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- subject = Busniess Law
- title = Juvenile Crime
- papers = One of the biggest
- problems which the United States is faced with is juvenile crime. The
- reason experts feel juvenileÆs commit crimes is because of risk factors
- when they were younger but experts still have not found the main reason
- why juvenileÆs commit crimes. Some risk factors associated with juvenile
- crime are poverty, repeated exposure to violence, drugs, easy access to
- firearms, unstable family life and family violence, delinquent peer groups,
- and media violence. Especially the demise of family life, the effect
- of the media on the juveniles today, and the increase of firearms available
- today have played a big role in the increase of juveniles crimes.
- The
- most common risk factor is the demise of the family life and the increase
- in family violence. Between 1976 and 1992 the number of juveniles living
- in poverty grew 42% and this caused an increase in crimes by juveniles.
- Many of these juvenile criminals have been abused or neglected and they
- also grew up in a single-parent household. Research has found that 53%
- of these children are more likely to be arrested, and 38% more likely
- to commit a violent crime as an adult, then their counterparts who did
- not suffer such abuse. The symptoms of child abuse are ôhigh levels of
- aggression and antisocial behaviorö and these children are twice as likely
- to become juvenile offenders. Also improper parental care has been linked
- to delinquency such as mothers who drink alcohol or take drugs during
- pregnancy cause their babies to grow up with learning disorders, a problem
- which leads them to be juvenile criminals.
- Another risk factor is the
- effect of the media on the juveniles of today. Before the time a child
- has reached seventh grade, the average child has witnessed 8,000 murders
- and 100,000 acts of violence on the television. There is no doubt that
- heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive
- behavior, crime and violence in society. Television violence affects
- youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all economic levels, and all
- levels of intelligence. Long-term childhood exposure to television is
- a casual factor behind one half of the homicides committed by juveniles
- in the United States.
- The increased availability of guns has played
- a big part in escalating the number of crimes committed by juveniles.
- In Los Angeles juvenile delinquency cases involving weapon violation
- grew by 86% from 1988 to 1992, which was more then any other type of juvenile
- offense. According to a University of Michigan study found that 270,000
- guns accompany secondary school students to class daily. This is startling
- because it shows how many more juveniles are carrying guns and the juvenile
- use of guns in homicides has increased from 65 to 80 percent from 1987
- to 1991.
- The possession of firearms plays a big cause in the delinquency
- of children and is playing a bigger role in the crimes which juveniles
- commit. Another cause of the increase of juvenile crimes has been the
- effect of children seeing multiple murders and other acts of violence
- on the television. Finally the demise of the family life and the increase
- in family violence has been the biggest factor in the increase of juvenile
- crime.
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