing
most drug muse. Drugs are used only on social occasions.
4. Organized Gang — heavily involved in criminality and drug Use and sales. Drug use
and sales reflect a systemic relationship with other criminal

Gang Location

 The gang problem has traditionally been considered an urban, lower-class

phenomenon. Two types of urban areas are gang-prone.
1. Transitional Neighborhood - which is marked by rapid population change in which
diverse ethnic and racial groups find themselves living side by side and in competition
with one another.
2. Stable Slum- a neighborhood where population shifts have slowed down, permitting
patterns of behavior and traditions to develop over a number of years.

Gang Formation

 Gang formation involves a sense of territoriality. Most gang members live in close
proximity to one another, and their sense of belonging and loyalty extends only to
their small area of the city. At first, a gang may form when members of an ethnic
minority newly settled in the neighborhood join together for self-preservation. As
the group gains numerical domination over an area, it may view the neighborhood
as its territory or turf, which needs to be defended.

Gang leadership

 Most experts describe gang leaders as cool characters who have earned their
position by demonstrating a variety of abilities — fighting Prowess, verbal quickness,
athletic distinction, and so on.
 Gang leadership is held by one person and varies with particular activities, such as
fighting, sex, and negotiations.

Gang Communications
  Gangs today seek recognition both from their rivals and the community as a whole.
Image and reputation depend on a gang’s ability to communicate to the rest of the
world. One major source of gang communication is graffiti or writing on walls.
 For example, among Latino gangs, the term RIFA is used to assert POWER; “p/v” or
por vida means the gang wants to control the area “for life;” numeral 13 signifies
that the gang is loco or “wild.”

Controlling gang activity

 The youth service program in which traditional police personnel usually from the
youth Unit, given responsibility for gang control.
 The gang detail, in which one or more police officers, usually from youth or detective
units, are assigned exclusively to gang-control work.
 The gang unit, established solely to des] with gang problems, to which one or more
officers are assigned exclusively to gang-control work.
C. ENVIRONMENT
 The outside environment where a youth resides is also influential. It is where the
child is exposed to after his first highly formative years. It may be a place where
crime is a day-to-day event or a haven where the existence of crime is an unusual
occurrence. For an environment to become a factor in delinquency problem,
children can be found in the Street roaming most of the time in the company of
adults whose words and behaviors are not fit to be heard and seen by a growing
child. The negative influence that can be exerted by a place to minors can be
adopted in so many ways as they grow up.

The following are the possible influences of the environment to the child:

a. associations with criminal groups

b. alcoholism and drug addiction
c. impulse of fear .
d. crime inducing situation that caused criminalistics tendencies
e. imitated instinct like selfishness, violence and anti-social wishes

D. SCHOOL
 The school, unlike the family, is a public instrument for training young people. It is,
therefore, more directly accessible to change through the development resources
and policies. And since it is the principal instrument to the goals and values of our
society, It is imperative that it be provided with the resources to compete with
illegitimate attraction for young people’s allegiance.
Academic Performance and Delinquency

 Poor academic performance has been directly linked to delinquent behavior. There
is general consensus that students who are chronic underachievers in school are also
the most likely to be delinquent. In fact, researcher commonly find that school
failure is a stronger predictor of delinquency than such personal variables as
economic class membership or peer group relations.

Social Failure and Delinquency

 One view on the relationship between social failure and delinquency is that school
experience is a direct cause of delinquent behavior. Children who fail at school soon
feel frustrated, angry and rejected. Believing they will never achieve success through
conventional means, they seek out like-minded companions and together engage in
antisocial behaviors. Educational failure, beginning early in the life course, evokes
negative responses from important people in the child’s life, including teachers,
parents, and perspective employers. These reactions help solidify feelings of social
inadequacy and, in some cases, lead the underachieving student into a pattern of
chronic delinquency.
 A second view is that school failure leads to psychological and behavioral
dysfunction which is the actual cause of antisocial behavior. For example, academic
failure helps reduce self-esteem; studies using a variety of measures of academic
competence and self-esteem clearly demonstrate that good students have a better
attitude about themselves than do poor students Reduced self-esteem has also been
found to contribute to delinquent behavior.
 The term “school climate” generally refers to a broad range of concepts that include
the culture of the school, how the school is structured and administered, its design
and its rule structure. Schools with a positive culture will maintain unwritten rules of
conduct that encourage communication between students and also with faculty and
administration The school’s norms should discourage negative actions such as
bullying and discrimination. Rules are fair and clearly written and disseminated to
students.
E. MASS MEDIA
 Mass media embraces all kinds of communications where a child is exposed to. It
covers up everything that a child hears and sees that leaves behind in his or her
imagination. It could be anything a child saw on television, heard over the radio,
read from a book or magazine, or even saw in a movie house.
 Television and movies have popularized the cult of heroes,’ which promotes justice
through the physical elimination of enemies. Many researchers have concluded that
young people who watch violence tend to behave more aggressively or violently,
particularly when provoked. This is mainly characteristic of 8 to 12-year-old boys,
who are more vulnerable to such influences.