Family, Delinquency, And Crime
I have covered some of the basic, founding philosophers of criminology and sociology in some of my previous psychology and political science courses, including courses I took in high school. Also, I am an avid follower of court proceedings in the popular media -- not simply sensationalist 'true crime' stories but also serious coverage of constitutional rights, Supreme Court cases, and methods of crime prevention in major cities like New York City.
The question of what causes juveniles to commit crimes has always been interesting to me, because many theories seem to suggest in some instances that a child's environment can have a profound effect upon the likelihood of the child engaging in criminal behavior as an adolescent. Gang violence and peer pressure seem to cause many teens to adopt antisocial behaviors, which they then abandon when they have left or are taken out of the environment. On the other hand, some children commit horrifying crimes, seemingly without provocation, even though they have had a relatively normal family upbringing. Less dramatically, in my own personal experience I have known people who have engaged in minor acts of delinquent behavior, for no apparent reason, and I have (successfully, I believe) had to deal with peer pressure to engage in antisocial acts.
In this course I would like to learn more about the juvenile justice, theories of why young people commit crimes, and how someone's family influences the likelihood that they will commit a crime. On a persona level, I am interested in family law in general, since so many of my friends come from divorced homes and have had to deal with the family court system. I think the course would prove useful in many fields I might choose to enter, including education, social work, the law, or law enforcement.
Families, Delinquency & Crime The fundamental changes occurring to families in the 21st century can be classified into two different categories, depending on the internal or the external perspective that is used in the analysis. The external perspective proposes an analysis of the sociodemographic changes that have occurred to families under the impact of the external factors of the 21st century. The sociodemographic changes are characterized both by the numbers, by
In fact, this theory does well to explain the prevalence of modern youth gangs. First, gang members oftentimes engage in behavior that is absolutely contrary to the norms and rules that they have learned at home, but, because of a lack of belief in society, at large, they allow themselves to discard those norms. Therefore, delinquents are "free to engage in virtually any opportunity for deviant behavior that presents itself."
Reclaiming Children and Youth.. Retrieved October 02, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-206794465.html Wester, K, MacDonald, C & Lewis, T. (2008). A glimpse into the lives of nine youths in a correctional facility: Insight into theories of delinquency.(Report). Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling. American Counseling Association. 2008. Retrieved October 02, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-178713105.html Gibbs, J., Potter, G.B., DiBiase, a.M. & Devlin, R. (2008). The EQUIP program: Helping youth to
If the child is punished for small infractions of the rules and other children are not, this makes him feel that life is unfair, and makes him act in the ways that he is expected to act. Formal labeling is manifest when teachers treat students labeled as gifted as brighter, which motivates the children to perform better on tests, or when students labeled as 'special education' or 'ESL' are
It is possible that an individual who was abused as a child was able to recover from the trauma of his/her experience, and tried to convert his/her negative experience into a positive one by helping out abused children, with the goal of helping them to also recover and develop as psychologically healthy individuals. This kind of psyche abolishes the phenomenon of double jeopardy, and provides a counter-argument to the
He has been expelled from three school since he began his education and is currently attending junior high school after last attending a small charter school in his community. The shoplifting incident also caused his mother to ask his father to take him back into his home, he has lived with mostly his mother with infrequent visitation from his father, except for a year period where he lived with
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