Why Do Juveniles Commit Property Crimes

Crime is a major part of our society in many different ways. It allows us to lower the human population and put away the people who decide to be deviant. Although in the long run these can be good things crime also allows people to label each other in ways that wouldn’t have happened if crime was non-existent. It seems today that in our society people are getting labeled more often from people who do not really know the person personally. This is a bad habit that America is getting involved in. There are many different ways that juveniles can be deviant. Some deviance is as slight as running away from home and others as immense as murdering someone. Somewhere in between the two is where property crimes lie. Property crimes are defined as
a category of crime that includes but is not limited too, burglary, theft, vandalism, larceny, arson, and shoplifting. They are also defined as non-violent crimes where the delinquent is only committing the crime without force or threat of force on a victim. Once the delinquent decides to force or threaten to force a victim it is no longer considered a property crime but bumps it up to a violent crime and they are more likely to be caught and be charged more harshly. There are many different theories that try to explain why juveniles commit crimes and act deviant.
One of the various theories is labeling theory which focuses on the view of deviance according to which being labeled as a "deviant" leads a person to engage in deviant behavior. The theory consists of how the self-identity and behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to label them. It is largely associated with stereotyping and self-fulfilling prophecy. Many delinquents wouldn’t have ever gotten as far as they had if they hadn’t been labeled as a delinquent and felt like they had to live up to their new
name. The labeling theory was originated in Howard Becker’s work in the 1960’s. Howard says studying the act of the individual is unimportant because deviance is simply rule breaking behavior that is labeled deviant by persons in positions of power. If the persons in positions of power believe that something isn’t deviant then a person who commits that non-deviant act is not going to be labeled as a deviant person. Becker uses the term "outsider" to describe a labeled rule-breaker or deviant that accepts the label attached to them and views themselves as different from "mainstream" society. Deviants may consider themselves more "outside" than others equally labeled. Deviant outsiders might view those rule making or abiding members of society as being the outsiders of their social group. Many juvenile delinquents are not actually deviant by their own choice rather than letting their labels define who they are.
Such as being labeled as a juvenile delinquent and finding ways to live up to that standard without going too far with it. Rather than making the crime violent such as murder or rape they resort to property damage such as vandalism and theft. They take the steps to be a juvenile delinquent but do not take the extra steps to commit violent crimes which they feel uncomfortable with. They want to maintain the label that they were given without doing something so bad that they have a higher chance of getting pushed up into adult court and getting a harsher
punishment. Applying a long-term label such as “criminal” is detrimental to the future of a juvenile in many different ways. It could prevent them from getting a good career and forming social relationships in the future. Many employers will not hire “criminals” for fear that they will continue on with their criminal acts and that they will not get along with the other employees if they find out that the hired individual is a “criminal”. There is only one way to keep the juvenile from getting harmed by labels. The parent of the juvenile can choose to have the record sealed from the public so that way when they reach adult status they can find a good job and do not have to be brought down by the label they had when they were younger. There can be many different reasons for why a juvenile decides to do something delinquent. Although there are many different theories that try to explain juvenile delinquency they are just theories. None of them can actually give a set in stone reason for why a certain juvenile was delinquent. Everyone is different and we can not assume that we could figure out why they decided to go off and steal, set fire to houses, or vandalize places. Although life would be easier if we could find a theory that would work for most people but that is not going to happen anytime soon. For now we will continue to guess at the reasons and continue to label people as deviant or delinquent.