Peer Pressure & Juvenile Delinquency

p PEER PRESSURE AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

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INTRODUCTION : A Definition of Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency , as defined by Regoli and Hewitt (2006 , refers to the criminal acts and status offenses performed by juveniles , or those that are not of legal age . Since they are still minors , most legal systems require specific procedures (such as the provision of special detention centers ) in dealing with the juveniles

In the United States of America , a juvenile delinquent , aside from a person not having reached the legal age , is also

a person whose behavior has been labeled delinquent ' by a court . According to Regoli and Hewitt (2006 , the requirements differ from one state to another However , the federal government came up with a legislation to ensure that the handling of juvenile delinquents is the same for all the cases in all states . This legislation is known as the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Act of 1975

The following are the factors which more often than not , push teenagers to perform delinquent acts , as cited by the article Juvenile Delinquency - Prevention - Care and Cure (n .d

abandonment

social institutions

peer pressure

physical abuse

sexual abuse

psychological abuse

This shall look into juvenile delinquency as a social problem the sociological theories that explain its causes and finally , the relationship between juvenile delinquency and peer pressure

Juvenile Delinquency as a Social Problem and the Theories that Explain its Causes

In the mid 1990s , juvenile delinquency and teenage suicide increased at an alarming rate . It is because of this , that majority of the people are now accusing young people as a source of social problem . Recently , many people perceive young people as a group of easily-agitated gangsters equipped with the potential ability and desire to disrupt the present social (Young People as A Social Problem , 2002

With the aforementioned situations , the article entitled Young People as a Social Problem (2002 ) asks the question on whether it is right in blaming the youth for the atrocities they commit that in one way or another cause the degradation of the society ? Or are they just victims of the social dis which cause them to perform delinquent acts ? The statistics on juvenile delinquency mentions that most of the delinquents say that peer pressure and loneliness are usually the reasons why they commit offenses to the society . More often than not , those who engage in these acts are those youth who have been suffering from unresolved emotional disturbances (Youth as a Social Problem , 2002

This would prove that the lack of parental care , caused by the business of parents contributes so much to the prevalence of juvenile delinquency . The lack of attention received from the latter would only prove that their children could not communicate properly with them Instead , they teenagers would turn to their friends to fill in the care that they have wanted to receive from their parents . At the same time the parents also fail to acknowledge the needs of their children

As this situation...