Environmental Causes of Delinquency Research Paper

Environmental Causes of Delinquency - Research Paper Example It highlights the similarities and differences between them by explaining how each factor influences criminal behaviour among the minors. As environmental factors, they tend to rely on each other to form the identity of the minors as they grow up. However, when they are all controlled, the youths can be prevented from engaging in criminal acts and develop into normal, law-adhering citizen. Keywords: Delinquent Behaviour, Crime, Environment, Youths, Juveniles, Minors, Drugs, Families, Poverty, Social Setting, Gender, Peer Group, Street Gangs, Robbery, Sexual Activities, Drug Abuse Introduction For a long time, juvenile delinquency has been a key concern in societies and the governments all over the world. It not only costs the youths themselves, but also the society in large; the general government’s time and financial resources are used to combat criminal activities among the youth. In considerable terms, children’s experience in the social setting, way of being brought up, and association contribute to shaping their characters and interests in life as they grow up. There are many factors in the environment that influence a child’s development, and consequently, participation in delinquency, such as social and economic factors affecting their personal lives, morale, confidence, and the well being of their families. What the children or minors hear and see from the environment remains quite clear in their memory, and most of the time, they are always persuaded to practice it to satisfy their quest. Ever wondered why young girls and men engage in sexual behaviours, form gangs, get convinced to drop out from school, commit murders, and engage in vandalism or any other illegal acts? Well, the root of causes lies in the environmental factors and control. Influence of Family Characteristics The family is the pillar of the child in development and largely contributes to what minors’ associate with early in life. At first, it begins with par ental supervision and the quality of the established relationship between the parents and the child. Based on supervision, parents get to correct their children’s behaviour early before they develop into serious problems. In many cases, due to poor supervision or lack of it, the minors have become addicts to watching unregulated programmes in the absence of their parents, contributing to depiction of violent movies and pornography, which are psychologically unhealthy for their age. The parents sometimes fail to control their children’s access to the internet or what they watch out of ignorance, viewing it as an escape to perform their other demanding roles. With such an opportunity, in their state of sexual curiosity, it easily leads to subsequent sexual crimes through the media that expose them to incest, rapes, child pornography, and prostitution as they watch cartoon pornography. The minors will copy the acts to identify themselves with movie stars who may be commit ting crimes, the fact of which might be unknown to the children. It goes without mentioning that parents should also use effective disciplining techniques to correct and not harshly punish the minors because to them, it could seem unjust and could even increase their anger to transform into something else. Children brought up in broken families or by separated