Cultural Conflict Theory And Juvenile Delinquency

Attempting to explain what causes a juvenile to become delinquent with pin point accuracy is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree; it cannot be done. However, there is a plethora of theories that attempt to explain the correlation between delinquent behavior committed by a juvenile and the experiences that brought him/her to that moment. For this reason, narrowing down the vast amounts of explanations can become quite challenging. Consequently, for this observation, the focus will center on the conflict theory, the culture conflict theory, and the cultural transmission theory as an attempt to clarify the connection between the two variables; juveniles and the delinquent behaviors that they exhibit. Juveniles spends most of their adolescent years trying to find their place in society. Social hierarchy among school aged children holds a particular importance (Sweeting & Hunt, 2014) The conflict theory expands the idea that delinquency steams from a person’s attempt to gain status among the members of the society and the constant conflict over competing resources in the economy (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014, p. 139). Accordingly, those juveniles with lower socio-economic status must compete more often to prove their

It is that economical stature that causes a divide between communities and the people living within them (Rahav, 1981). In fact, each community that becomes divided develops behaviors that will either be deemed acceptable or unacceptable by the members of that society. Those members with less than desirable attributes develop subcultures in which their norms conflict with the norms of the larger culture causing culture conflict among the society (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014, p. 143). Although, juveniles can be members of many different groups within the subculture, the overall values and norms will likely remain the same (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014, p.