Juvenile Delinquency in The United States - Introduction To Juvenile Delinquency - Causes

Causes

There are many factors that cause juvenile delinquency. Sometimes children want to test their parents' limits, or society's limits. Some people believe that imposing strict laws such as curfews will cause a drop in juvenile delinquency rates, but sometimes imposing strict rules merely give the children more of an incentive to break them. However, sometimes juvenile crimes do in fact occur due to the exact opposite reason, that is, a lack of rules and supervision. One example of this is that children many times commit crimes after school and while their parents are at work or preoccupied. Statistics that are mentioned below explain the peak hours of juvenile crime rates and conceptualize this very cause. Additionally, mental illness and substance abuse are large contributing factors. 15-20% of juveniles convicted of crimes have serious mental illnesses, and the percentages increase to 30-90% of convicted juveniles when the scope of mental illnesses considered widens. Also, many people believe that a child's environment and family are greatly related to their juvenile delinquency record. For example, the dynamics of a family can affect a child’s well being and delinquency rate. Crime rates vary due to the living situations of children; examples of this could be a child whose parents are together, divorced, or a child with only one parents, particularly a teen mom. This is largely due to the fact that living arrangements are directly related to increases and decreases of poverty levels. Poverty level is another factor that is related to the chances a child has of becoming a juvenile delinquent. Statistics on living arrangements, poverty level and other influential factors can be found in a later section. Others believe that the environment and external factors are not at play when it comes to crime; they suggest that criminals are faced with rational choice decisions in which they chose to follow the irrational path. Finally, another cause could be the relationships a child develops in school or outside of school. A positive or negative friendship can have a great influence on the chances of children becoming delinquents. Peer pressure is also at play. Relationships and friendships can lead to gangs, which are major contributors of violent crimes among teens. These are just some of the causes of juvenile delinquency. For a more detailed account of each of these causes, and more, please see the references below or the juvenile delinquency page.