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The National Problem with Juvenile Delinquency and Recidivism

In: Social Issues

Submitted By meeker91
Words 1800
Pages 8
Abstract

Many factors contribute to juvenile delinquency and research has recognized that there is not one single pathway to delinquency. Studies have shown that the more risk factors the juvenile faces the probability of offending increases. The major factors contributing to juvenile delinquency are individual factors, social factors, and community factors. Many people have tried to figure out and understand the factors that lead our youths to commit crimes and what can we do to prevent and rehabilitate them to keep them from committing these crimes again.

Juvenile delinquency is one of the most important issues around the world today. Despite the social awareness surrounding the topic, juvenile delinquency is on the rise and needs to be addressed in order to stop our youth from becoming criminals instead of important members of society. There have been many efforts to understand and analyze the reasons that juveniles commit crimes however there is no set reason, but rather several reasons that can lead a youth to commit crimes. Recent research shows that violence among juveniles is rising rapidly and shows that more than 60% of youths will have either been a victim or will have committed a crime sometime during their youth years (Garza, 2011). Research has also stated that the crime rate among juveniles has increases rapidly since the 1980’s and in 2009 youths were responsible for more than 2 million violent crimes in the United States (Garza, 2011). At the same time however, justice systems are quick to distribute punishment to the youths in order to control the youth population and their increasing crime rates. These tactics however are proven to be inefficient as punishment may lead to further criminal activity and exposure to a criminal career. What many people have tried to figure out and understand is what the factors are that lead our youths to

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