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Patterns And Causes Of Juvenile Delinquency As Expressed By Secondary School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF IBARAPA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE]
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Age and Juvenile Delinquency
Obinyan (2004) opined that the two oldest most widely accepted conclusions in criminology are first, that involvement in crime diminishes with age and second, that males are more likely than females to offend at every age. Youngsters between the ages of 8 and 14 begin to confide less in parents and more in peers and to be more influenced by those peers for assistance in making decisions about what behaviour to adopt (Berndt & Perry, 1996; Paikoff & Brooks-Gun, 2001). There is a huge variation in age factor of adolescent from one society to another (Okorodudu, 2010). Arrests data show that the intensity of criminal behaviour slackens after the teens and it continues to decline with age. Much research indicate that males are more likely to participate in crime compared to females (Chisney-Lind, 1997 Greenfield & Snell, 1999 and Snyder & Sickmund, 2006) and that individual offending rates tend to peak in late adolescence then drop off in early adulthood (Farrington, 2000).
Gottfreson (1997) in contributing to the age-crime debate, view the “constant†maturity out of “crime or desistance from crime as individual’s age. Gottfreson (1997) indicate the following: question the emphasis on career criminal research incapacitation and the recent “fetish†longitudinal research that justifies a search for groups of offenders (career criminals) whose criminality does not decline with age (Cohen & Land, 2000; Blumstein, Cohen & Farrington, 1998a and Blumstein, Cohen & Farrington, 1998b). Farrington (2000) suggests that offenses of different types peak at different times and this represent ‘crime switching’ rather than replacement of one group of offenders by another. The outcome of this age-crime controversy is claimed by the disputants to have important consequences for career criminal research (Tittle, 1998). Farrington (2000) suggests factors such as influence of wives, girl-friends, decline of gang or peer group support, and increased penalties, as well as increased legitimate opportunities as individuals reach their twenties. However, Wu, Lee, & Lee (2000) found from their studies that increase in age of participants attracted increase in the rate of delinquency. They infer that as the adolescent grows older he/she has more courage to try out new things, more criminal things and rebellious nature increases. Empirical research shows that as predicted by (Sampson & Laub, 1997), people change over the life course and the factors that predict anti-social behaviour evolve over time. As predicted by (Sampson & Laub, 1997), as levels of cumulative disadvantage increase, delinquency-resisting elements of social life are impaired.
Adolescents who are convicted of delinquency at an early age are more likely to develop anti-social attitudes later in life. They develop low educational achievement, declining occupational status and unstable employment record. Evidence is also available that confirms suspicion that delinquent career trajectories can be reversed if life conditions improve and they gain social capital (Sampson & Laub, 1997). However, involvement in delinquency of children who have long-term exposure to poverty may escalate. A sizeable portion of adolescent offenders, who in all likelihood do not experience the positive building blocks of human development continue offending behaviour into young adulthood (Sampson & Laub, 1997). Teenagers exposed to authoritative as opposed to authoritarian parentings are less likely to turn to peers for advice for they have already established a history of open communication and self-disclosure with their parents (Fulgini & Eccles, 1999). Teenagers are also more likely to choose friends of whom their parents approve which often mean friends who do well in school (Fletcher, Darling, Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1995). Unfortunately, adolescents’ accesses to these protective influences have declined in recent years because parents are spending more and more time in workplaces. Children in the United States today spend an average of 10-12 hours per week less with their parents than children did in 1960 (Resnick, 1997).
Patterns of Juvenile delinquency Behaviours among Students
The legal status of “juvenile delinquent†is important in defining, but does not fully encompass, the social role of “juvenile delinquent.†That is, a youngster who has been taken into custody by the police, or committed to an institution, or otherwise disposed of by the court is likely to be defined as a delinquent by many people-his parents, friends, neighbours, teachers, or employers (Aloka, 2012). The legal process, whether or not it officially defines a youngster as delinquent, may be important in establishing and reinforcing both the community’s and the individual’s definition of himself as a delinquent (Tannenbaum 1998). These, in turn, may be important factors in determining the nature of his subsequent experience, and hence the likelihood that he will engage in behaviour that is considered delinquent (Aloka, 2012).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]ABSTRACTThe challenges of adolescents are enormous simply because of diverse growth and development that characterized this stage, this lead many adolescents into delinquent behaviours. This study thus investigated the patterns and causes of delinquent behaviours as expressed by secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area, Oyo State. The study also examined the influence of variables such as gender, age and residential area on respondents’ expressions. Descriptive survey de ... Continue reading---
APPENDIX A - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]SECTION C: Causes of Juvenile DelinquencyDirection: Kindly put a tick ( ) in the column that you consider as most applicable to you. There is no right or wrong responses. Please respond to all items as honestly as possible using the rating scales: SA - Strongly Agree; A - Agree; D – Disagree and SD - Strongly Disagree. ... Continue reading---
LIST OF TABLES - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]LIST OF TABLES Title 1. Demographic characteristics of respondents 2. Mean and rank order of patterns of juvenile delinquency among students 3. Mean and rank order of causes of juvenile delinquency 4. Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression on patterns of juvenile delinquency based on gender 5. Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression o ... Continue reading---
TABLE OF CONTENTS - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]TABLE OF CONTENTSContent Title page Certification Dedication Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Tables Abstract CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONBackground to the Study Statement of the Problem Research Questions Research Hypotheses Purpose of the Study Significance of the Study Operational Definition of Terms Scope of the Study CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATUREConcept of Adolescence Concept of Juvenile Delinquency Theories of Juvenile Delinquency Age and Juvenile Delinquen ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER ONE - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]Studies have been conducted on juvenile delinquency, for instance, Hoeve, Dubas, Eichelsheim, Laan, and Jan (2009) carried out a meta-analysis study on the relationship between parenting and delinquency. The study found strong link among parental monitoring, psychological control and negative aspects of support such as rejection and hostility, accounting for up to eleven percent of the variance in delinquency. Ekpo and Ajake (2013) studied family socio-economic status and delinquency among senio ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER THREE - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]Psychometric Properties of the Instrument The psychometric analysis of the instrument was based on the validity and reliability measure. The properties are presented thus;Validity: Adewumi (1998) noted that a measuring instrument is described as valid when it measures truly and accurately the quality it is meant to measure. Validity is one of the most crucial psychometric properties of measurement and it is concerned with whether a test or scale really measures what it purports to measure. ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FOUR - [ Total Page(s): 7 ]Research Question 2: What are the causes of juvenile delinquency among secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area?Table 3 depicts the mean and rank order of respondents’ responses on causes of juvenile delinquency. The table shows that the respondents agreed to all the identified items as causes of juvenile delinquencies as the response scores are above average mean score of 2.5. However, items 1, 4, 12, 5 and 3 were ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th with mean scores of 3. ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FIVE - [ Total Page(s): 3 ]RecommendationsThe following recommendations were made based on the findings of the study:1. Parents and the society should provide for the needs of adolescents (most especially the basic needs) so that they can be prevented from engaging in delinquent behaviours that may negatively influence their future.2. The school authorities should monitor students’ activities and encourage them on the needs to associate with peers that help them improve in their academic pursuits and mo ... Continue reading---
REFRENCES - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]Smetana, J. G., Campione,-Barr, N. & Metzger, A. (2006). Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 255-284.Snyder, H, N. & Sickmund, M. (2006). Juvenile offenders and victims. 2006 national report. Washington DC, US department of Justice, Office of Justice programmes office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Steinberg, L. & Monahan, K. C. (2007). Age differences in resistance to peer influence. Development Psychology 43(6): 1531- ... Continue reading---
