Juvenile Justice Exam 2

Adolescence

A transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Starts at 11-14 years old and lasts until 18

-21

• Involves biological, social, and psychological changes

• Puberty is an association

The Adolescent Dilemma

• Biological Development

  • Height and Weight Changes

  • Puberty

• Emotional Turmoil

  • Mood swings

  • Social anxieties

  • Poor judgment and impulsivity (declines with age)

What is Trauma?

• Several potentially traumatic events

  • Interpersonal and impersonal

  • Chronic and single-time

• Traumatic because they overwhelm an individual’s capacity to cope and produce powerful feelings

  • Fear, terror, helplessness, lack of control, hopelessness,

and despair

What is Traumatic?

• Abuse

  • Physical, sexual, or emotional

• Neglect

• Witnessing family, school, or community violence

• Lack of security and safety in a primary enduring relationship (i.e., attachment)

  • Includes abandonment; separation; loss of a loved one

• Assaults

• Bullying

• War; Acts of Terrorism

• Disasters

• Serious accidents; Serious injuries

• Racist victimization

Effects of Trauma

• Difficult to diagnose due to blocking out the events

  • Results in a diagnosis of mental illness or a behavioral disorder

  • Multiple experiences causes chances in mood, anxiety, or disruptive behavior

  • Involvement with the cj system

  • Problems persist into adulthood

The Adolescent Dilemma by Erick Erickson

• Ego Identity: Formed when youths develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for

• Role Diffusion: Occurs when youths experience personal uncertainty, spread themselves too thin, and place themselves at the mercy of leaders who promise to give them a sense of identity they cannot mold for themselves

When juveniles end up, it depends on how they cope with normal adolescent pressures and the strength of their support system

Supports and Pressures of The Adolescent Dilemma

Supports

• Home

• School

• Church

• Peers

• Community

Pressures

• Acceptance

• Sex

• Drugs

• School

• Clothes

• Family

• Peers

Bonding makes the difference

Adolescent Problems

• Poverty

• Health problems

• Family problems

• Standard living conditions

• Inadequate educational opportunity

• Dealing with the modern world

Role Diffusion

Leads to:

• Delinquency

• School drop-out

• Drugs and alcohol

• Mental Health Issues

• Gang involvement

• Sexuality

• Suicide

Masculinity Hypothesis

Girls who have male-like physical and psychological features are more likely to commit crimes

Chivalry Hypothesis

Female offenders receive more lenient treatment from male police, prosecutors, and judges than male offenders who commit similar crimes

Runaways

Girls are more likely to be arrested than boys, possibly because:

• Girls run away more often, or

• Police are likely to see reports of female runaways as a more serious problem and therefore process them through official channels more often than reports of male runaways

Why are girls delinquent?

• Sexual abuse or Maltreatment History

• Relationship with Delinquent Romantic Partner

• Disparity between biological and social maturity

• Mother-daughter conflict

• Early puberty and neglect at home

• Disadvantaged neighborhoods

• Other family, peer, and school influences

Gender and Delinquency

Males are significantly more delinquent than females, but in recent years, female delinquency has been increasing at a faster rate than male delinquency

• Official Statistics report:

  • Violent crimes: 4:1

  • Property crimes: 2:1

• Reasons:

  • Life style

  • Physical

  • Cultural

Racial Patterns in Delinquency

Racial minorities are disproportionately represented (more likely to be arrested) in the “arrest statistics” or UCR — especially for serious crimes;

“Self-report studies” indicate that there is no relationship between race and self-reported delinquency

Social Class (Family Income) and Delinquency

Belief that kids in the lower economic class are more likely to commit crime

• Antisocial behavior occurs within all social classes

• Highest arrest rates are in the lowest-income areas

Age and Delinquency

The aging-out process derives from:

• Biological changes

• Maturity

• Family Obligation

• Employment

• Greater awareness of risks

Effect:

Those who demonstrate antisocial tendencies at a very early age are more likely to commit more crimes for a longer period of time

Chronic Offending

• Behavior begins early in life and persists into adulthood

• Chronic offenders are resistant to change and seem immune to effects of punishment

Theory

A belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action

• Explanation by various criminologists and researchers for the phenomenon of crime by juveniles

Individual View of Delinquency

Delinquency is rooted in the individual

Choice Theories

Suggests that young offenders choose to engage in antisocial activity because they believe their actions will be beneficial and profitable; they weigh the consequences and benefits

• Delinquent acts are motivated by the reasoned belief that illegal acts can be profitable and relatively risk-free

• Holds that decisions to violate the law are weighted against possible punishments

• Delinquents have “free will” and are “utilitarian”

  • Free will: the view that youth are in charge of their own destinies

  • Utilitarian: The belief that people weigh the benefits and consequences of their actions before deciding on a course of behavior

“Crime and Criminality are Separate Issues”

Shaping Delinquent Choices

Choices are shaped by lifestyle and opportunity:

• Personal problems

• Parental controls

• Financial needs

• Revenge, deterrence, and vengeance

Choice Theories

• Rational choice

• Routine activities

• Deterrence

Rational Choice Theory

Delinquents are rational decision-makers who choose to violate the law

• They weigh the pros and cons

• Their final decision depends on three factors:

  • Personal situation

  • Conscience

  • Risk of getting caught

• Punishment must be severe enough to convince them that

  • Crime does not pay, and

  • They are better off choosing conventional, not criminal, means to satisfy their needs

Routine Activities

Crime is a function of the convergence in time and space of three matters:

• A motivated juvenile offender

• The availability of suitable targets

• The absence of capable guardians

  • Victims neglect may create the conditions for the crime to be committed

Crime Prevention is an Example of Routine Activities Theory

Situational: Reducing the opportunity to commit criminal acts by:

• Making them more difficult to perform

• Reducing their rewards

• Increasing their risks

Target Hardening: Crime prevention measures that make it more difficult to carry out an illegal act

Deterrence Theory

• Juveniles will commit crime if they perceive that the benefits outweigh the risks

• Crime is a function of severity, certainty, and speed of punishment

  • “Let the punishment fit the crime”

  • To be effective, punishment must be sufficiently severe, certain and swift to control crime

Biosocial or Trait Theory

Holds that youths engage in delinquent or criminal behavior due to aberrant physical or psychological traits that govern behavioral choices

• Delinquent actions are impulsive or instinctual, rather that rational choices

• Delinquent actions are a combination of “ thought and behavior”

Contemporary Biosocial Theory

Holds that the physical qualities of offenders explain the onset of antisocial behaviors such as violence and aggression

Three main areas of study:

• Biochemical factors

• Neurological dysfunction

• Genetic influences

Biochemical factors

Holds that body chemistry governs our behavior and personality, including levels of aggression and depression

• Exposure to harmful substances during pregnancy

• Over- or under-supply of certain chemicals and minerals

• Environmental contaminants such as lead

• High-sugar diet

• Hormonal levels

Neurological Dysfunction

Brian and the nervous system

• Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD): Damage to the brain and nervous system that causes antisocial behavior injurious to the individual’s lifestyle and social adjustment

• Attention deficit/hyperactivity Disorder

• Learning disabilities

Arousal Theory

• Suggests that aggression is a function of the level of an individual’s need for stimulation or arousal from the environment

Genetic and Delinquency

Children from parental criminality have a genetic predisposition to crime

• Parent-child similarities

• Sibling and Twin similarities

• Adoption studies

Psychological Theories of Delinquency

• Psychodynamic Theory

• Behavioral Theory

• Cognitive Behavioral Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

• A branch of psychology that holds that the human personality is controlled by “unconscious” mental processes developed early in childhood. (Freud)

• Childhood “trauma” such as abuse may be the cause of juvenile and adult criminal behavior;

Three Major Subsets of Wishes (Determining our emotions and behavior)

• Id

• Superego

• Ego

Id Wishes

Are those we possessed early in life and are often, primitive, childish, pleasure-oriented, aggressive, with no ability to delay gratification

Superego Wishes

Those we take and adopt from other people, chiefly our parents; standards of “good” and “bad”, “right” and wrong”; prohibitions commonly called our conscience—“Don’t lie to your mother”

Ego Wishes

The moderator between the Id and the Superego

Behaviorism

The branch of psychology that is concerned with the study of “observable behavior”

Social Learning Theory

Holds that one’s learning and social experiences, coupled with values and expectations, determine behavior

Behavioral Theory

• Argues that one’s personality is learned throughout life during interaction with others

• Holds that juveniles commit crime when they “model” their behavior after others they see being rewarded for the same acts.

• Behavior is enforced by rewards and punishments

Cognitive Behavioral Theory

Focus on mental processes (the way delinquent’s process information); that they often mistake the word’s of others as “put down” or “disrespect”

Cognitive Skills Programs for Offenders

• Criminal behavior usually follows impulsive thinking, rather than constructive problem solving.

• Research shows that through things such as poverty, abuse, and education levels, many offenders have not acquired the cognitive skills needed for society.

• “Thinking Errors” lead to crime

Thinking Errors

• Blame others

• “I can’t” attitude toward their own responsibilities

• Fail to understand injury to others

• Fail to empathize with victims

• Fail to show effort in accomplishing goals

• Refuse to accept responsibility

• Attitude of entitlement to property of others

• No concept of “trustworthy” behavior

How is CBT administered?

• Individually or in a Group

• The therapist and the patient need to be actively involved

• The therapist shows the patient how to identify distorted or unhelpful thinking patterns, recognize and change inaccurate beliefs, relate to to others in more positive ways, and change behaviors accordingly;

• Role-Playing and Role-Modeling

Key elemets in Social/Econmic Structure and Delinquency

• Stratified society: Society based on the unequal distribution of scarce resources

• Underclass: Group of urban poor whose members have little chance of upward mobility or improvement

• At-Risk Youth: Young people who are extremely vulnerable to the negative consequences of school failure, substance abuse and early sexuality

Culture of Poverty

• The view that lower-class people form a “separate culture” with values and norms which are sometimes in conflict with those of conventional society

• “Culture of Poverty” was coined by Oscar Lewis to describe the apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust of social institutions (such as schools, public agencies, and the police) by the poor.

• This mistrust prevents members of the lower class from taking advantage of the meager opportunities available to them

Social Structure Theories

• Hold that social and economic forces operating in deteriorated lower-class areas are the key determinants of delinquent behavior patterns

• Though not all youthful offenders become adult criminals, those who reside in poverty-stricken lower-class areas and become “encultured” into the values of inner-city neighborhoods are the ones most likely to persist in delinquency

• Encultured: The process by which an established culture teaches an individual its norms and values

Social Structure Theories

• Social Disorganization Theory

• Strain Theory

• Cultural Deviance Theory

Social Disorganization Theory

The inability of a community to exert social control allows youth the freedom to engage in illegal activities

• Poverty

  • Mistrust and hopelessness

  • Kids become more exposed to violence and disruption

Consequences of Disorganization

• Social Problems

• Residential Instability

• Family Disruption

• Ethnic/Racial Conflict

“Broken Windows” Theory”

• One broken window leads to several; this leads to more neighborhood blight

• Neighborhood blight creates the conditions for crime to flourish

• Criminals take over the streets and citizens become prisoners in their homes

• By George Kelling

Shaw and McKay Research

Renowned sociologists who formulated Social Disorganization Theory

• Studied the Chicago area

• Developed “concentric zones”

• Found high rates of delinquency in

• “transitional” neighborhoods (areas that had

• changed from affluence or stability to decay)

Strain Theory

Links delinquency to the “strain of being locked out of the economic mainstream, being unable to fulfill goals”, thus creating the anger and frustration that leads to delinquent acts

• Kids believe that the ability to achieve goals is class dependent

• Strain occurs from “joblessness” and the inability to achieve goals

• Kids feel “wronged” and that violence is justified

• Delinquent behavior is actually a protest against the norms and values of middle-class U.S. culture

Cultural Deviance Theory

Combines elements of both strain and social disorganization

• Because of strain and social isolation, a unique lower-class culture develops in disorganized neighborhoods

Social Learning Theory

• Delinquent behavior is learned in close relationships with others

• Learning of attitudes, morals, skills, and behaviors is a by-product of interaction

• Learning occurs within intimate groups

• Criminal techniques are learned sometimes through parental criminality

• Perceptions of legal code influence motives and drives

• It becomes cyclical

Labeling Theory

• Concerned with the official handling of delinquents by police and courts rather than the causes of the delinquent act itself

• The degree to which youths are perceived as criminals influences the immediate response from others

• Label will create “Stigma” or mark someone with disgrace or reproach: characterize or brand someone as disgraceful or disreputable

• Label may result in increasing commitment to a criminal career

• Reason for broad “discretion” given to police, courts, probation, and others to enable " diversion " of juveniles away from the juvenile justice system to social services and other interventions;

• Divert to avoid the possibility of labeling

The effects of labeling

• Juvenile assigned a negative label —> Audience responds

• Official labels are bestowed during ceremonies

• Durable and involve loss of status

• Create “Self-fulfilling Prophesy”

  • Label accepted by delinquent

  • Seek other labeled delinquent

  • Behavior conforms to negative expectation

Causes DELINQUENT

Age of onset

Age where the youth starts commit crime

Inverse relationship with age and crime

Crime decreases as youth gets older

Chronic six percent

Youth who do not respond to punishment nor treatment

Common thread of the theories

They come within the indivdual

Utilitarianism

Free will, weighing the pros and cons