Deviant Behavior Theories

It is guided by six principles. These include strengthening the family in its primary responsibilities to instill moral values and provide support and guidance to children, supporting core social institutions, such as schools, churches, and community organizations, to help develop capable, mature, and responsible minors, promoting crime prevention as the most cost-effective approach to reducing juvenile lawlessness, intervening immediately and effectively when delinquent behavior first emerges to prevent it from becoming worse, establishing a system of graduated sanctions that holds each juvenile offender accountable, protects public safety, and provides programs and services that meet treatment needs, and identifying and controlling the small percentage of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders who commit the majority of felony

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Office of Prevention and Victim Services provides voluntary youth crime prevention programs through the state of Florida. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice mission is to increase public safety by reducing juvenile delinquency through operative prevention, intervention and treatment services that builds up families for a turn around of a brighter future of a troubled youth. The main functions of these programs as will be indicated in this paper are designed to reduce juvenile crime and protect public safety. These programs that will be stated main focused is to help those high-risk juveniles and those who display problem behaviors such as ungovernability, truancy, running away from home and other pre-delinquent behaviors. The state of Florida addresses these problems by contracting this delinquency programs prevention services and awarding grants to this local providers throughout the state of Florida.

There are currently two programs specifically in Henderson County which I am writing this paper about. One of the programs is the local Boys and Girls Club of Henderson County and the D.A.R.E. Program of Henderson County. I decided to write about local programs because it would give me the opportunity to learn more about juvenile delinquency prevention programs within my own community. Both programs are a huge staple within Henderson County and are two of the most important juvenile delinquency prevention programs within Henderson County.

Juvenile institutions and programs have changed over time. There are also juvenile programs that necessarily do not punish juvenile’s delinquents but instead help modify their behavior to avoid recidivism. Certain treatments and methods regarding how to deal with these dangerous young offenders were fixed and improved to make these institutions and programs more effective in changing the lives of these young

The authors, in Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: Early Intervention and Comprehensiveness as Critical Factors., use determine factors of different programs, and to see what works and what does not. In this way, the most successful programs can continue to be implemented and improved. They looked at poor child-rearing practices, poor parental supervision, criminal parents and siblings, low family income, large family size, poor housing, low intelligence, and low educational attainment to determine cause of delinquency behavior in juvenile.

The utilization of evidence based programs have proven to have positive outcomes for youth such as; reduced anxieties, and depression, academic success, support systems and skills for employment. Characteristically, juvenile delinquency follows a route comparable to that of usual adolescent development. Delinquent behavior is a path followed and not just something that children randomly engage in and therefore, through the understanding of the developmental paths of at-risk youth, researchers believe that early interventions can help to increase positive outcomes (Youth.Gov, 2017).

Among those who work in the juvenile justice system there is much discussion on how to effectively determine the appropriate consequences and or treatment for their actions. There are those who believe in punishment that includes incarceration and boot camp and there are those who believe in treatment programs with the goal of rehabilitation. There are various treatment models in place that are designed to address the problems in a youth’s life that may contribute to the causes that influenced them to commit crime. An assessment of the resources that are in

When a juvenile commits a crime, it is not considered a crime, however it is considered juvenile delinquency. A massive problem throughout the US is juvenile delinquent acts. Juveniles acting out in a delinquent manner can be caused by many things. However, there is not just one reason why a juvenile may commit these acts. Instead there are many reasons that could lead up to delinquency. In this essay, I will be discussing a few theories as well as ways juveniles may receive treatment.

The development of preventive strategies will necessarily follow from an understanding of delinquency's root causes. If social structure is a key factor in the development of juvenile delinquency, then prevention will entail addressing issues regarding place, identity, or socioeconomic status. For example, if poverty is considered a significant causative factor, then taking steps such as providing jobs, job training, and perhaps additional welfare benefits becomes an important social concern. By eliminating poverty, society will thus

Juvenile delinquency is very prevalent especially among adolescents because studies have shown that during the time of adolescence that is when delinquency tends to increase and once adolescence has passed at about 17 years of age then it tends to decrease (Adolescent Delinquency, 2002). There are many factors that can contribute to the increase of delinquency during adolescence, some of the factors can be personality, mental disorders, genetics, economic status, environment, family, and culture among others, also to understand better the causes of juvenile delinquency the social control theory is the best theory to explain juvenile delinquency as a whole (Adolescent Delinquency, 2002).

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 1994) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,

Characteristically, juvenile delinquency follows a similar path just like normal adolescent development and children tend to follow delinquent and criminal behavior rather than engaging in it randomly. Research has shown that there are two types of delinquents, those in whom the onset of severe antisocial behavior begins in early childhood, and those in whom this onset coincides with entry into adolescence. With either type, these developmental paths give families, communities, and systems the opportunity to intervene and prevent the onset of antisocial behaviors and justice system involvement (APA, 2017).

Next, Hirschi explains commitment. Commitment may be hard for a person with deviant behavior. If you commit to want to do well you may succeed. But if you do not commit to anything then you may be involved in delinquency. Reason for this is that you do not have anything to lose. When you really do not have much to lose in life, then you tend to have a negative outlook on life. Commitment involves the time, energy and effort. For example, commitment on getting a great education involves putting your all, giving energy to anything that needs to be done for school and showing that you care by never being late for classes. But if an individual does not care about there future they are more likely to be involved in deviant behavior. Individuals who drink and engage in deviant behavior are more likely to fail in school; kids who fail in school are more likely to later drink and engage in deviant behavior. But a individual who commits to want to do good in the future who always bye pass the negative features in life. They would only commit to the right people. And once you commit to sometime and never give up deviant behavior would never play a role in your world, because you wouldn’t give up what you always worked hard for. If a person chooses not to commit to anything, then they will have nothing to lose. Due to the lack of loss, a person is willing to commit illegal acts.

Deviance is defined as any conducts that violate social norm, and those engage in deviant behavior are referred to as deviants. We must understand that deviance differs from crime. Those who engage in deviant behavior does not always violate a law, however committing a crime always involves violating a law. Crime can only be behavioral in nature, while deviance may involve unacceptable behaviors, and eccentric beliefs and mind-set. Deviance can be minor in nature (such as a traffic violation) to something major, such as murder. Deviance does not have to be a real behavior for it to be labeled deviant; however the label itself is what makes an individual deviant. People who are rich and hold more power have a great opportunity for labeling others as deviants. There are many behaviors today which are considered deviant, some of the more common ones include: stealing, cross-dressing and excessive drinking. Most crimes are measured as deviant because they go against informal norms in addition to breaking the law as a formal norm.

Through an understanding of causes of juvenile delinquency society may come to deal preventively with delinquency; certainly treatment of the offender needs to be based upon an understanding of the causal mechanisms that have produced him. In this paper we'll describe three theories of juvenile delinquency such as Social Learning Theory, General Strain Theory and Behavioral Theory and discuss appropriate preventive programs based upon these theories.