Child abuse and juvenile delinquency

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Criminology

Document 1

S. Department of Justice (2013) indicates that 1. 8 million children are arrested annually for crimes like loitering and even murder. On the other hand, child abuse is also on the rise. Like in 2015 about one thousand six hundred children died from child abuse in the U. There are also other factors that have been pointed out by some scholars such as unemployment and decreased wages as a reason for juvenile delinquencies. Even so, these statistics have only given lower figures. For instance, Finkelhor et al. (2009) found that when unemployment is reduced, the rates of juvenile crimes only decrease by 2. 2 percent. Further, these studies have revealed that child abuse can also cause developmental delays as well as changes in the way the child’s brain functions.

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When these changes happen, then an individual can respond to the environmental stimuli differently. The bottom line of these studies is that maltreatment on children is likely to make a child engage in risky behaviors or develop aggressive tendencies. Laub and Sampson (1993) on his part has documented that there are increased chances that children who have been abused when they become teens encounter post-traumatic stress and at this stage, they then develop aggressive behaviors and desires to commit a crime. Even though there are no studies that have tried to connect child abuse to economics, there is evidence that when an individual is abused and rendered unable to be productive, it is possible that the economy is disrupted (Akers, 2017). With this experience, these professionals shall seek for other approaches apart from incarceration as a means to deal with criminal children.

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Parents, guardians and other stakeholders involved with child development also shall use this knowledge to help children grow in a proper environment to reduce the number of young criminals in the society. This study is also essential because it shall also help to prove that the theories that have been used by experts to explain why children engage in criminal behavior will be established to be plausible. Therefore, using this research and other studies done by other experts in this field, scholars can further build on their research having examined some of the areas that have not been covered within this topic. Literature review The United States Statistics on children have indicated that the level of child molestation has increased. U.

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S. Department of Justice (2013) explains that about 1. 8 million children are being arrested annually due to criminal activities. In fact, this study goes on to indicate that there is a likelihood that in 2020, about 108 million children will be engaged in crimes every year. For instance, a male child that was abused by a female guardian or parent might have hatred for women and hence engage in aggressive behaviors such as rape. Furthermore, Heyman and Slep (2002) clarifies that in some cases, the children are likely to register in their mind that such aggressive actions are normal and acceptable. Consequently, even though Minh et al. , (2013) does not directly tie the child maltreatment to crimes the studies correlate with the theories that explain the reason for crime among the children.

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Furthermore, it is clear that aggressive tendencies are likely to lead to criminal tendencies like the example of rape that has been given. In this study again, the author has not directly indicated whether the individuals under investigation had been found to engage directly in other criminal behaviors apart from abuse. As such, the study does not explain why children would participate in burglary, murder or other crimes. Even so, there is still a connection that the survey by Parrish (n. d. ) and Pezeshki et al. Independent Variable In this study, there are two variables. The independent variable, in this case, is Child abuse or maltreatment. It is independent because in the survey it is seen as the underlying reason behind the resulting scenario.

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Dependent Variable The dependent variable, on the other hand, is the juvenile criminal behavior. A dependent variable is that variable that occurs as a result of being caused by the independent variable. All report shall be made confidential and kept and accessed by the researcher only. Using quantitative analysis, the data shall be examined to see, the number of instances when children who have engaged in criminal behaviors have at one time or the other been abused during childhood. With such data, a determination shall be made as to whether the number is sufficient enough to conclude that the hypothesis that Child abuser causes juvenile crimes is correct. References Akers, R. L. , & Tekin, E. Understanding the Cycle: Childhood Maltreatment and Future Crime.

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