Factors Influencing Juvenile Delinquencies Among Juvenile
[A CASE STUDY OF BORSTAL TRAINING INSTITUTE GANMO, KWARA STATE.]

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
    Studies on juvenile delinquency abound. However, some of these studies will be reviewed in this chapter. Fundamentally, studies on the trends and patterns of juvenile delinquency and factors responsible for the juvenile delinquency such as family, poverty, IQ level, learning disability, mental disorder, male phenomenon, biological and psychological factors will be clearly and critically reviewed.
    Relevant literature will be reviewed under the following sub-headings:
-    Concept of Juvenile Delinquency
-    Factors Influencing Juvenile Delinquency
-    Preventions of juvenile Delinquency
-    Summary of the Review of Related Literature
Concept of Juvenile Delinquency
    Juvenile delinquency has been a significant area of study subsumed under criminology, sociologists, legal practitioners, criminal justice experts, social workers and counsellors are concerned with the nature of youth and juvenile delinquency (Siegel, 1995).
    Iwarimue – Jaja (1999 – 41) asserts that:
Juvenile delinquency consists of acts of minor infractions of regulation committed by children below the age of 18 or by young persons who are between the age limits of 15 and 17. The nature and scope of the offence vary from non-violent to violent and from minor to serious offences. They include minor or simple offences like cheating, fighting, lying, truancy and stealing to serious offences, such as murder, arson, burglary, destruction of property and armed robbery. It also include acts of drunkenness/alcoholism, prostitution, drug trafficking and peddling; fraudulent practices, bribery, corruption and counterfeinting. For these acts of infringement, the delinquent child is not tried under criminal law, but by the jurisdiction of the juvenile court which must do everything possible to help the child because of the presumption that he/she is immature and lacks criminal intent.
    In addressing the matter of the extent and trends of delinquency; it is important to note the admonitions of Empey and Erickson (1966), Hirschi (1989) and Matza (1964), and others that delinquency is not only transient but also widespread. Many juveniles engage in delinquency only occasionally, but some engage in it more frequently. Gibbons and Krohn (1991) call delinquency “a sometime things”, while Matza (1984) describes the process of drifting into and out of delinquency. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that some acts of delinquency are serious acts of criminality and other are petty trivial acts.