Most criminologists would agree that the majority of criminal and/or deviant behaviour both stems and/or develops during either childhood or the early years of adolescence. Therefore, many how deduced that the adequacy of socialising in the home by parents is likely to have an effect and possible even result in teenage criminal and deviant behaviour. This essay will therefore discuss how far sociologists would agree that teenage criminal and deviant behaviour results from parents failing to socialise their children correctly.
According to functionalists, one of the key roles of parents is to appropriately socialise children to become good citizens of society. However, in conjunction to this, it has also been theorised that failure to appropriately socialise a child at home may lead to criminal and/or deviant behaviour later on in life. This may be that the parents them self’s display criminal and/or deviant behaviour, which that child them copy’s and learns. The new right approach for example theorises that children from a parentally deprived home are more likely to look for guidance and comfort elsewhere and are more prone to crime. They are therefore more likely to find role models in such situations who they aspire to grow up like.
The Marxist theory of alienation however is another factor that sociologists have recognised. Marxist theorise that young, impressionable adolescences often feel pressurised by those in power who often use the law to benefit themselves and are therefore forced in to demeaning work. Due to this, many turn to crime in order to be able to control what they do but also get certain objects that they may not have been able to receive should they have stayed on the other side of the law, objects which the rich and powerful are usually the only ones to receive. Therefore,