Sexual Offenders: A Case Study

Sexual offences are also prevalent among juvenile offenders. Most of these offenders are males between the ages of 14-18 and the victims are usually females of the same age group. Magistrate Phulchere (2015), however, states that although this is a problem, there should be a more effective way of dealing with it other than brining it before the court system. She states that while the victim is underage, there is usually “consent” from the girls (although legally there cannot be consent since she is underage) and the situation is more a matter of adolescents “fiddling around with sex.” Phulchere states that she finds the idea of sending a young boy to Bordelaise or the Boys Training Centre very difficult in such cases, rather than taking the

Family is one of the strongest socializing agents in an individual’s life and is tasked with teaching acceptable behavior, delaying gratification and respecting the rights of others. However, it is also possible for the family to teach aggressive behavior, which manifests into the environment when their children attempt to integrate into society. Given this realization, it can be assumed that family structure is directly linked to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Therefore, when attempting to approach the issue of juvenile delinquency and reform, the root causes should be considered and the family is about as close as we could get. What is responsible for the failure of a family to raise socially productive, non-violent children? A number of factors, or combination thereof are evident in the literature and also in the direct analysis of the statistics available in Saint

It is likely that because this factor seems to be self-evident in nature, that it has received very little attention in the literature. Upon review of the statistics however, it is clear that parent criminality plays a significant role in the development of juvenile delinquency. Going back to the aspect of learned behavior, it is not at all difficult to see the connection. Witnessing parental violence and criminality forces the child into a situation where he or she normalizes the behavior and applies it to their everyday interaction in the environment. Wright & Wright (1993), in their analysis of the literature found that children who engaged in delinquency were most likely to have criminal mothers or father. Children with both parents engaging in unlawful behavior were at even greater risk. Delinquent behavior was generally associated with the arrest of one or both parents and parental history of delinquency. The researchers also recognized this linkage to juvenile delinquency in Saint Lucia, especially in drug crimes, where juveniles brought before the courts for drug offences were most likely to have parents who engaged in drug use or who have been arrested for the same