Youth crime has been a topic of major debate dating back to the 19th century. Laws have been continuously written to fit what society feels is th best way to handle youth in conflict with the law. What people sometimes fail to see is the true cause of there delinquent actions these teens commit these crimesthe focus of this essay is to relate the story of two Ottawa valley teens in conflict with the law to different sociological theories. First I will give a brief summary of the article and then connect it with theories such as cultural conflict, control theory, strain and labelling theory. The article being discussed is one about two Ottawa valley teens who stole three different cars, while being chased by police and then finally arrested. There was one male youth sixteen years of age accompanied by a female who was thirteen years of age. The chase started in the Ottawa valley and concluded near the border of maine on the united states side. police first started there pursite in Ontario and then found the first stolen car abandoned in sherbrok quebec. Main police then stated the the two teenagers stole a second vehical and attempted to enter the united states through coburn gore maine. A “wild chase” then began and police fired shots at the stolen vehicale. The pruisute was said to have reached 160 kilomtetres per hour or more by police. Border patrol said they chased the teens and the hijack car down route 27. During the chase the a border patrol vehical colieded with the stolen vehical in Stratton, maine. Despite the collision the car continued on while shots were being fired towards kingsfield, maine. The second car was then abandoned on depot street in kingsfield. The to teens then ran and found a pick up truck to continu... ... middle of paper ... ...ain these goals of travel, driving and indpence they decided to steal cars and get across the border. Therefore relating back to mertons definition of an innovator creating there own means to obtains societal goals Another theory that relates closely to the Ottawa valley teens is social control. This theory focuses on the fact that individuals will become delinquent unless they are controlled. There are two types of control theories that relate closely to this article, which are containment and social bond. According to this theory there are four causes of offending behaviour. Which are social environment, meaning education or status in society. Next are internal factors so your genetic make up, that cause you to have certain personality traits. These factors can push and pull youth into delinquent behaviour. Working agains these pushes and pulls are control factors
On Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at approximately 1956 hours, Officer Reinbold #7400 and I (Officer Guerrero #3310) were dispatched to 1113 Marengo Avenue, in regard to a vandalism that just occurred. Dispatch advised the victim (later identified as Kristyn Cota) saw two male juveniles spray painting her fence. Cota advised dispatch she was following both subjects and they were last seen running southbound on Marengo Avenue, from Hammond Street. The first suspect was described as male Hispanic, approximately 15 years old, wearing a gray shirt and dark colored shorts. The second suspect
On 01-01-17 at 0023 hours I was monitoring the radio and heard that Officer Harrell #3441 and Officer Thebeau #8402 were involved in a vehicle pursuit in the area of Fair Oaks Avenue and Corson Street. I responded to the above location to assist. They advised responding units that the suspect was involved in a traffic collision on the eastbound 210 Freeway Fair Oaks Avenue off-ramp.
The youth control complex is a form of social control in which the justice system (the prison system) and the socializing and social control institutions (school system) work together to stigmatize, criminalize, and punish inner city youth. Accordingly, these adolescents’ are regarded as deviant and incompetent to participate within U.S. society. On that note, deviance is created based on socially constructed labels of deviances; otherwise, deviance wouldn’t happen without these labels. Once an individual engages in a deviant behavior, it results in a response, often times, some type of punishment from the justice system. The youth control complex creates social incapacitation (social death) among juveniles. This ubiquitous system of social
Many theories, at both the macro and micro level, have been proposed to explain juvenile crime. Some prominent theories include Social Disorganization theory, Differential Social Organization theory, Social Control theory, and Differential Association theory. When determining which theories are more valid, the question must be explored whether people deviate because of what they learn or from how they are controlled? Mercer L. Sullivan’s book, “Getting Paid” Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City clearly suggests that the learning theories both at the macro level, Differential social organization, and micro level, Differential association theory, are the more accurate of the two types of theory.
Youth crime is a growing epidemic that affects most teenagers at one point in their life. There is no question in society to whether or not youths are committing crimes. It has been shown that since 1986 to 1998 violent crime committed by youth jumped approximately 120% (CITE). The most controversial debate in Canadian history would have to be about the Young Offenders Act (YOA). In 1982, Parliament passed the Young Offenders Act (YOA). Effective since 1984, the Young Offenders Act replaced the most recent version of the Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA). The Young Offenders Act’s purpose was to shift from a social welfare approach to making youth take responsibility for their actions. It also addressed concerns that the paternalistic treatment of children under the JDA did not conform to Canadian human rights legislation (Mapleleaf). It remained a heated debate until the new legislation passed the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Some thought a complete overhaul was needed, others thought minor changes would suffice, and still others felt that the Young Offenders Act was best left alone.
In all the analysis, the youth justice policy analyst has to judge the use of specific words and their interpretations conveyed and the interpretations captured by society and formalise a method which in all way tries to curb the spread of wrong interpretation. Moral panic, demonization, and politicisation are of invaluable use for the youth policy analyst as the interpretations of these words makes most of the difference in the way juvenile crime is viewed and accepted by society at large.
Youth gangs in North American society are nothing new. When we turn on the news we often hear stories of misguided youth contributing to yet another gang related crime. Even though it is known that youth crimes are overrepresented in the media today, the subject of youth gang activity is quite a predicament to our society. Over the last few years, there has been a moral panic created by constant exposure to the media which portrays a great amount of youth crimes and violence. In Canada there are large urban cities with high proportions of young people, many of which live in poverty, that now have the issue of dealing with youth gangs and youth crimes. Toronto, British Columbia, and Ottawa are examples of Canadian cities that have youth gang problems. The implementation of the new Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002) has changed the way youth crimes are dealt with legally in Canada. It is one step in the right direction for dealing with the issue of youth offending. Although the new act is not perfect, it will provide a better sense of justice to society because it calls for greater punishment for youths who re-offend. Youth Gangs in Canada are a potentially serious problem that needs to be addressed and tactically prevented. If preventative measures are not taken, these large populated urban areas in Canada will have problems similar to those of some major American cities. This essay will analyze the youth gang problem in Canada. It will cover topics such as types of youth gangs, the seriousness of the problem, and the cause for the creation of youth gangs from a Social Disorganization theory perspective. It will also examine the effect of the Youth Criminal Justice Act on gang crime.
Youth and juvenile crime is a common and serious issue in current society, and people, especially parents and educators, are pretty worried about the trend of this problem. According to Bala and Roberts, around 17% of criminals were youths, compared to 8% of the Canadian population ranging from 12 to 18 years of age between 2003 and 2004 (2006, p37). As a big federal country, Canada has taken a series of actions since 1908. So far, there are three justice acts in the history of the Canadian juvenile justice system, the 1908 Juvenile Delinquents Act, the 1982 Young Offenders Act, and the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act. In Canada, the judicial system and the principles of these laws have been debated for a long time.
Gullion (2006, p. 1) states that the strain theory has a rich academic “heritage” in defining the criterion for explaining deviant and criminal disposition, collected from the work of Durkheim to the modern writings of Agnew. In recent times, youths have been committing criminal actions and have been engaged in criminal behaviors; however, the term “juvenile delinquency” is of more recent vintage. Some of the earliest laws included the “rebellious or stubborn” child law in Massachusetts.
Social control can either be informal (parents etc.) or formal (police etc.) and without these controls, juveniles become more susceptible to delinquency (Shaw,McKay,1942). In the city of Erie, there are a lot of neighborhoods in which are breaking down, especially the one around the Boys and Girls club. On my last day at the Boys and Girls club, a young girl was jumped just a few blocks down from the center; she was just walking home. The city of Erie itself has pocket communities of poverty which are in close proximity to communities which are more prosperous. From others who I had talked to at the club, those who worked their often had to deal with parents who did not care, were not around, or were negative influences in the child’s life. A few of the older kids at the Boys and Girls club had been involved with gangs, drug abuse and selling, and have been effected in some way by the violence in the low income neighborhoods they lived in. Staff had notified me that sometimes the programs in which the schools or juvenile
Juvenile delinquency is a conduct by a juvenile or a person below the legal age that is above parental control thus dealt with by the law. Crime in this case cannot be punishable by death or life imprisonment. There are many cases of juvenile delinquency in recent times that have raised many issues in the United State’s legal systems. There are many ways of explaining juvenile delinquency and crime when it comes to; cause, results, and legal actions pertaining to crimes. Alex Kotlowitz in his book, “There Are No Children Here” focuses on crime and juvenile delinquency through life experiences. This story is about the life of two boys who the author researched for a few years. The two boys were from Chicago, grew up in a poor family, surrounded by poverty, gangs, and violence as do many of us who come from low income, minority filled areas. The two boys unfortunately, sad to say end up in juvenile hall which clearly depicts the whole concept of crime and juvenile delinquency that arises from more issues than simply meets the eye . Issues relating to the social disorganization theory of poverty, disorganization, and low community control. This paper will analyze the story using themes that relate to juvenile delinquency and further discuss causes and ways to control juvenile delinquency
Many young people join street gangs due to weak family relationships and poor social control. Social Control Theory presumes that people will naturally commit crime if there were left to their own devices (i.e. no laws in society) and people do not commit crimes because of certain controlling forces, such as social bonds that hold individuals back partaking on their anti social behavior (Bell, 2011). Examples of controlling forces are family, school, peers, and the law. Young people who are t...
Labelling theory, stemming from the influences of Cooley, Mead, Tannenbaum, and Lemert, has its origins somewhere within the context of the twentieth century. However, Edwin Lemert is widely considered the producer and founder of the original version of labelling theory. This paper, not a summary, provides a brief history of labelling theory, as well as, its role in the sociology of deviance. It attempts to explore the contributions made by labelling theorists, the criticism towards labelling theorists, and the discussion surrounding its reality as an actual theory. In essence, the main focus of this paper besides proving an understanding of Howard Becker, is to describe and evaluate `labelling theory` to the study of crime and deviance, by way of an in depth discussion.
Agnew, R. (1985). Social Control Theory and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test. Criminology Volume 23 , 47-59.
SLT examines the learned behavior and attitudes as a result of having relationships with deviants and Strain Theory explores how strains pressure juveniles into committing acts as a coping mechanism. Strain theory highlights why youths engage in more crimes than adults do and clarifies the causations of delinquency by taking a social approach, clarifying how strains trigger delinquency. Strain Theory provides an answer for delinquent causation, not an excuse. Strain Theory reveals how strains often resulting in delinquency as a result of wanting to change a situation. The pressure a child faces between their aspirations and the actuality of a situation is what creates a strain. Therefore, juvenile delinquency is one way to cope with feelings of frustration or unpleasant situations. Juveniles have far less behavioral control over themselves, which leads to impulsivity. Responsible adults have far much more to lose (job, assets, relationships, etc.) and as a result of their strong morals, values, and self-disciple do not engage in acts of crimes. Strains are defined as dissatisfied relationships one finds him or herself