One of the most reliable indicators of juvenile crime in adolescent males is poor family factors. In recent years, poor Family Structures (SVoH) (i.e. dysfunctional families) and a lack of Support Networks (SVoH) (i.e. friends and family) has led to the inevitable creation of young male felons in our society. One such example of this is seen in single-parent families, now rapidly on the rise. It has become evident that there is a direct correlation between juvenile crime in adolescent males and single-parent households, specifically those without fathers. In our society, the primary role of fathers is to provide economic stability, act as role models and alleviate the stress on mothers. Economically, marriage has always been the best way to multiply capital, with the assumption being that girls from poorer families better themselves by marrying upward. marriage, has been in sharp decline over the last four decades. In 2001 number of single-parent house-holds rose to about 3,100,000. Divorce accounted for most of this, and it is generally accepted that approximately 50% of Australian marriages end in divorce [Australian Institute of Research, 2003].
While most research results are mixed, and no clear causal family factors have emerged to explain the correlation between fatherlessness and crime, it is certainly unfair to blame single mothers, their parenting skills, or their financial situation for what are obviously more complex social problems.
It has also become evident that there is a strong link between juvenile crime in adolescent males and poor Supportive Environment (SVoH). The unfortunate truth is that, in many places, there are a growing number of irresistible temptations and opportunities for juveniles to commit felonies. For many youths, Brute, coercive force has become an acceptable and preferred substitute, for ways to resolve conflicts and satisfy needs. Hypothetically, a high-school bully challenges trouble young man to “meet him in the parking lot after school.” Under circumstances like these, the peer pressure and reward systems are so arranged that fighting seems the only way out.
Popular explanations of juvenile crime often rest on ideas of the insidious Cultural (SVoH) impact of the media and a decline in Social Justice (i.e. Social morality). The fact is that TV is much more pervasive, and has become the de facto babysitter in many homes, with little or no parental monitoring. Where there is strong parental supervision in other areas, including the teaching of moral values and norms, the effect of prolonged exposure to violence on TV is probably quite minimal. When TV becomes the sole source of moral norms and values, this causes problems. Australia’s children watch an astonishing 19,000 hours of TV by the time they finish high school, much more time than all their classroom hours put together since grade one. By eighteen, they will have seen 200,000 acts of violence, including 50,000 murders. Every hour of prime time television carries 8-10 acts of violence. Most surveys show that around 80% of Australian parents think there is too much violence on television. Since the early 1990s, a number of films, music videos, and rap music lyrics have come out depicting and glamorising gang life, drugs, sex, and violence. One such example is seen in the murder of James Bulger, a toddler from Liverpool who was tortured and then killed by two youths, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. One of the boys attempted a temporary insanity defense based on the claim he felt hypnotized by songs on a 2 Pac album, that the lyrics "took control, devouring [him] like an animal, compelling his subconscious mind to kill the approaching trooper".
Approaches to the problem generally fall into two camps: the public health solution, and the law enforcement solution. The law enforcement solution looks at the problem in terms of what needs to be done to improve investigation, arrest, prosecution, and conviction. Advocates of the public health approach tend to see juveniles today as victims of an anti-youth culture. The problem is not just parents failing children, but a whole attitude among adult society that is increasingly hostile, angry, and punishing toward youth. People are only hosts, not causes, of social problems, according to the public health model. The real enemies are the environment (broad social forces that shape their way through culture) and the agent (the means of violence, firearms and access to weapons). The following recommendations intervene, and then trace the pathology back to its source and hence build a healthy public policy.
Law Enforcement Solutions:
Parental Accountability Laws
Also called Parental Duty Laws, have been used to great effect in the United States. These Laws impose a 5-year sentence on parents of children who find and use guns left around the house. The government prosecutes mothers if it can be proven that parental neglect led to their child committing a crime. The implementation (Ottawa Charter – Enable) of Parental Accountability Laws would see more households (particularly those lacking adequate Family Structures and Support Networks such as single-parent households as mentioned earlier) Creating Supportive Environments for troubled adolescent males and would provide them will less of an incentive to commit juvenile crime.
Curfews
Many cities worldwide such as New Orleans and Atlanta impose youth curfews, and a vast majority of studies have shown beneficial results. The piece would propose a curfew requiring anyone under the age of 17 to be off the streets by 11 P.M. Any teenager found in a public place during curfew hours would held at a police-designated truancy center until a parent or guardian claims them. Parents who are determined to be aiding and abetting curfew violators are subject to fines and community service. The implementation (Ottawa Charter – Enable) would inevitably see parents watching their teens during curfew hours when the majority of crimes are committed, and also see them broadening and Developing their Personal Skills (parental). This would also provide households with more of an incentive to reform and repair the poor Support Networks and Family Structures that too often have led to the problem of juvenile crime in adolescent males in the first place, and hence Create and healthy and loving Supportive Environment.
Public Health Solutions:
Juvenile Correctional Centers
According to the Australian Bureau of statistics, the total number of juveniles in custody for Australia is about 8,000. Most of these youth are held in only semi-secure facilities designed to look more like prisons than correctional centers. If the government were to Reorient Public Health Services in redesigning Juvenile Correctional Centers to look more like Youth Groups. In this sense, adolescent males will be given more of an incentive to participate in Correctional Programmes and Develop Personal Skills. In a Supportive Environment, adolescent males will be able to thrive and develop valuable Support Networks and Social Relationships with males with similar backgrounds.
One cannot generalize from isolated incidents of rare events, but it seems that whether out of compassion or concern for the world of tomorrow, at least some inquiry should begin into juvenile mental states and increasingly violent behavior.
SELECTED REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agnew, Robert. (1990). "Adolescent Resources and Delinquency" Brisbane: Oxford University Press.
Canter, Rachelle. (1992). "Family Correlates of Male and Female Delinquency" Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chamard, Sharon & Andre Rosay. (2003). Western Criminology Review. [Online]
[Accessed November 10th 2005.] Available from World Wide Web:
<http://wcr.onoma.edu/>
Jass, Hugh. (1990). Australian Bureau of Statistics. [Online] [Accessed November 1st 2005.] Available from World Wide Web:
<http://www.abs.gov.au/>
Macallair, Daniel. (2004). The Impact of Juvenile Curfew Laws in California. [Online] [Accessed November 12th 2005.] Available from World Wide Web:
<http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/curfew/curfewexec.html>
Sampson, Robert & John Laub. (1997). Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wells, Edward & Joseph Rankin. (1999). "Families and Delinquency: A Meta-Analysis" Sydney: Greenhaven Press.
