Juvenile Delinquency: Needs

Running Head : JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Juvenile Delinquency

Author

Institution

Professor

Subject

Date

Juvenile Delinquency

Case Study No . 1 : Abby

The best theory to address the first scenario is the Interactional Theory of Delinquency by Terence

. Thornberry . The basic claim of this theory is that human behavior occurs in social interaction ' In this light , it can be best explained by models focusing on interactive processes (Thornberry , 1996

This theory avers that the primary cause of delinquency is the weakening of social controls caused by an attenuation

of the person 's bond to conventional society ' In the case of adolescents , the bond is created by well-built relationships to parents and family . Other factors also affect this bond such as performance in school and having set goals in life (Thornberry , 2003

Conversely , adolescents who have fragile relationships with parents possess lesser social constraints in which they can channel their behavior and move toward prosocial arenas . These adolescents possess greater behavioral freedom therefore , they are most likely to be involved in delinquency (Thornberry , 2003

For this particular scenario , the variables relating to family and school shall be dealt on . Abby obviously has a brittle relationship with her family as shown by her confession that she is being sexually abused . Her absence of a strong bond with her family , which was supposed to offer bounds for her to adhere to acceptable behavior , gives her the liberty to engage in such delinquent acts

For the youth to be persistently and seriously involved in delinquency they are...