Delinquency In The 1950s Essay

824 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Causes of juvenile delinquency

Since the beginning of time, humans have been changing, developing, and evolving. The 1950s was a fascinating era in American history, and whether its people altered for good or bad is debatable, but one thing is for certain - many drastic changes were made during this time, especially involving teenagers. Juvenile delinquency erupted from the depths of the community, and countless gangs arose. Different genres of music were also emerging. Old perspectives were being replaced with controversial ideas; a lot was about to change. Disrespectful behavior and skeptical concepts weren’t even plausible before the 1950s, but as previously stated, a lot was about to change. Adolescent growth wasn’t the only cause of juvenile delinquency; many things played a factor in this development. One possible explanation is the fact that these youth were “greatly influenced from being raised by a war Dealing with explosives, guns, and other things relating to combat would most likely leave an impact on the individual. Violence in general could possibly lead someone astray. Another explanation could be that “they were inundated with news about issues such as the House Un-American Activities Committee Hearings, Communism, atomic and hydrogen bomb testing, Emmett Till, Brown versus the Board of Education, Sputnik, and the 2 Kinsey Report”(Goostree, Michele Leigh. Youth In Revolt. How Suburban Youth of the 1950s Rejected the Contradictions of an Affluent Society in Favor of Apocalyptic Zombies and Chicken Runs 7,8) frequently. People can be influenced and traumatized easily if they’re forced to handle strenuous events. This may have contributed to juvenile delinquency. People back in the 1950s did have their reasons for believing that the minors were destructive, and they’re not to blame; many juveniles during this time committed criminal actions. According to Time-Life Books

Show More
Related

  • Stephanie Coontz's What We Really Miss about the 1950s

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stephanie Coontz's essay `What we really miss about the 1950's' is an essay that talks about a poll taken in 1996 by the Knight-Ridder news agency that more Americans preferred 1950's as the best decade for children to grow up. Coontz doesn't believe that it is a decade for people to remember fondly about, except for financial reasons and better communication within families. Coontz doesn't believe in it as the best decade because of the votes, the 50's only won by nine percent, and especially not by African Americans. Examples from family and financial issues in the 50's that makes it better than other decades from 20's to 80's. She doesn't believe that the 50's should be taken `literally' because from 50's there were changes in values that caused racism, sexism discrimination against women. Even though the 50's were good, it didn't lead to a better 60, 70, and 80.

    Read More

  • Protests Against the Vietnam War

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teenagers in the 1950s were restless creatures, tired of listening to parents and doing school work. When they went away to university, it gave them a taste of freedom and responsibility at the same time. Unfortunately, a war was going on for the U.S.: a war not all people thought we should have been involved with in the first place. As Mark Barringer stated in his article "The 1960s: Polarization, Cynicism, and the Youth Rebellion", student radicals Al Haber and Tom Hayden from the University of Michigan formed the Students for a Democratic Society in 1960 as a scholarly arm of an institution for Industrial Democracy. In June 1962, fifty-nine SDS members met ...

    Read More

  • The Role Of Youth In Canada During The 1950's

    1586 Words  | 4 Pages

    The institutions, cultural forms, and economic powers were lifted as the term “teenager” itself was created to differentiate young men and women from adults (University of Toronto 145). The clothing trends, hairstyles, dances and even the language was different from that of adults (Armstrong et al, 134). Young men and women enjoyed dressing themselves with blue jeans, leather jackets,and pony tails for women, which stood as an identity for teenagers as it differentiated them from adults (Armstrong et al,135). This idea was amazing to acknowledge because a new type of people are emerging, and this added to Canadian multiculturalism and acceptance of the different types of people.The adults response to the wild nature of teenagers was that they were left shocked at first, yet later they acknowledged this act as just a phase during one’s life, they got used to this unique behaviour as time progressed (OC University 10). With the brutality of World War 2, the youth at the time were simply left neglected (OC University 10). Many believe that teens during the 1950’s were greatly influenced by being raised during a war generation (OC University 10). The youth distinguished themselves through shocking, yet enjoyable behaviour such as dance moves and their overall mindset on life. In addition, advertisers convinced teens to purchase certain products which

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Shumway's 'Blackboard Jungle'

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    1. The sociocultural history of rock & roll during the 1950s created a metamorphosis of teenage mannerisms against the older generation. Shumway (118) emphasizes how the rock & roll periodization represses the nature of normal convention illustrated in “Blackboard Jungle”; through the deviant nature of boys against adults. The boys are malicious towards each other, sneering at one another just as Vince Everett did in “Jailhouse Rock”. While the post-war generation tried to discipline the baby boomers into their known demeanor, the recalcitrant teens rebelled against all means of adult intervention. Similarly Szatmary (50) expressed the generation gap between the baby-boomer and their parents fueled the fear of delinquency in their children. Shumway (125) refers to “Blackboard Jungle” to reiterate the essence of the song “Rock around the Clock” to define the conception of foreseen dangers of youth and the behaviors associated with rock & roll as a transformative cultural practice. In reference to the integration between African Americans and whites during the rock and roll era thr...

    Read More

  • 1950's Culture In Rebel Without A Cause By Nicholas Ray

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    1950’s culture revolved around predetermined roles in society that caused numerous issues, both within an individual and within the society. The stringent society caused teenagers and parents to act a certain way, and if they did not, they were viewed with suspicion. Conforming to the society was challenging for many, and if one did not conform, he or she would be face mental issues or societal issues. In Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray depicted the culture of the 1950’s by showing the type of dating, juvenile delinquency, and parenting that took place during those times and showed its effect on not only that decade, but how it would shape the future years.

    Read More

  • The Different Impressions of People About the 1960s

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Different Impressions of People About the 1960s During the 1950s to the 1960s there were many changes in society. Many dramatic events of the twentieth century happened in the sixties, such Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, the Cuban missile crisis, and more. John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The Vietnam War and the first men on the moon, but the sixties were blamed for many things going wrong in society For teenagers the sixties was a great time for them, they could. finally have their own lives and their own freedom of expression in their clothes, music and tastes.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Ginsberg and Kerouac

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1950s saw a period of great material prosperity in the United States. After World War II G.I.s came back to take charge of the family again. Women no longer had to work and could return to the home to nurse their newborn babies. Housing, automobiles, and white picket fences were in high demand. Televisions became commonplace, making possible the rapid distribution of visual information- not to mention the sitcom. McCarthy had started to purge the U.S. of those pesky Communists, ensuring a democratic future for all. While the blacks, of course, could not realize it, virtually everyone else saw the fulfillment of the American Dream.

    Read More

  • Life During the 1950s in America

    1948 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 1950s seemed like a perfect decade. The rise of suburbs outside cities led to an expansion of the middle class, thus allowing more Americans to enjoy the luxuries of life. The rise of these suburbs also allowed the middle class to buy houses with land that used to only be owned by more wealthy inhabitants. Towns like Levittown-one of the first suburbs- were divided in such a way that every house looked the same (“Family Structures”). Any imperfections were looked upon as unfavorable to the community as a whole. Due to these values, people today think of the 1950s as a clean cut and model decade. This is a simplistic perception because underneath the surface, events that took place outside the United States actually had a direct effect on our own country’s history. The rise of Communism in Russia struck fear into the hearts of the American people because it seemed to challenge their supposedly superior way of life.

    Read More

  • Teenage Dating in the 1950s

    3472 Words  | 7 Pages

    Teenagers in the 1950's are so iconic that, for some, they represent the last generation of innocence before it is "lost" in the sixties. When asked to imagine this lost group, images of bobbysoxers, letterman jackets, malt shops and sock hops come instantly to mind. Images like these are so classic, they, for a number of people, are "as American as apple pie." They are produced and perpetuated by the media, through films like Grease and Pleasantville and television shows like Happy Days, The Donna Reed Show, and Leave It to Beaver. Because of these entertainment forums, these images will continue to be a pop cultural symbol of the 1950's. After the second World War, teenagers became much more noticeable in America (Bailey 47). Their presence and existence became readily more apparent because they were granted more freedom than previous generations ever were.

    Read More

  • History of Rock and Roll

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Fifties were a good time to be a white middle class American These years brought an UN-thought of prosperity and confidence to Americans who barely remembered the Great Depression. Popular music of the early fifties mirrored the life of mainstream America: bland predictable and reassuring. Which didn't seem bad after the depre...

    Read More

  • Women In The 1950s Essay

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1950s was a time when conformity held supreme in the culture at large. Issues such as women 's rights were thrown to the back as people tried to remain in the popular form of a family. These issues being put off only caused the prolonging of the tumultuous 1960s that would soon

    Read More

  • Juvenile Delinquency In The 20th Century

    241 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the twentieth century, juveniles were oftentimes treated the same as adults in regards to the justice system, however, age was considered in terms of an appropriate punishment. At the turn of the century, criminal justice actors as well as policy makers began to change their perspective on the juvenile by considering them a delinquent child instead of a criminal. The juvenile justice system is comprised of those agencies whose primary duty is to manage juvenile offenders. In most major police departments, juvenile police officers have the sole responsibility of dealing with juvenile delinquency. The juvenile justice system was founded on the concept of parens patriae, which means the state as parent. In other words, the juvenile delinquent

    Read More

  • Ronald Oakley God's Country Analysis

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Historians agree that a generation “gap” was created in the 1950s between parents and teenagers; however, it has been debatable whether the introduction of Rock N Roll was its cause. In his book, “God’s Country: America in the Fifties”, J. Ronald Oakley provides a convincing argument that teenagers were not changing their values and morals during this time, but instead were simply adapting to the growing changes, such as the end of The Great Depression and World War II, an improved economy, Dr. Spock’s child care manual, introduction of cars and televisions to American households, to list a few. Oakley’s argument is strengthened by factoring in all these changes into the equation instead of unrealistically blaming the entire dismantling of

    Read More

  • The Hippie Counterculture

    2095 Words  | 5 Pages

    The nineteen fifties was a decade of prosperous times in America, but the average lifestyle of an American seemed extremely dull. The average American conformed to social norms, most Americans in the nineteen fifties dressed alike, talked the same way, and seemed to have the same types of personality. Music is what started to change the conformist lifestyle in America. Teenagers started to rebellion against their families by listening to Rock-n-Roll...

    Read More

  • Bob Dylan These Times Are A-Changing

    389 Words  | 1 Pages

    Teenagers always be expected to be polite, be well behaved and be obedient to their parents. In the 1950s, teens created a new youth culture. They wore leather jackets, watched different kinds of movies and danced to rock-and-roll

    Read More

More about Delinquency In The 1950s Essay

Open Document