How Does Poverty and the Environment Cause or Contribute to Juvenile Delinquency?
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- Date Submitted: 12/15/2012 08:20 PM
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How does poverty and the environment cause or contribute to juvenile delinquency?
Poverty and the Environment
Young people who are at risk of becoming delinquent often live in difficult circumstances. Children who for various reasons, including parental alcoholism, poverty, breakdown of family, abusive conditions in the home, housing and other basic necessities are at greater risk of falling into juvenile delinquency. Delinquent behavior often occurs in social settings in which the norms for acceptable behavior have broken down. Under such circumstances many of the common rules that deter people from committing socially unacceptable acts may lose relevance for some children in society.
The physical surroundings that a child is exposed to daily demonstrate a direct correlation to their behavior problems. This includes their household, the schools they attend and the type of community they live in. Jarjoura, G.R., Teasdale, B & Cai, T (2002) All of these environments influence our behavior patterns and can have a lasting effect on the development of our youth. Just looking into some ones household you can see there are several factors that affect the behavior of progression, such as household income and the type of community we live in.
The household income is a key factor in the negative development of our youth though it is usually poverty that is the culprit, not wealth. Jarjoura, Triplett, and Brinker state that "the level of exposure to poverty has an impact on the likelihood of delinquent involvement" and maintain that "the persistent poor, as a group, are distinguishable from the short-term poor in terms of the impact of poverty. Having experienced persistent poverty is related to a higher level of involvement in delinquency." (2002) This makes sense when you look at how someone living in poverty is treated. Children living in poverty have the same wants and needs of other children but may be living without. This makes them more likely to turn to crime to...
Poverty and the Environment
Young people who are at risk of becoming delinquent often live in difficult circumstances. Children who for various reasons, including parental alcoholism, poverty, breakdown of family, abusive conditions in the home, housing and other basic necessities are at greater risk of falling into juvenile delinquency. Delinquent behavior often occurs in social settings in which the norms for acceptable behavior have broken down. Under such circumstances many of the common rules that deter people from committing socially unacceptable acts may lose relevance for some children in society.
The physical surroundings that a child is exposed to daily demonstrate a direct correlation to their behavior problems. This includes their household, the schools they attend and the type of community they live in. Jarjoura, G.R., Teasdale, B & Cai, T (2002) All of these environments influence our behavior patterns and can have a lasting effect on the development of our youth. Just looking into some ones household you can see there are several factors that affect the behavior of progression, such as household income and the type of community we live in.
The household income is a key factor in the negative development of our youth though it is usually poverty that is the culprit, not wealth. Jarjoura, Triplett, and Brinker state that "the level of exposure to poverty has an impact on the likelihood of delinquent involvement" and maintain that "the persistent poor, as a group, are distinguishable from the short-term poor in terms of the impact of poverty. Having experienced persistent poverty is related to a higher level of involvement in delinquency." (2002) This makes sense when you look at how someone living in poverty is treated. Children living in poverty have the same wants and needs of other children but may be living without. This makes them more likely to turn to crime to...