- September 20, 2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
The problem of juvenile becomes one of the major challenges to the contemporary justice system and law enforcement agencies. Nowadays this problem is still important, probably even more than it has ever been before. On the one hand the society achieved great success in humanization but still it failed to cope with the growth of juvenile delinquency. Moreover, it should be said that juvenile delinquency is not a stagnating, unchangeable phenomenon, on the contrary, it evaluates permanently. The growth of juvenile crime and arrest keeps growing and, in this respect, 2005 was not an exceptional year since the juvenile crime and arrest rate kept growing steadily.
On analyzing the major trends concerning juvenile crimes committed in 2005 and arrests of juvenile criminals, it is possible to trace a growing trend to the use of violence by juveniles. To put it more precisely, juveniles tend to violent and extremely aggressive behavior that naturally increases the risk of committing a crime by a juvenile. In addition, there are various risk factors that increase the number of juvenile crimes and increase the number of juvenile arrests respectively. Among these causes it is possible to name the drug use which often forces juveniles to commit crimes. At any rate, the use of drugs increases aggressiveness of juveniles and makes them unable to control themselves.
Since the problem is extremely important for the future of many juveniles and the society at large, it becomes clear that the situation has to be changed and the society has to do everything possible to prevent antisocial behavior on the part of juveniles and improve their social surrounding that definitely influences their behavior greatly. So, the solution of the problem has to be found and it is possible to do only on the basis of sufficient knowledge about causes of crimes or antisocial behavior of delinquents and understanding recent trends in the society at large and juvenile delinquent in particular.
It is obvious that in order to solve any problem it is necessary to know its causes. Naturally, a growing quantity of crimes committed by juveniles as well as their antisocial behavior is a real problem now and for its solution it is necessary to know its causes.
Speaking about the causes, many specialists, especially those who work on the problem of homicides committed by juveniles, explain the cause of such behavior mainly by the ill treatment of children within their families or in the result of family abuse. Actually, what they intend to point out is that juveniles behavior and psychology is formed under the influence of their environment, particularly of their families. Consequently violence in families results in the antisocial behavior of juveniles in the society. At this respect, the fact that juveniles often commit crimes against people who are older than them is quite remarkable and is interpreted as an intention to revenge for the abuse juveniles suffered either from their fathers, mothers or both parents.
However, juvenile delinquency can hardly be explained only by family abuse. Naturally there are other causes, among which may be named social and economic position of juveniles, their educational level, etc. but anyway what is really necessary to remember is the fact that violence breeds violence and family abuse, being such violence, results in antisocial behavior of juveniles.
Unfortunately practically the same situation is observed in schools for in many cases antisocial behavior of juveniles in schools is the result of problems in their relations with their mates or even act of violence. In such a situation the facts of use of gun in schools may be partially explained by a kind of response-reaction of juveniles.
Consequently, despite the great influence of family, particularly at a very young age it should be given more attention to the social environment juveniles live in because at the adolescence the role of peer groups is much higher for a person than the role of parents, who, nonetheless, form person’s views, attitudes in early childhood that naturally influences his or her further development.
Among other causes, which engender the juvenile delinquency may be named some more, quite logical causes. For instance, there is a kind of anti-social orientation that makes people to behave in a wrong way and commit crimes. Such anti-social orientation may be formed within a family, or as a result of a wrong set of values. Often juveniles simply do not believe in the possibility of fair and prosperous life since in their own lives they often face violence, abuse, manipulation by people, etc. All these facts lead to the development of anti-social orientation of a personality.
Furthermore, many juveniles suffer from ”˜not knowing how to be anything else’. Obviously it is again a result of social environment of juveniles. They lack models of proper, normal social behavior. Naturally, in such circumstances, when people do not see any possible way out from the difficult socio-economic conditions they live in, they easily commit crime or behave antisocially, as some part of their social environment does.
As it has been already mentioned, there is a significant role of peer groups. Gangs are also a very important factor. As any other social being, humans depend on their social environment. Moreover, they want to be a part of a community or a social group. In the majority of cases of juvenile delinquents, they are members of different gangs and often commit crimes under the demand of their gang’s interests.
Finally, personal inclinations of individuals should not be omitted since they also produce a certain impact on the personality of an individual. The latter may be enforced by the contemporary mass media and show industry, which often are overflowed by violence. Thus, it is possible to say that along individual there are familial and social causes that lead to antisocial behavior and formation of juvenile delinquents.
Thus, taking into consideration all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that the problem of juvenile delinquency has a number of socio-economic, familial and personal causes but the solution of the problem, being not very hard to find but extremely hard to achieve, lies in overcoming the current socio-economic problems that would lead to the improvement of the general situation and make antisocial behavior unnecessary and ”˜out of date’. The crime and arrest rates among juveniles reveal the fact that the problem of crimes committed by juveniles persists and this problem needs to be solved. Otherwise, the new generation of offenders will grow up. On the other hand, it is necessary to understand that the wide use of punitive measures, including sentencing juvenile offenders to terms in prisons can produce a negative impact on their adult life. Hence, it is important to develop effective ways of prevention and punishment of juvenile crimes.