Correlates Of Delinquency Essay, Research Paper
CORRELATES OF DELINQUENCY
Matelina M. Aulava
Chaminade University
3140 Waialae Ave.
Honolulu HI 96816
Abstract
Studies have been conducted on what factors lead to delinquency. Proposed factors of delinquency have been studied in three major fields, biological, psychological, and sociological. This study is guided by psychological and sociological theories. The question of whether or not relationships among attachment, aggression, and delinquency exist was investigated through survey research. Attachment, aggression, and delinquent behavior were measured for college students from three universities, one and business college, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Correlation analysis found that the variables are significantly correlated in the hypothesized direction, for the entire group. It was found that: 1) attachment is negatively correlated with aggression, 2) attachment is negatively correlated with delinquent behavior, and 3) aggression is positively correlated with delinquency. Controlling for gender, however, showed that, for females, only the negative correlation between attachment and aggression was significant. For males, all correlations were in the hypothesized direction and significant
American society is a youth-oriented society with a carefree and happy image of young people. Unfortunately, the deviance and delinquency of today’s youth conflicts with this image of society. According to national media coverage of crime, juvenile delinquency is increasing. For instance, a recent study done by the Center for Media and Public Affairs revealed that while the homicide rate fell 20% between 1993 and 1996, media coverage of murders increased. National research suggests that the media often over exaggerate crime-related news (Perrone & Chesney-Lind, 1998). As the juvenile population grows, media tend to publish false reports.
The juvenile population in the United States is growing and will reach 74 million by the year 2010. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report, published in Frank Schmalleger’s book Criminal Justice Today, found that if trends continue as they have the past ten years, the rate of growth for juveniles will double by the year 2010 (Schmalleger, 1997). The FBI estimated 2.8 million arrests of juvenile (persons under age 18) were made in 1997 for all offenses. One hundred twenty three thousand of these arrests were for murder, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault. Juveniles were accounted for 30% of all robbery arrests, 12% for forcible rape arrests, 14% for aggravated assault arrests, and 14% for murder arrests. Since 1980 juvenile violent crime arrests increased. However, in 1997, the violent crime offenses declined (Synder, 1999). What could be the reason of this increase? The authorities believed it could be how each state implements the laws that were in effect during this period or rather it is due to police formality. Most juveniles (perhaps as many as 90%) have committed at least one delinquent act. This report is based on reported crimes only (Schmalleger, 1997). The above statistics reveal that juvenile delinquency is a significant social problem nationally.
In contrast to national statistics, the Department of the Attorney General of Hawai’i statistics show several patterens in the state juvenile delinquency. Between 1986 to 1996, the number of arrests increased only 19.7% compared to a national increase of 30.1% for the period 1986 to 1995 (Chesney-Lind, Mayeda, Marker, Paramore, & Okamoto, 1998). The increase in juvenile arrests in Hawaii was primarily due to runaways and curfew violation. Arrests for these offenses increased 93% in the last decade. More recent data show the number of arrests between 1994 (20,650) and 1997 (16,861) decreased 15%. In 1997, there were no arrests for murder. Males accounted for 70% of delinquency, while female accounted for 30%. Regardless of the high number of crimes committed by juveniles, the number of juvenile arrests for index crimes decreased 4.5% from 1996 to 1997 (Richmond & Perrone, 1998).
The purpose of this study is to determine if the psychological factor of attachment and the sociological factor of aggression are related to delinquent behavior. According to Schmalleger (1997), juvenile delinquency consists of actions or conduct that violates criminal law, juvenile status offenses, and other juvenile misbehavior. Actions or conduct that violates the law deals with offenses such as breaking and entering, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct. Juvenile status offenses refer to violation such as purchasing cigarettes, buying alcohol, and truancy. Juvenile misbehavior involves run away, violating curfew, and vagrancy (Schmalleger, 1997). Delinquency is a legal term that is most often used to identify children and adolescents who have engaged in illegal acts ( Baum,1989). What makes up delinquency, however, may vary from state to state (Cox &Conrad, 1991). For instance, in Guam, the legal age for alcohol consumption is eighteen, but in Hawaii, twenty-one is the legal age.
Society has always been concerned about juvenile delinquency. Criminologists have conducted many studies on the factors that led to these delinquent acts (Schmalleger, 1997). Theories used to explain delinquency are categorized into biological, psychological, and sociological theories. This study is guided by sociological and psychological theories.
Biological Theories
Biological theories of delinquency are based on the assumption that delinquency is hereditary (Goldstein, 1990). The earliest theories suggested that delinquents are innately inferior, while those who obey the law have inherited the ability to control their aggressive impulses and behave in a responsible way (Empey & Stafford, 1991). Delinquents are also characterized by physical stigmata such as low foreheads, long chin and long necks, narrow jaws, and small protruding ears. Theorists believe that delinquents have different physique from the non-delinquents.
Ttwentieth century criminologists tend to discredit biological theories. They believe that biological theories used inadequate research techniques (Cohen, 1966). Biologists also failed to acknowledge environmental factors that made the findings inadequate. In addition, biologists concluded that genes play an important role in determination of delinquents. But genes inherited from parents that determine a person’s potential behavior depends on the social environment before deviant behavior occurs ( Empey & Stafford, 1991).
Sociological Theories
Sociological theories explain delinquency as a product of society?s impact on the youth. Suggested causes of delinquency are social class and/or family differences, neighborhood and peer influence, and the effects of official labeling on the individual. Most of the sociological explanations share the notion that delinquent behavior is a product of social interaction rather than hereditary or personality disturbances (Cox & Conrad, 1991; Goldstein, 1990; Schmalleger, 1997). The major sociological theories are social learning theory, control theory, and cultural conflict theory.
Social learning theory posits that exposure to delinquent friends leads to delinquent behavior (Elliot & Menard, 1996). Edwin H. Sutherland originally explained social learning theory in 1939; however, Charles H. Cooley (1902) is the origin of a broader human behavior theory. He believed that people are not born with behavior disorder; rather, behavior disorder is the product of involvement and communications with others. It starts within family interaction, and then it develops in the playground, school, and other social settings (Empey & Stafford, 1991). The theory is similar to the psychological learning theory. Behavior is learned from the environment. Children will model their behavior on the reactions of their families, friends, and other social encounters.
Nonetheless, Thio (1998) asserts that it is not the association with peers and the environment that causes the deviant behavior, it is the idea of committing deviance. If a child is told that stealing is good because he/she is poor, then he/she is given the idea of committing a deviant behavior. In contrast, if children are taught that stealing is wrong, then the child will not have any anti-deviant ideas. If people are given more ideas of committing deviant behavior, consequently, they are likely to engage in deviance.
Control theory is widely accepted in sociology. It posits that all persons have frustrated wants and unfulfilled needs. Social controls that are supposed to regulate behavior will restrain natural impulses to delinquency. Social controls involve reward and punishment. How severe the punishment and how good the rewards determine one’s vulnerability for delinquency (Elliot, 1985). Family interaction plays a crucial role in a child?s upbringing (Patterson, DeBaryshe, Ramsey, 1989). If the caregiver (parents) rewards coercive behavior, then a child will see it that it as a positive reinforcement. This indicates that the family is training the child to perform coercive behaviors. In this case, it will become a problem. Family coercive behaviors will escalate to hitting and physical attacks (Patterson, 1982). These behaviors could lead to the child being aggressive (Patterson et al. , 1989).
The causes of delinquency support conflicting ends. Some theorists state that severe punishment will lower the rates of deviant behavior; other theorists suggest the opposite. Criminologists view social control of deviance as a prevention of delinquency; unfortunately, social control is possibly a cause. Data on punishment and reward are insufficient to determine if it is a factor of deviant behavior (Thio, 1998).
The conflict theory is one of the most debated theories among scholars. Theorists define conflict theory into two aspects, social conflict and cultural conflict (Cox & Conrad, 1991). Social conflict deals with interests, needs, and desires of diverse groups as business companies versus labor unions, conservatives versus liberal political groups, whites versus blacks, and so on. Cultural conflict defines the discrepant norms and values that derive from definitions of right and wrong. What is considered wrong in one culture is right in another (Thio, 1998).
Conflict theory generally proposes that a criminal comes from a specific kind of neighborhood. In 1930s and 1940s, criminologists were interested in explaining crimes using the ecological approach that focuses on the geographic distribution of delinquency (Cox & Conrad, 1991). Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, credited with this approach, did research projects in the inner city of Chicago. They theorized that immigration, community norms and social bonds caused the increase in crimes. They concluded in their research projects that crime and delinquency rates were high at neighborhoods where there are lower working classes (Shoemaker, 1990).
Criminologists postulated that capitalism and inequality within a neighborhood are the factors of delinquency (Empey & Stafford, 1991). According to Thio (1998), the poor is viewed as the criminal class. They are labeled because of their social status. In fact, this could happen to any neighborhood, poor or rich, it does not make a difference. It would also depend on how the law is enforced (Schamellger, 1997).
Psychological Theories
Early psychological theories of delinquency and crime focused on lack of intelligence and/or personality disturbances as major causal factors (Cox & Conrad, 1991). According to Arnold Goldstein (1994), psychological theories of delinquency viewed offensive and deviant behavior as the products of dysfunctional personalities. Psychological theories identified the conscious and subconscious contents of the human psyche as major determinants of behavior (Goldstein, 1990). The major psychological theories are psychoanalytic theory, learning theory, risk factors theory and attachment theory.
According to Sigmund Freud, credited with the psychoanalytic theory, every individual criminal tendency has natural drives and urges. These tendencies are determined from early development of childhood experiences (Flowe, 1996). Freud believed that future behavior of any individual was not the result of personal choice, cultural differences, or changing social conditions. Rather, it was the product of parental training (discipline) imposed upon the antisocial instinct of the infant (Empey & Stafford, 1991). For instance, the child cries because he/she wants to watch television past his/her bedtime. The parent would give in because it hurts them to see their child cry. What does this show? It is right to stay up late to watch television regardless of the rules. However, if we do not let them have there way, then they will learn it is wrong (Baum, 1989).
According to Parker, discipline is more a threat to children. Children will start to fear their own parents. This fear will develop into anxiety disorder (Parker, 1997). Anxiety will cause children to commit delinquent act. This depends on how severe children are punished. The effect will show in the long term. It will determine their potential for committing delinquent acts (Baum, 1998).
Learning theory states that a person’s behavior is learned. If a child constantly witnesses abuse in his/her home, he/she will develop this inappropriate behavior. Parents are children’s role models. The children will assume it is the right thing to do. People learn new things everyday. It is a possibility that people learn new ways to act and respond to their environment (Flowe, 1996).
Psychologists and sociologists are convinced that behavior is learned. It develops in a pattern that would lead to great success or sometimes it determines one’s fate. Observing parents, siblings and peers performing deviant behavior is not sufficient determinant of inappropriate behavior in children. Children do observe and learn behavior. However, it does not mean they will perform it. Psychologists are still undergoing experimental research for more data to support this theory (Farrington, 1996; Schamellger, 1997; Thio, 1998).
Risk factors refer to events that happened earlier (during childhood) which would predict a later outcome (Loeber, 1985). Risk factors theory implies that exposure to risk factors such as delinquent acts by peers increases the possibility of negative outcomes such as delinquency. Risk factors theory has undergone proper experimental studies to validate reliability of the theory (Baum, 1989).
Scholars believe that risk factors tend to happen simultaneously and correspond with one another. For example, harsh discipline would lead to various aspects of conduct disorder that would lead to delinquent behaviors. A child’s exposure to violence is considered a risk factor; however, there is insufficient data to prove it is one (Farrington, 1996).
Attachment is the enduring bond that is established in the first years of life between a child and the caregiver. Attachment is not a product of what parents or society imposes upon a child but rather it is a reciprocal relationship created by the parents and a child. It has an effect on human emotions, relationships, and values (West, Rose, Spreng, Sheldon-Keller, & Adam, 1998).
Bowlby’s theory of attachment is a basic aspect of a general theory of behavior. Attachment theory tries to explain how and why people react the way they do and respond to situations depending on their childhood experience with their caregiver, also referred to as attachment figure (Bowlby, 1973). If an affectionate bond is present in a child and parent relationship, a child will feel secure from harm. They will think positive images of themselves, their family, and society in the future. Attachment develops in the first several years of childhood and throughout the adolescent years (Garelli, 1999).
Scholars have sufficient data to support the effectiveness of attachment in a child’s development. They believe that in the first few years of life, the child should have an attachment figure, someone who is available to give the child what he/she needs and desires. Being able to feel secure and loved will greatly assist in the child?s development from birth to age nine. A parent-child bond will have a great impact on a child’s life. The child will not seek parents’ attention and love by joining delinquent children or committing deviant behavior (Garelli, 1999).
The attachment process is known as a mutual regulatory system (child and the caregiver influence one another). Bowlby states that, if the caregiver shows a history of being attentive, available, and responsive, an affectionate bond develops. The child-parent bond will become a significant factor of personality determination in the future. For instance, the lack of attachment in a child’s life is related to negative behavior such as aggression towards people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, and serious violation of rules.
Aggression towards people and animals is shown in consistent behaviors such as threatening, bulling, or intimidating others, initiating physical fights, using weapons (bats, guns, etc.) to cause physical harm to others, and forcing someone into other aggressive behaviors to cause property destruction such as fire setting with intention of causing serious damage or deliberately destroying other property. Breaking into someone else?s home or car, lie to avoid obligations and stealing are characters of deceitfulness and theft. Serious violations of rules are identified by behavior such as running away, being truant from school, and staying out late at night regardless of parents? prohibitions (before age 13). Repetitive and persistent patterns of these behaviors indicate that a child is most likely to be diagnosed with conduct disorder (First,1994).