Toldson,Maliyah Ms.Verdun EnglishIV-5B 20 March 2014 Is Juvenile Delinquency Linked To Family Instability?

Juvenile delinquency is defined as a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment ("Juvenile Delinquency"). Its a huge problem in society today and its influenced by broken homes and mental disorders. A broken home is the complete opposite of a stable home. A broken home is defined as a chaotic home environment with the lack of a consistent supportive family network. On the other hand, if a child lives in a stable home, they're more likely to succeed rather than someone from a broken home. If a child has a dysfunctional home they usually become stressed and start doing destructive things to seek pleasure and survive. Some children can't succeed if they wanted to because their parents have a lack of knowledge. Some parents guide their children the wrong way because of their ignorance. Children from broken homes tend to act out because they normally have a negative outlook on life due to their living conditions. This paper will explore the many ways children suffer from a lack of home stability. Children usually suffer badly when their parents get a divorce or split up. 40% of children growing up in America today are being raised without their fathers (Children Divorce Statistics). Children hate when their parents are not together; every child just wants a happy family. This affects the childs life greatly. Some children start to commit

crimes; some have health issues, most struggle academically, and get involved with addictive drugs. As they grow older, most live in poverty. The Department of Health investigated emotional disorders such as aggression and anti-social behavior. In 2004, researchers studied nearly 8,000 children between five and sixteen and found almost one in ten had disorders (Steve Doughty). Children who live in broken homes have a higher chance of being diagnosed with emotional disorders rather than children who doesn't live in broken homes. Broken families produce homes full of conflict and chaos and they are terrible for children. (Steve Doughty). In 2011, there were 4,367 arrests for every 100,000 youths ages 10 through 17 in the United States. The overall juvenile arrest rate was 32% lower in 2011 than in 1980 (Juvenile Arrest Rate Trends). Health issues are common among children from broken homes. A foster care home in Clark County failed to meet the minimum safety and health standards for the six children living in the home, according to a legislative review. (Cy Ryan) Some foster care homes don't feed the children an adequate amount of food and that causes children to rebel. If the government finds out that the foster parents are not using their money for the right reasons, they will take the children back into their custody immediately. The government checks foster homes periodically, but they are often disguised with poor conditions that the children live in. Several orphan children suffer from genetic conditions and their foster parents dont administer necessary medical needs. Its unknown how widespread these problems are within the foster care system but these examples suggest that many foster children are mistreated. These physical and emotional issues may lead to troublesome children that will eventually commit crimes.

Society often view foster children as worthless citizens. These stereotypes make it hard for foster children to overcome their issues. About one-third of the youth in the state's juvenile justice system either are or has been in the foster care system (Juvenile Rehabilitation Authority). Most children dont have positive influences in their lives to overcome their issues. Society focuses less on delinquents and fails to provide support for their needs. Most foster homes are run like businesses rather than support systems. Investigations have found that foster care homes dont focus on their employees backgrounds and lack of training; however, reflects on the childrens behavior. Only 26% of employees received training (Unhealthy Conditions, Cy Ryan). These factors contribute to the risk for foster care children to fall into the juvenile justice system. According to Sex by Survival, nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year engage in sex acts for food, drugs or a place to stay (Sex by Survival). This situation leads to abusive relationships. People tend to take advantage of people who they feel are vulnerable. For example, I see people in New Orleans; I wonder if others are mistreating them. Juvenile delinquents steal because they are less fortunate than other children. In 2011, reflections on greater decline in juvenile arrests, just 21% of burglary arrests were juvenile arrests (Juvenile Arrest Rate Trends). They often vandalize because they're rebelling violently against the government because they're mad at the world because of their stressful lives. Several juveniles like to relieve their stress with alcohol and drugs, not caring about their consequences. Results revealed that 78 percent of U.S. teens consumed alcohol. When it came to drug use, 81 percent of teens said they had the opportunity to use illicit substances, with 42.5 percent actually tried them ("Survey

Reveals Shocking Levels of Teen Drinking, Drug Abuse"). Many are angry and have psychological issues and have trouble living their lives positively. Because of their psychological issues and troubled lives many children often turn to selling drugs to meet their desires; they buy things like new clothes, shoes, and food in hope of making them feel better or meeting their needs. Trespassing is a big issue because the delinquents want a cool, safe, and comfortable place to stay. Most juvenile delinquents bully because they have insecurities within themselves. They bully because they want to draw attention away from themselves. They know they're most likely to get bullied because they're targets in the society so they cause trouble first, so no one will decrease their self-esteem. About 30 % of teenagers in the U.S. have been involved in bullying, either as a bully or as a victim of teenage bullying (Teenage Bullying). Juveniles get in trouble on the streets because they're typically trying to survive. Therefore, they carry weapons to protect themselves and the police catch them with illegal weapons. As a result, they are arrested. Prostitution is another big issue with juvenile delinquents. The criminal justice systems fight against child sexual exploitation is still in progress (Sex Trafficking). They have several types of prostitution. Adults offer young children money in exchange for sex. A sexual myth is that men have uncontrollable sexual urges that must be fulfilled (Female Juvenile Prostitution 9). Juveniles that participate in prostitution usually have or had abusive homes. Prostitution may appear to be glamorous but it's not. You may see women flaunt materialistic things but it's very stressful to give someone pleasure when you don't want to. Some people may see prostitution as dating and then the guy may be a disguised pimp and eventually influence the teen to become a prostitute.

The most common consequence for juvenile delinquents is jail time. Most youth suffer in jail. They learn to appreciate the things they use to have even though it wasn't the best. Some start their lives over positively and some continue to break the law into adulthood. Unfortunately, many bad habits are developed in jail. Youths are exposed to homosexual practices, which leads to diseases. Diseases like Hepatitis B, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, a typical person in society does not perform the same practices while they are incarcerated. My big question is? Are the delinquents being reformed or being exposed to a detrimental life? Approximately 10 % of the juvenile delinquents are for drug abuse or underage drinking violations (Puzzanchera). As stated earlier, a large amount of juvenile delinquency is because of psychological issues and broken homes. There are other contributing factors to juvenile delinquency such as influences from immoral people, videos, and other forms social media and the list can go on and on. There is no one reason for juvenile delinquency. However, research has discovered many factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency.

Counseling is a huge factor in a juvenile delinquents life. Without intervention, many of these young offenders will spend their entire lives involved in crime and be incarcerated. Juvenile rehabilitation is an important piece of the criminal justice system, which help underage offenders and juvenile substance abusers turn their lives around ("Juvenile Programs").

Delinquents that fear imprisonment usually try to get involved in school related activities such as sports or clubs. Multiple studies have shown that keeping children interested in sports can reduce the number of crimes being committed. Sports keep children entertained, healthy, and motivated; therefore, they have little time to cause problems within their communities. Sports alone will not solve the entire problem, but it will help reduce it. If parents get their children involved in sports in grade school, or even before, children may find that they enjoy them and it usually follow them throughout their middle and high school careers (Afterschool alert).

Teenagers that are involved in extracurricular activities will be less likely to cause problems, get better grades, and live healthier overall. Teens that are athletes tend to get in less trouble, go to school more, and get better grades. They begin to produce those positive factors because they understand that their extracurricular activities require them to go to school consistently and receive good grades. Therefore, athletes do the right things. If children have educational and interpersonal goals theyre less likely to become juvenile delinquents. Adolescents that have low educational and interpersonal goals are likely to be juvenile delinquents. To prevent juvenile delinquency, programs should focus on helping children develop clear, positive mindsets. Children that have clear, positive mindsets usually begin to set achievable goals ("Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy Among Delinquent).

Today, schools continue to suspend and expel students with disabilities for behaviors that are a direct result of their disabilities. These children often become

delinquent, feel worthless, and are viewed as "failures," stop trying, and/or end up in the juvenile justice system as a result of their treatment by those who are charged with educating them (Juvenile Justice).

Across the United States, thousands of children have been sentenced as adults and sent to adult prisons. Nearly 3000 children nationwide have been sentenced to life in imprison without the possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 years old have been tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison, typically without any consideration of their age or circumstances of the offense (Children in Adult Prison).

Based on research, it seems as if the delinquents are being setup for a detrimental life. If delinquents are confined in cells for 23 hours a day they are very idol minded which leads to negative thoughts; thats only human nature. While the delinquents are incarcerated they are among others like themselves; those who also participated in criminal acts. If a person is not in a positive environment they wont think positively. Therefore, the delinquents will not succeed mentally and they wont be able to clean up their criminal records.

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29 J. Tolman and K.Pittman, with B. Cervone

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