Family as a Factor in Juvenile Delinquency

Many people will agree that certain social factors can increase the likelihood of a juvenile becoming a delinquent or a criminal. One of the most important of these social factors is a juvenile’s family. A child learns their values and behavior at a young age from their family. They spend most of their time around them and learning how to live. Parents have a very crucial job and if they don’t take it seriously or have the right beliefs to share with their child in the first place, there isn’t a lot of hope for this child to learn correct behavior.

Unfortunately, crime seems to run in a family. Obviously, not all children who grow up in a household where they observe criminal activity will follow this trend, but statistics do show that it increases the chances. It makes sense when you think about it because we shouldn’t expect criminals to be named “Parent of the Year”. They usually aren’t involved in their children’s lives, don’t give adequate supervision, or discipline in the appropriate manner. If the children aren’t being cared for the way they should or they’re being exposed to criminal activity, it’s easy to see why they grow up to offend themselves.

According to Juvenile Justice: A Guide to Theory and Practice, in a Pittsburg Youth Study, Browning and Loeber found that having a broken family is one of the biggest factors leading to delinquency. Having one less parent can reduce the amount of supervision of a child but it can also make a happier household for that particular family. It can also be argued that statistics on this particular subject aren’t exactly accurate. At different levels of the juvenile justice system, someone may be more inclined to treat a juvenile differently because of the type of home they come from. Probation officers and judges may serve a less harsh punishment because they come from a “happy home” or a police officer might use his discretion and feel that this child comes from good parents so they’d take care of the punishment. It’s difficult to say if the marriage status of parents really does play a big role in the delinquency of a child.