Middle Class Juvenile Delinquency

Middle-class juvenile delinquency has long been a problem when asking as to why some children steal and not others, why some skip school, or why some set fires and damage property. Some theories have been improved from time to time over the years, but the last ten or fifteen years have had significant study and advancement. Officers of the juvenile courts, child welfare associations, educational bodies, and mental clinics have been vital in order to compile the large amount of data on juvenile delinquency and how it relates to gangs. One theory is the Self-Control Theory which was originally developed by criminologists Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson.

Gottfredson and Hirschi believed their theory was a simple view of human behavior: "All human conduct can be understood as the selfinterested pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain”. They saw crime as a way to obtain self-interested goals because it provides "immediate, easy, and short-term pleasure" Gottfredson and Hirschi, theorized the answer was in self-control. “Those with high self-control resist the immediate pleasures associated with criminal behavior. Conversely, low self-control, when coupled with
opportunities for crime, results in criminal behavior”. (Hay, 2001).

I believe delinquency itself is a coping mechanism on the part of the juvenile in order to adjust to difficult circumstances.
The factors which go to make up these difficult situations, together with the mental and physical conditions which influence or hinder a juvenile’s ability to adjust which leads to the causes of delinquency are very complex. Each juvenile offense is the outcome of different causes some of whose origins are from years before the criminal behavior or the offense and others whose origins are more obvious and immediate which connect the act to the delinquency. It has been shown that a different set of causes are involved in each individual case. It is impossible therefore to state the primary causes which will invariably result in any one
offense.

Many factors contribute to middle-class delinquency such as lack of parental supervision, moral upbringing and exposure to inner-city neighborhoods. The factors which operate to turn a child's behavior in one direction rather than another may be very overt or may even escape detection of many sociologists, psychologists, physiologists or other experts. It often appears that quite different offenses are the results of the same group of causes, but further studies show that still other factors are found in each case which determine the kind of delinquency. For example, a poverty-stricken, unhappy home and minimal income from parents that work in the evening may lead one juvenile to skip school in order to earn more money or may cause another to steal, or may result in another's joining a street gang.

Congested neighborhoods and slums may cause delinquency for the same reason that overcrowded homes and schoolrooms may do. Slums may include additional factors such as bad sanitation, damp, dark and badly ventilated houses, proximity of smoky, smelling factories and noisy machinery, and the close contact with criminal neighbors, immoral individuals and other delinquent juveniles. Children are not so likely to get into trouble while they are alone, but when they get together in gangs as they do in congested neighborhoods, they become more likely to get into trouble or break the law. (Adler, Mueller, & Laufer, 2012). It is my belief that juveniles tend to look for stability within gangs that they are not receiving at home. In the end, as a society in order for us to reduce middle-class juvenile delinquency within gangs,then we must ensure our children are well cared for and mentored.