Crime significantly impacts the standard of life across the world. A case study of the United States reveals that crime has grown into a very expensive venture. There are myriads of social costs incurred by both individuals and government agencies in combating crime. Before the onset of the last decade, the US government was spending close to $1trillion per annum in dealing with crime related cases (Siegel & Welsh, 2010). One of the possibilities of the continual rise in crime is poverty among low income earning families. There are several urban neighborhoods that are sprawling with shanties or informal settlements. Worse still, the number of families that can hardly afford decent housing, education and healthcare is increasing on a daily basis.
Another possible explanation why the rate of crime is on the rise is the neglect of children who live in poor families. Most of the children from humble backgrounds hardly get quality education. There are countless cases of school drop outs and worse still, these children hardly find role models to mentor them as they grow up. It is against this backdrop that this paper explores and develops a correlation between poverty and juvenile delinquency.
Social scientists often argue that acts of crime can be contagious in locations affected by high levels of crime (Maholmes & King, 2012). Children who live in squalor conditions are highly likely to engage in destructive pastime activities in order to keep themselves busy. Past empirical records reveal that the juvenile justice system in the United States usually handle dozens of cases related to juvenile delinquency way before most of these children attain the age of 18 years. The juvenile justice system is the key feeder of the normal criminal courts. In most instances, the socioeconomic status of the suspected juvenile is often closely linked with the nature of crimes committed. This implies that the forum nature is rarely put into consideration when seeking proof of innocence or guilt among juvenile offenders. If this is the case, then it is obvious that most children who commit crimes have already been associated with poor backgrounds. Needless to say, poverty and crime are still twin aspects in social security bearing in mind that the state of security usually worsens in the presence of abject poverty.
Most of the grievous cases of crime have been observed in poor neighborhoods. Perhaps, the strain theory adopted by Robert Merton attempts to explain how difficult living conditions may rapidly contribute towards acts of crime. According to Merton, success in society comes through well defined institutionalized paths. According to the strain theory, people who live in poor conditions are highly pressed and as such, they can easily switch to crime as a way of attempting to be on the same social ladder with others in society. In other words, there are socially valued goals that every individual often desires to achieve. If such goals are disrupted by poverty, then some people may readily opt for crime.
In the case of children from poor households, education is a mere luxury that cannot be afforded. Therefore, they are significantly hampered from achieving certain goals in life. In addition, children who engage in acts of crime do so since they need to fend for themselves in terms of food, clothing and shelter (Maholmes & King, 2012). At this point, a close relationship between poverty and juvenile delinquency can be seen. Poverty is also a key ingredient that erodes family ethics and values. it has been researched and documented that conflict and acts of offense are rampant among families that cannot afford basic necessities. For instance, parents who find it cumbersome to shoulder family responsibilities may reach at a point of complete withdrawal in other words, they may fail to provide both basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter as well as emotional needs. Moreover, such parents may also withdraw from supervising and instilling discipline in their children. Another extreme may entail harsh forms of discipline that do not correct any wayward behavior among their children. Children who dwell in such family set ups are highly likely to develop negative attitudes about their individual families and eventually start engaging in crime at tender ages. It is vital to understand that broken family structure and values as occasioned by poverty has led to thousands of children engaging in crime (Peak, 2011).
It is also worth to mention that poor households have higher likelihoods of experiencing incessant wrangles. The latter may lead into separation or divorce among parents at the peril of children. When juveniles are left without the full care of both parents, they automatically turn into delinquent acts as the best option for survival. Broken families are also prone to anti-social behavior. For instance, older siblings or parents may equally be criminals on their own. Since crime is believed to be contagious, the younger under age siblings may acquire similar characters and eventually end up as young criminals. The latter explanation has everything to do with bad role models.
In the event of divorce between parents due to difficult living conditions, children may be left under the custody of a single parent. This worsens the situation because a single parent can hardly manage the upkeep of children left under such conditions. Children who reside with both parents are less prone to committing offences than those who live with lone parents. Moreover, single parents are more likely to remain poor for long and eventually plunge their children to juvenile delinquency.
Peer rejection has also been associated with juvenile delinquency. When children are rejected by their peers when they are still young, it may send the wrong signals into their minds that they are not fit enough to be like others. Although peer rejection may be caused by variety of factors, most social scientists are of the opinion that social class may create a boundary between the rich and poor children. This implies that peer rejection is common between the two divides in society (Maholmes & King, 2012). In any case, it is not common for children from poor backgrounds to mix and play freely with their rich peers.
The worst psychological effect of peer rejection is improper socialization. Children who are rejected cannot socialize well with others and eventually, they end up as social misfits because they do not feel any sense of personal worth in them. On the same note, aggressive behavior may also contribute towards peer rejection even among children in the same social class. However, aggressive or violent behavior is common among children brought up in indecent backgrounds. As already mentioned in the above section, lack of proper upbringing in poor families often leads into aggression. Hence, poverty can be clearly correlated with juvenile delinquency according to this scenario.
Unwanted pregnancies coupled with school dropouts is a common occurrence among teenagers from poor backgrounds. Quantitative research studies have revealed that such children have higher likelihoods of being entranced in juvenile delinquent behaviors. One reason why they can easily engage in offensive acts is that they need to fend for their babies even though they have no resources since they are underage and not employed. Therefore, they will find themselves doing any activity that can generate a livelihood. In addition, such mothers can hardly build warm relationships with their children as they grow up because they are also products of hardships and frustration.
From the strain theory, it is obvious that difficult circumstances occasioned b poverty usually drive minors into committing various offences. Nonetheless, it is prudent to mention that before these children fully transform into social misfits, drug abuse is often a major factor of consideration. When children are exposed to harsh living conditions, they can seek solace in drug and substance abuse as a way of relieving their frustrations. It is evident that most street families are addicts of dangerous drugs. Any individual who is an addict to dangerous drugs such as bhang, heroine, and alcohol among others cannot reason well. Most of these drugs lead to aggression on the character of the addict. Besides, children involved in drug and substance abuse often turn out to be violent personalities. They act out of proportions and may make random and dangerous decisions. This explains why drug and substance abuse agitate crime in society.
Children drawn from poor families have a lot of spare time that they can commit to social ills such as drug and substance abuse. It is imperative to recall that most of them are rarely found in classrooms due to family problems. They use their spare times to form peer groups that eventually mislead group members into acts of delinquent behavior. Today, the juvenile justice system is crowded with several drug abuse related cases. A survey carried out by the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) in 1999 confirmed that there are growing numbers of juvenile detainees from poor families who have tested positive on drug and substance abuse (Siegel & Welsh, 2010). If the current statistics are anything to go by, then it implies that poorest households are struggling with both juvenile delinquent cases and drug abuse challenges.
Problematic drug use, social exclusion and poverty have been strongly associated in regards to juvenile delinquency. Children are definitely not employed because they are still minors. When they happen to drop out of learning institutions before they reach teenage, they are highly likely to remain in a state of suffering for a long time. The long term frustration associated with insecure or sub-standard housing and poor diet tend to drive them towards drug and substance abuse (Siegel & Welsh, 2009). This means drug and substance abuse have several risk factors that are often initiated by poverty. For children who engage in offensive behaviors, they may equally be undergoing psychological problems or complicated childhood experiences that have remained unaddressed for long. Although children from well-off households may also experience psychological and mental problems, the poor children are easily entrenched in unproductive lifestyles that eventually expose their lives into gross risks. For example, juvenile delinquency has been associated with elements of poverty such as homelessness, ignorance towards social order, and incarceration.
On a final note, poverty can be correlated to juvenile delinquency on the basis of mental health factors. As a child grows under squalor conditions, the mental formation is transformed into a sense of defeat, helplessness, hopelessness and loss of self worth. While juvenile delinquency is believed to be gradual as a child continues to grow and develop, there are myriads of thinking processes that the affected minor undergoes. Unless such negative mindsets are dealt with in advance, the minor may as well progress into a complete juvenile delinquent. In almost all instances, poor families cannot afford rehabilitation costs of the affected children. Therefore, their conditions get out of control before they finally find themselves in the corridors of juvenile justice system (Maholmes & King, 2012).
To recap it all, it has been observed that poverty and juvenile delinquency are closely intertwined. From the above exposition, children brought up in poor families often live a life full of frustrations, dejection and hopelessness. Lack of parental support and supervision is common among poor families. As a result, children do not grow up in a disciplined manner. When they encounter stress and depression, some of them engage in drug and substance abuse and eventually embark on offensive behavior as juvenile delinquents. Additionally, lack of cherished values in some poor families has significantly contributed towards offensive behavior among children. Minors who face peer rejection also seek solace in drugs and substance abuses especially in cases where family fabrics are no longer in place (Siegel & Welsh, 2009). One of the main causes of peer rejection is aggressive behavior.
References
Maholmes, V. & King, R.B. (eds) (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Peak, K.J. (2011). Justice Administration: Police, Courts and Corrections Management (7th Ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.
Siegel, J.L. & Welsh, B.C. (2009). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law, 11th Ed.: Theory, Practice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage learning.
Siegel, J.L. & Welsh, B.C. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency: The Core. New York: Cengage Learning.