Juvenile Delinquency Ch 1, 2, 3, 11

Front 1

Ego Identity

Back 1

According to Erik Erikson, __________ is formed when persons develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for.

Front 2

Role Diffusion

Back 2

According to Erik Erikson, ____________ occurs when youths spread themselves too thin, experience personal uncertainty, and place themselves at the mercy of leaders who promise to give them a sense of identity they cannot develop for themselves.

Front 3

At-risk youths

Back 3

Young people who are extremely vulnerable to the negative consequences of school failure, substance abuse, and early sexuality.

Front 4

Juvenile delinquency

Back 4

Participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit.

Front 5

Chronic juvenile offenders

Back 5

Youths who have been arrested four or more times during their minority and perpetrate a striking majority of serious criminal acts.

Front 6

Juvenile justice system

Back 6

The segment of the justice system including law enforcement officers, the courts, and correctional agencies that is designed to treat youthful offenders.

Front 7

Paternalistic family

Back 7

A family style wherein the father is the final authority on all family matters and exercises complete control over his wife and children.

Front 8

Poor Laws

Back 8

English statutes that allowed the courts to appoint overseers for destitute and neglected children, allowing placement of these children as servants in the homes of the affluent.

Front 9

Chancery courts

Back 9

Court proceedings created in fifteenth-century England to oversee the lives of highborn minors who were orphaned or otherwise could not care for themselves.

Front 10

Parens patriae

Back 10

The power of the state to act on behalf of the child and provide care and protection equivalent to that of a parent.

Front 11

Child savers

Back 11

Nineteenth-century reformers who developed programs for troubled youth, and influenced legislation creating the juvenile justice system; today some critics view them as being more concerned with control of the poor than with their welfare.

Front 12

Delinquent

Back 12

Juvenile who has been adjudicated by a judicial officer of a juvenile court as having committed a delinquent act.

Front 13

Best interests of the child

Back 13

A philosophical viewpoint that encourages the state to take control of wayward children and provide care, custody, and treatment to remedy delinquent behavior.

Front 14

Need for treatment

Back 14

The criteria on which juvenile sentencing is based. Ideally, juveniles are treated according to their need for treatment, and not for the seriousness of the delinquent act they committed.

Front 15

Waiver

Back 15

Transferring legal jurisdiction over the most serious and experienced juvenile offenders to the adult court for criminal prosecution.

Front 16

Status offense

Back 16

Conduct that is illegal only because the child is under age.

Front 17

Wayward minors

Back 17

Early legal designation of youths who violate the law because of their minority status; now referred to as status offenders.

Front 18

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

Back 18

Branch of the U.S. Justice Department charged with shaping national juvenile justice policy through disbursement of federal aid and research funds.

Front 19

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Back 19

Arm of the U.S. Department of Justice that investigates violations of federal law, gathers crime statistics, runs a comprehensive crime laboratory, and helps train local law enforcement officers.

Front 20

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Back 20

Compiled by the FBI, the ________ is the most widely used source of national crime and delinquency statistics.

Front 21

Part I offenses (also known as index crimes)

Back 21

Offenses including homicide and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson, and motor vehicle theft; recorded by local law enforcement officers.

Front 22

Part II offenses

Back 22

Offenses including: vandalism, liquor law violations and drug trafficking

Front 23

Disaggregated

Back 23

Analyzing the relationship between two or more independent variables (such as murder convictions and death sentence), while controlling for the influence of a dependent variable (such as race).

Front 24

Self-report survey

Back 24

A research approach that requires subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or criminal acts.

Front 25

Meta-analysis

Back 25

A statistical technique that synthesizes results from prior evaluation studies. It gathers data from a number of previous studies.

Front 26

Dark figures of crime

Back 26

Incidents of crime and delinquency that go undetected by police.

Front 27

Racial threat theory

Back 27

As the size of the African American population increases, the amount of social control imposed against African Americans by the police grows proportionately.

Front 28

Aging-out process

Back 28

The tendency for youths to reduce the frequency of their offending behavior as they age; it is thought to occur among all groups of offenders.

Front 29

Age of onset

Back 29

Age at which youths begin their delinquent careers; early _______ is believed to be linked with chronic offending patterns.

Front 30

Chronic recidivist

Back 30

Someone who has been arrested five times or more before age 18.

Front 31

Continuity of crime

Back 31

The idea that chronic juvenile offenders are likely to continue violating the law as adults.

Front 32

Victimization

Back 32

The number of people who are victims of criminal acts; young teens are fifteen times more likely than older adults (age sixty-five and over) to be victims of crimes.

Front 33

Choice theory

Back 33

Holds that youths will engage in delinquent and criminal behavior after weighing the consequences and benefits of their actions; delinquent behavior is a rational choice made by a motivated offender who perceives that the chances of gain outweigh any possible punishment or loss.

Front 34

Trait theory

Back 34

Holds that youth engage in delinquent or criminal behavior due to aberrant physical or psychological traits that govern behavioral choices; delinquent actions are impulsive or instinctual rather than rational choices.

Front 35

Free will

Back 35

The view that youths are in charge of their own destinies, and are free to make personal behavior choices unencumbered by environmental factors.

Front 36

Utilitarians

Back 36

Those who believe that people weigh the benefits and consequences of their future actions before deciding on a course of behavior.

Front 37

Classical criminology

Back 37

Holds that decisions to violate the law are weighed against possible punishments, and to deter crime the pain of punishment must outweigh the benefit of illegal gain; led to graduated punishments based on seriousness of the crime (let the punishment fit the crime).

Front 38

Routine activities theory

Back 38

The view that offenses can be expected if there is a motivated offender and a suitable target that is not protected by capable guardians.

Front 39

Predatory crimes

Back 39

Violent crimes against persons, and crimes in which an offender attempts to steal an object directly from its holder.

Front 40

General deterrence

Back 40

Crime control policies that depend on the fear of criminal penalties, such as long prison sentences for violent crimes; the aim is to convince law violators that the pain outweighs the benefit of criminal activity.

Front 41

Specific deterrence

Back 41

Sending convicted offenders to secure incarceration facilities so that punishment is severe enough to convince them not to repeat their criminal activity.

Front 42

Situational crime prevention

Back 42

Crime prevention method that relies on reducing the opportunity to commit criminal acts, by making them more difficult to perform, reducing their reward, and increasing their risks.

Front 43

Hot spot

Back 43

A location or address that is the site of repeated and frequent criminal activity.

Front 44

Crackdown

Back 44

A law enforcement operation that is designed to reduce or eliminate a particular criminal activity through the application of aggressive police tactics, usually involving a larger than usual contingent of police officers.

Front 45

Criminal atavism

Back 45

Developed by the father of criminology (i.e., Lombroso), this theory suggests that delinquents manifest physical anomalies that make them biologically and physiologically similar to our primitive ancestors; savage throwbacks to an earlier stage of human evolution.

Front 46

Biosocial theory

Back 46

The view that both thought and behavior have biological and social bases.

Front 47

Minimal brain dysfunction (MBD)

Back 47

Damage to the brain itself that causes antisocial behavior injurious to the individual’s lifestyle and social adjustment.

Front 48

Learning disabilities (LD)

Back 48

Neurological dysfunctions that prevent an individual from learning to his or her potential.

Front 49

Psychodynamic theory

Back 49

Branch of psychology that holds that the human personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes developed early in childhood.

Front 50

3 areas of Biosocial Theories

Back 50

Biochemical factors, neurological function and genetic history are the 3 areas of this theory

Front 51

3 perspectives of Psychological Theories

Back 51

Psychodynamic theory, behavioral theory and cognitive theory are the 3 _________ perspectives

Front 52

Identity crisis

Back 52

Psychological state, identified by Erikson, in which youth face inner turmoil and uncertainty about life roles.

Front 53

Behaviorism

Back 53

Branch of psychology concerned with the study of observable behavior rather than unconscious processes; focuses on particular stimuli and responses to them.

Front 54

Social learning theory

Back 54

The view that behavior is modeled through observation, either directly through intimate contact with others, or indirectly through media; interactions that are rewarded are copied, whereas those that are punished are avoided.

Front 55

Cognitive theory

Back 55

The branch of psychology that studies the perception of reality, and the mental processes required to understand the world we live in.

Front 56

Extraversion

Back 56

Impulsive behavior without the ability to examine motives and behavior.

Front 57

Neuroticism

Back 57

A personality trait marked by unfounded anxiety, tension, emotional instability.

Front 58

Antisocial, psychopathic, or sociopathic personality

Back 58

A person lacking in warmth, exhibiting inappropriate behavior responses, and unable to learn from experience; the condition is defined by persistent violations of social norms, including lying, stealing, truancy, inconsistent work behavior, and traffic arrests.

Front 59

Nature theory

Back 59

The view that intelligence is inherited and is a function of genetic makeup.

Front 60

Nurture theory

Back 60

The view that intelligence is determined by environment stimulation and socialization.

Front 61

House of Refuge

Back 61

A care facility developed by the child savers to protect potential criminal youths by taking them off the street and providing a family-like environment.

Front 62

Children’s Aid Society

Back 62

Child saving organization that took children from the streets of large cities and placed them with farm families on the prairie.

Front 63

Orphan Trains

Back 63

A practice of the Children’s Aid Society in which urban youths were sent west for adoption with local farm couples.

Front 64

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Back 64

First established in 1874, these organizations protected children subjected to cruelty and neglect at home or at school.

Front 65

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)

Back 65

Unit in the United States Department of Justice established by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to administer grants and provide guidance for crime prevention policy and programs.

Front 66

Risk factor

Back 66

A negative prior factor in an individual’s life that increases the risk of occurrence of a future delinquent act.

Front 67

Protective factor

Back 67

A positive prior factor in an individual’s life that decreases the risk of occurrence of a future delinquent act.

Front 68

Detention hearing

Back 68

A hearing by a judicial officer of a juvenile court to determine whether a juvenile is to be detained, or released, while proceedings are pending in the case.

Front 69

Adjudicatory hearing

Back 69

The fact-finding process wherein the juvenile court determines whether there is sufficient evidence to sustain the allegations in a petition.

Front 70

Adjudication

Back 70

The trial stage of the juvenile court process.

Front 71

Bifurcated process

Back 71

The procedure of separating adjudicatory and dispositionary hearings so different levels of evidence can be heard at each.

Front 72

Disposition

Back 72

For juvenile offenders, the equivalent of sentencing for adult offenders; _______________ should be more rehabilitative than retributive.

Front 73

Petition

Back 73

Document filed in juvenile court alleging that a juvenile is a delinquent, a status offender, or a dependent and asking that the court assume jurisdiction over the juvenile.

Front 74

Drug courts

Back 74

Courts whose focus is providing treatment for youths accused of drug-related acts.

Front 75

Systematic review

Back 75

A type of review that uses rigorous methods for locating, appraising, and synthesizing evidence from prior evaluation studies.

Front 76

Teen courts

Back 76

Courts that make use of peer juries to decide non-serious delinquency cases.