The above model shows the dynamic relationship between family disintegration and involvement in deviant acts. When the attachment between parents and child is not adequate m when the family is not wholesome, it would result in the weakening of the bond been the child and parents, whereas strong bond is highly essential for the child’s internalization of norms and values of the society. Furthermore, weak bond between parents and child would amount to less supervision, monitoring and punishing of anti-social behaviour. The reduction in the frequency and intensity of parental monitoring, supervision, punishing of immoral behaviour would culminate into low self-control, which would predispose the adolescents to involving in anti-social behaviour.
Although, a good insight could be made of this theory of the possible relationship between disintegrated family and involvement in deviant acts but the theory has been criticized on several grounds in which it was observe that in some instances, children from broken home being aware of their predicaments are likely to be conformists that those from both homes. Also, the theory is criticized on the point that there are many children from disintegrated families with upright behavioural dispositions and a lot of such children from two parent families being a deviant and it also ignore the effects of parental behaviour in modeling youth conduct (Winfre and Abadinsky, 2003).
Social Disorganization Theory
Social disorganization is a somewhat recent theory of deviance derived from the traditional sociological theory of deviance of sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Robert, K. Merton and so on. This was propounded by Shaw and McKay (1942) to explain the fact that deviance is not only a social construction but also a consequence of social disorganization of the society. For him, though, it is very likely for human to engage in deviant act but its incidence will be minimized in a situation whereby the social system is optimally organized. The assumption of this theory thus is that deviance is a consequence of social disorganization. The social disorganization theory was adapted from the theory of social anomie theory developed by Robert K. Merton (1955). According to the theory, adolescents are likely to engage in anti-social behaviour as result of social disorganization that relating to family disintegration (Leighninger, 1996).
Applying this theoretical framework to our present study, it could be said that parent of disintegrated family unit often adopt disciplinary methods that are inconsistent, punitive and rejecting. Thus adolescents who experienced these showed greater level of depression and loneliness, which are predisposing factors to involvement in deviance. Thetrauma theory was derived from Bowlby’s attachment theory where attachment to both parent is significant in the child’s emotional, mental and social development. The theory holds that when a child feel the absence or experiences a loss of a parent or sibling or any important member of his family, the loss will leave a negative impact on the child social psychological development.
According to Baer &Maschi, (2003), such traumatic experience can affect self -regulation of the child as the consequence. Put in another way, it could be said that a situation whereby the family is disintegrated is a form of social disorganization of the family which consequentially would lead to a situation whereby the child which is supposed to been care of by both parents became a responsibility of one, which invariably could lead to a situation whereby the child will not be well taken care of and the resultant effect of such
Lack of absolute care would eventually make the child to be involving in deviant acts.
Broken Window Theory
Broken window theory is another contemporary sociological theory of deviance, this theory stems from two criminologists, George Kelling and James Wilson (1982). Their basic conceptions in the theory is that deviance and criminality are as result some problems that occur in the society and that it is through the problems (broken windows) that the incidence of deviant and criminality exist and persists in the society. The broken window according to GeorgeKellingand James Wilson (1982) could be a breakdown in any key sector of the society such as laws, morals, family breakdown and so on. In other words, family disintegration is a form of societal breakdown which could cause series of devastating effects on the general society as well as every member of that family. However, because child are the feeble segment of the family, a broken family or an disintegrated family could cause series of consequences for the child and one of such is the possibility of involving in ant activities, In other words, a disintegrated family is like a broken window which d serve as a means through which the child could be exposed to series of consequencesas involving in deviant activities some of which include examination malpractice, forgery, rape. However, it is important to note that though, the broken window theory gave us a good insight of how broken family could result in the child involving in deviant acts, but it is without some shortcomings. Bernard Harcourt and Jens Ludwig who are both professors in university of Chicago revisited broken window theory; they reported that the profounder of broken window theory knew little about the effectiveness of the theory. Furthermore their work found no evidence to support that cracking down minor offence decrease more serious crime.
