Essay On Juvenile Delinquency

In the recent years, there have been surging numbers of high-profile cases involving adolescent who commit violent crimes. This drastic rising of violent crimes involving children has attracted public attention. Nevertheless, it is clear that over the years there have been an upward trend in juvenile cases as argued by Espiritu et al. (2003). Indeed, through in-depth observation, it is worth understanding that juvenile delinquency is creasing especially among young offenders of between seven and eight years. Furthermore, it is observed that children of less than 13 years are frequently being arrested for juvenile offenses. The recent statistics in fact, point out clearly that the youth make about one-third of the juvenile arrests for arson

(2013) points out that in the study where a diverse sample of at least 19,833 participants was used and it included 24 percent female, 13 percent African American, 8 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent Native American, there was a steady and high reoffending rate of children between the years 2004 and 2007 observed. In their study, Ryan et al. evaluated family, education, peers drugs and alcohols among other factors to arrive at a conclusion that there was a consistent high reoffending rate within the study period, and a relatively high proportion of youth recidivate in a short period of time. Another observation from the work of Ryan et al. (2013) is that youth coming to the juvenile justice system with an open an active case of neglect had very high chances of for recidivism. In fact, Ryan et al observed in about 18 months of the initial arrest, nearly 61 percent experience a subsequent arrest. A majority, at least 67 percent of the subsequent offenses transpired before the youth turned 18 years of age. In response to the increasing juvenile cases involving children who commit violent offenses, there are a number of theories that have been advanced to attempt and explain delinquent offenses however; the major theory that best explains juvenile delinquency is the Social Disorganization

Therefore, it is imperative understanding based on Social Disorganization theory that, areas where there is lack of obedience to social rules by children due to the community reducing their chances of advancement, experience social disorder i.e. they experience conflict and despair. This is due to the reason that the children turn to antisocial behavior. Strain theory as observed by Steenbeek and Hipp (2011) explain when a person has goals which the economic mainstream creates desirable and is incapable to attain the goals set before him/her in a genuine way, the particular person will find alternative ways of achieving his/her goals, habitually turning to criminal behavior. In addition, Cultural Deviance theories point out that as a result of the draining lifestyle of children living in worsened environs the children often turn to social isolation and delinquent behavior. Simply, the Social Disorganization theory implies that when a community creates conflict for a young people to achieve success, the youth experience status frustrations since they cannot reach goals set by