Juvenile delinquency in the United States

Behavior can be defined as an individual’s response to an action. The provoked feeling that propels someone to move or strike is the behavior. Behavior is influenced by many different factors. Some examples of these factors could be one’s genetic makeup, environment or individual thoughts and feelings. What makes one person’s behavior uniquely different from another? The world is very diverse in means of different habits, cultures and sex. This diversity is what sets each individual behavior…

crime. This theory of crime can be backed by Shaw and McKay who found that poor neighborhoods, inhabited by heterogeneous and residentially unstable residents, are more likely to lack social organization and therefore result in higher levels of juvenile delinquency and crime (Lombardo & Lough, 2007). The goals for police is to reduce the disorganization and help people eliminate their problems before committing crimes. In a study done by Kelling, found that foot patrol actually had a direct…

According to United Nations Children’s Fund Office of Research, in 2013 twenty-eight percent of Canadian Children aged 11 to 15 admitted to using cannabis at least once in the past year. The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) (2016b) reported as much as 7% of adolescents smoke marijuana every single day; making Canadian youth top cannabis consumers. Article 33 of the UNCRC states that governments should use all means possible to protect children from use of harmful drugs (United Nations,…

The focus on drugs in America has been a topic that several social scientists have dedicated their time in researching. More importantly, the topic of drug use amongst teenagers seems to remain a hot subject. According to Robbins, Stagman, & Smith (2012), at risks for youth consists of living in a household without English speakers, living in a large family, having parents who both lack a high school degree, families who have changed residences on or more times in the last 12 months, coming from…

In the year following the turn of the millennia, almost 4 million students were suspended or expelled from schools throughout the United States (U.S. Department of Education, 2000). This type of discipline that takes the student out of the learning environment is referred to as exclusionary discipline and students of color; particularly African American youths are disproportionately represented when compared to their white counterparts. African American children make up 17 percent of all…

Domestic Violence Did you know every nine seconds, in the United States, a women is beaten or assaulted? On average about twenty people, in the United States, are assaulted by their “loved one.” One in five women and one in seven men have been victimized and severely physically assaulted by their intimate partner within their lifetime. Domestic Violence is a major social problem and concern in the United States. Domestic violence occurs when one feels as if they are in control or has power over…

Some researchers believe that teens living in constant poverty are twice as likely to commit acts of juvenile delinquency during the ages of 14 and 21 years (Santrock, 2015). Other theorists associate poverty during adolescence with lower academic achievement, higher dropout rates, rises in teen pregnancy and an increased likelihood of being poor as an adult…

LEGAL The legal ramifications of marijuana prohibition, have raged from fines to death sentences. The Controlled Substance Act of 1971, reduced the severity of the penalties for possession of marijuana, however there remains a stigma around users, and states that had laxer laws than the federal government wished to have (Inciardi, 1981: 146). James Inciardi argues in Marijuana Decriminalization Research, that there is a need for a more through reevaluation of law policies with regards to a…

Richard Donegan (2012) states, “These tactics are dangerous because once a student realizes their effectiveness, he or she may construct a lifestyle from them” (p. 34). Sadly, our nation has shaped into a place where bullying is unintentionally instilled as a survival tactic from a very young…

published in Scientific American Mind Magazine, points out the rising number of absent fathers in American households stating, “[F]athers are disappearing: fewer dads are participating in the lives of their children now than at any time since the United States began keeping records. This shift matters because the effects of a missing father can be profound and counterintuitive [. . . .]” (Raeburn 47). Many studies have shown that the negative impact of absent fathers on their children is…