Sociological Theories: Juvenile Delinquency In The United States

Sociological Theories Bernice Garcia CJS/240 July 5, 2013 Kathy Holder Sociological Theories United States is encountering a serious of concerns about juvenile delinquency. The Criminal Justice System in hand with Governments and community programs are trying to reduce the impacting rates of youth crime acts. Even when such effort is not visible, there is concerned juveniles advocate working behind the scene to help and support teenagers in need of a way out. There are a variety of programs across the nation within the States to help and support young people with social structure, social process and social conflicts. Performance Base
Standards (PBS) is a program in Indiana that helps teenagers in juvenile facilities to grow with individual opportunities that increases the chances to succeed once released to their community. This program creates self-conscience in the life of the teenagers with self-improvement and accountability. The key is to bring effectiveness in their lives to “make it” in the outside world. This program reports to the US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The reports consist on specific seven goals: safety, security, order, programming (including education) health/mental health, justice and reintegration. The idea of these goals is to improve the areas as the program goes along to better serve the young community. Social structured program and delinquency prevention. Big Brothers Big Sisters programs is around United States, headquarters in Philadelphia with over 400 locations nationwide, to help juveniles from age 6 – 18 years old and has served over 250,000 children.
Mentors are adult between the ages of 22-49. This program helps children and adolescent to build positive relationships with society and family members as well when their home environment has been adverse, dealing from parent incarceration to domestic violence. These program mentors help these young people view things in a positive prospective. BBBS program can be set up in the school as well as in the community; to help the child or juvenile feel as comfortable as possible. Big Brother Big Sister program is a social process and delinquency prevention program for juveniles in the community around the
country. Peace Learning (PL) is a program also in Indiana that helps teenagers deal with conflicts.
The program teaches juveniles about critical thinking, to care for others, and to develop empathy. One of the main concerns and goals of this program is to help teenagers see a positive future for them although circumstances may show otherwise. The ability to control the environment that surrounds them is a key element for the success of each teenager in this program, seek out sources, plan ahead and resolve situations is what the mentors are trying to develop in each of these individuals to survive without delinquency. Social conflicts and delinquency prevention has raised the concern of programs around the nation (they may vary from state to state). The social theories and delinquency prevention programs mentioned above are in pursue of juvenile delinquency decrease in this nation we live in. Every program is funded by different organizations and community programs to help these teenagers cope with tragedies that have marked their lives and drawn them into delinquency. Every city and state have a different manner of dealing with juvenile delinquency and they all try its best to lower the rates of crime among youth. It is work in progress for all of
us.

References (2013) Indiana Government. Juvenile programs Retrieved from: http://www.in.gov/idoc/dys/2374.htm Retrieved on: July 3, 2013 (2013) Office of Justice Programs. Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) Community-Based Mentoring (CBM) Program. Retrieved on: http://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=112 Retrieved on: July 3, 2013 Siegal, L. J. & Welsh, B. C. (2005). Juvenile delinquency: The core. (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.