Juvenile Delinquency Family Structure

Juvenile delinquency has become a very predominant occurrence in today’s society. In 2010, there were 6,531 arrest for every 100,000 youths age 10 to 17(Knoll, C, 2010). While it may be that youth are being processed through the criminal justice system more today than ever, rather than actually committing more forms of crime and delinquency (Puzzanchera, Adams, & Sickmund, 2010). Youth are however experiencing increased participation with the criminal justice system are creating problems for parents, schools, communities, and other children who are in the presence of juvenile delinquents. Two of the biggest aspects influencing juvenile delinquency are the family structure that the child is exposed to and the relationship they have with their
The dependent variable being used in this paper is Juvenile delinquency rates. In comparison, the main independent variable of family structure with the following categories: Divorce parents, single parent, step parents, two parents, and other. It will then explore another independent variable of social control measures including: monitoring, involvement, and attachment. It will also asses if the watching, supervision, involvement and attachment to parents by these youth have a relationship with juvenile delinquency. This paper will use regression conducted using SPSS to which it will test the hypothesis as the dependent variables are dichotomous. There will be two test conducted to support the hypothesis. The first one to explain the difference between delinquencies by family structure. Then the second test that will be explained in this paper is in relations to social control measures that account for differences between family structure and juvenile delinquency. It is to be noted that each test include a set of control variables that include age, race, ethnicity, and
It will further go on to explain that individuals conform because they have strong affective bonds to parents, risks in conformism, involvement in predictable actions and acceptance of social norms. This theory originally claimed that the attachment between parent and child is dominant and the strength of the relationship is one of the utmost important factor in determining delinquent behaviour. This theory will be used to explain that youth who come from a divorce or better known as nontraditional families may experience injured connections with their parents, therefore increasing the chances of negative influence to engage in crime and delinquency.
This paper will add to earlier research conducted with its examination of the amount in which cohabiting families from two biological parent and other family types are in comparison to social control factors conducted by the parents with their children. This will add to the research in this field because there seems to be a lack of research in this particular comparison. Therefore, the hypothesis is that youth from cohabitating families will have higher levels of delinquency compared to other family structure types and to what extent do social control measures by the parents have on higher levels of