Juveniles and Violence

Juveniles and Violence








Juveniles and Violence

When learning what leads juveniles to violence, a lot of different factors must be examined. These factors have been classified into two broad categories: the environment juveniles grow up in and exposure to violence at an early age. After examining the causes of juvenile violence, the next step would be prevention. The purpose of this report is to examine these categories in depth as well as explore the numerous attempts made to eradicate juvenile violence.
The environment a child grows up around can include both the neighborhood and its members can be a determining factor in the life that child grows up to lead. In a bulletin named “Violent Neighborhoods, Violent Kids”, a small research center called LINC in Alexandria, VA conducted research that observed the delinquent behavior among boys that lived in the three worst neighborhoods in Washington, DC. The study also examined the roles that families, churches, and schools played in these boys’ lives. One of the main focal points was the characteristics of the delinquent boys. The findings, which were based on analyses of various interviews with random samples of boys, were divided into three categories: activities of boys during and after school, patterns of delinquency, and barriers to effective delivery of youth services in DC (Chaiken 2000).
When studying patterns of delinquency, the level of involvement was considered as well as the effects of a few factors. The LINC found that the patterns of the DC boys were very similar to those of boys from other cities. They found that a small percentage of offenders in the three dangerous DC neighborhoods were responsible for a large portion of the crimes (Chaiken 2000). The LINC also found that the least delinquent kids were the youngest of the subjects, the most delinquent had jobs, and many kids felt like they didn’t fit in with their peers. The study found that substance abuse was a factor in violence, but as far as gang...

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