Juvenile Delinquency

Causes of Juvenile Delinquency

Jose Esteban Guerrero Acosta
Research Skills
Maurice Williams
July 20, 2010

Juvenile delinquency is a topic treated by all the people over the world nowadays because of its gravity in the society. Juveniles have been developing skills that were attributed to adults. Those actions could be perceived in gangs, and even in the common life. Although some peoplesay that juvenile delinquents misbehave because of their heritage, others argue that there are more causes explaining their delinquent behavior.
Biology has an important role in this topic, comprehended in physical and mental theories, including in the last theory the adoptions. According to the study made by Ernest Hooton in the late 1930s, body and mind of a delinquent are inferior comparingthose with a normal guy. A delinquent could be discovered due to his hair, eyes and sometimes long neck. “Heavy, tall men are more likely than others to be murderers", Hooton said. As a second theory could be the heredity theory, which has been studied for a long time in biological criminology and genetics. As P. Oppenheimer and more scientists mentioned, characteristics like drug addiction,alcoholism, delinquency, and mental illness are inherited. In the case of the adoptions, there are averages saying that an adoptive kid is more likely to be a criminal, because of his background. What it means? The ancient family of the guy who will be adopted could have delinquency records before, and those would be kept by the brain of the kid. Moreover, scientists say that a chromosome named XYY inmales could cause anger and violent behavior, but this thesis has been disapproved or put in doubt recently. Finally, the brain, source of all our functions, has been a point of discussion about delinquency in youth. Experts believe that brain disorders are important when the criminality in youth is being analyzed. Some studies developed by other scientists show that epilepsy could be animportant factor, due to the fact that this brain disease was found in the brains of young delinquents. Not only brain disorders, but also brain tumors could drive a person to delinquency.
Having ended with the biological point, another relevant topic, and maybe the most showed nowadays is the psychological. Who really started talking about delinquency, as a psychological problem was Sigmund Freud,explaining the facts in three aspects called by him as id, ego, and superego. The id is the source of instinctive energy and biological drives; the ego is the part that experiences and reacts to the surrounding world; and the superego, that acts as the conscience of the psyche, interceding between the id and moral values” Freud said. Freud proposed that to treat these problems is necessary to know thebackground or the past of the delinquent (Flowers, 2002).
Recently, there are studies that put personality disorders as a possible factor or source of criminality. Not only intellectual coefficient, but also emotional disturbances could be a proof to identify criminality in one person. Studies have found that almost the majority of the delinquents were unhappy or were having some problems aboutthe relationships, but in teen delinquents, a relationship wasn’t a relevant cause of delinquency. Emotional issue is explained in the case of teenagers as psychopathic or sociopathic. A psychopath is a person who has a weak mind, easy to manage, moreover, is amoral, hostile, insensitive, extremely egocentric, and fearless when is into a limited social contact. Personality could be involved inemotional problems. Experts as Yochelson and Samenow cited by R. Barry Flowers (2002), say that there is probability of influence from personality in criminality. They say that for some people doing criminal actions could be a source of excitement, but that quality is not developed in the adult age. That quality comes since the childhood, being affected by child abuse and family violence.
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