Juvenile Crimes: Socio-Economic Factors Responsible - Research Paper Example

?Juvenile crimes: Socio Economic Factors Responsible Part Introduction One of the biggest problems that many developed and developing countries face today is juvenile crime. It does not only affect the individual who is involved in the incident but also affect the victim of the crime and their families. The largest risk factor associated with the juvenile crime is the omission of his or her family life and also the tendency of increasing violence in their future life. Absence of proper education or proper social guidance will lead them towards crime. In this research we are trying to figure out different socioeconomic reasons behind the occurrence of juvenile crime. On the basis of collected data on different socio-economical parameters related to juvenile crime, we are trying to figure out whether one single reason plays more important behind this crime or the different social and economical parameters an important role behind this. Use of different statistical methods to analyze the collected data will help us figure out what are the points that play a major role behind juvenile crimes across the world. To sum up the research topic we can say that the most important question in relation to juvenile crime is how many lives should be lost when a young person gets involved in a crime resulting in a death of an innocent person? In every country, the above question is the most important point of debate with respect to juvenile crime. Hence this research attempts to find the relation between socio economic factors and juvenile offences. Part 2: Literature Review: According to Binder, Geis, Bruce (2001), a person below a certain legally defined age of criminal responsibility and above a certain age limit, held punishable for conducting any criminal offense is known as juvenile delinquent. The consideration of minimum age, at which an individual can be convicted in a criminal court varies in different countries. For youngsters, any hearing for any kind of offense happens in a juvenile court initially but if the court feels that the level of crime is bigger, then the justice can be done through normal hearing (Binder, Geis, Bruce, 2001, p.3). Principal youth court judge of New Zealand Becroft (2009), in his writing pointed out different reasons behind the antisocial or criminal behavior of any child. These comprised previous history of antisocial behavior, use of tobacco, alcohol etc, low self control, hyperactive nature, low family income, less educated parents, family history of criminal behavior. All these directly or indirectly induce a young child to get involved in criminal activities. According to Shoemaker (2009), Juvenile delinquency not only include criminal activities, conducted by any minor, but it also includes other activities like running away from home, truance from school, disobeying the instruction of parents or local guardians etc. These activities known as “status offenses” (Shoemaker, 2009, p 3). According to Shoemaker, in the USA, two factors were taken into consideration by any state before taking a case from the juvenile court to adult court jurisdiction. These are age of the child at the time of the offense and the nature of magnitude of the offense. Any serious offense like murder or forcible rape by any juvenile sometimes transferred to the adult court of jurisdiction which requires a higher level of punishment. (Shoemaker, 2009, p 3-4) Elrod and Ryder(2013) in their study pointed out the importance of juvenile justice as an institution for social control. According to them it is important for the family and school to have control over the youth and also teach them the lesson to not get involved in the criminal activities. According to them, juvenile justice system will help young individuals to avoid the criminal activities in the near future which are harmful for them as well as their near ones. (Elrod and Ryder, 2013, p. 13). According to World youth report 2003 (2004), the intensity of the juvenile crime, is determined by the social, economical and cultural conditions of the place where the juvenile is born and bought up. A negative consequence of social and economic development, political instability as well as weakening of major institutions was the main reason behind juvenile crime. In their report they also pointed out that the countries with less urbanized population have more chance of getting affected by the juvenile crime compare to those with strong rural lifestyle and communities (World Youth Report 2003, 2004, pp. 193-194). According to Siegal & Welsh (2011), in Asia, the juvenile crime rates were maximum in Japan. In their survey, they have pointed out the fact that the juvenile crime percentage in Japan increased to a maximum in the last decade. The increase was by 60%. To control the juvenile crime, the Japanese government was forced to revise its juvenile act, making it more stringent in last 50 years. Not only Japan, in Asia, China also faces the problem regarding juvenile crime. During 2010, within a span of three months five mass killing incidents were happening, all of them were conducted by the school children. According to them, the rapid growth in Chinese economy affected the social structure, traditional norms, values and ethics resulted into a huge gap among different groups of people in the society, resultant into an increase in the juvenile crime (Siegal & Welsh, 2011, pp.622-623). Jones & Weatherburn (2011) in their study regarding rehabilitation versus punishment to reduce juvenile crime pointed out that people in the USA prefer crime reduction efforts among juveniles by means of rehabilitation. Their research also pointed out that people who intend to pay more tax to reduce crime in their area are young educated and under less financial threats. For their research they have used the telephonic interview process among the group of people who were 18 years or more in age (Jones & Weatherburn, 2011, pp.12, 25). According to Thompson (2011) the increase in the juvenile crime in the USA was related to the increase in the number of school dropouts. According to his report the dropout level reached a height of crisis in 2009. According to their study, only 70 percent of the US students were able to complete their graduation after taking admission in high school. According to him the reason behind the poor state of education in the USA were -self interested teachers union who provides abnormal test scores, deepening poverty rates and racial segregation (Thompson, 2011, p.23). Elonheimo et al. (2010) with their research on Finnish youth on juvenile crime pointed out certain new aspects. Their research showed that property and traffic offences are common among youths. Different types of crime among the group of juveniles including drug offenses shows determining psychological parameters like parent’s divorce, living in a small community, financial problem, habit of regular smoking and drinking etc. While doing the research they collected the data from the group of young people as well as from their parents and with the help of univariate and multivariate logical regression analysis then came to their observations (Elonheimo et. al. 2010, pp.904-905, 913). Georgous (2009) in his study focused on some special individual characteristics like gender, physiognomy, biological factors, psychological factors behind the juvenile crime.According to him, at a young age, any child gets easily associated with the surrounding environment where he or she was born and bought up. Social activities tend to influence them the most. In his view the study of juvenile crime was not based on any one factor, there are different reasons in different societies which make a young child involved in any kind of juvenile activities (Georgeous,2009, pp.170,178). Part 3: Methodology The nature of sources which might be collected in this respect is primary in nature. A selective random sample of 50 young people is collected comprising 25 offenders and 25 normal people. Data is collected for the variables Family income (F), a dummy denoting whether the participant is offender or not (JC), ethnicity (Native American or non native) denoted by E, gender (dummy denoting male or female) denoted by G, education (last grade scored – range specified form A to F denoted by scores 5 to 1) denoted by Score. The following three options can be considered for quantitative analysis. Method 1: The method of multivariate regression is used to determine significant association between the predicted causal variables and the dependant variable signifying whether the youngster is an offender or not. The equation can be framed as follows: JC = A + b1 (F) + b2 (G) + b3 (E) + b4 (Score) Null Hypothesis: b1 = b2 = b3= b4 = 0 Alternative hypothesis: b1, b2, b3, b4 ? 0 If null hypothesis is true then the model will be significant and this will denote that the socio economic factors do not play any significant role in determining the offender. Method 2: The collected data can be de-codified and presented in tabular format using numeric values. Then chi square test can be applied to test if the variables are pair wise independent or not (Star Trek, 2013). For instance the correlation coefficient can be determined between JC and paired with each of the independent variables. The hypothesis for any two variables can be presented as: Null hypothesis: variables A and B are independent Alternative hypothesis: variables A and B are not independent. There needs to be four chi square tests to find the relation between each of the independent variables with JC. Method 3: A preliminary analysis can be done by using descriptive statistics for each variable and plotting scatter diagrams pairwise. A scatter plot helps in understanding the degree of association between two variables and helps in identifying the outlier if any. For the case considered here, I would suggest method one because that would specifically serve our purpose in a sophisticated manner. A low R-square and high t-values for the coefficients will denote incidence of multi-collinearity amongst the dependant variables and this should be checked. References Becroft, A. (2009) ,“What causes youth crime, and what can we do about it?”, NZ Bluelight Ventures Inc - Conference & AGM,  retrieved  on  03-09-2012 from http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/youth/publications-and-media/speeches/what-causes-youth-crime-and-what-can-we-do-about-it. Binder, A.Geis, G. and Bruce, D.D. (2001), Juvenile delinquency: Historical, Cultural and Legal Perspectives,Elsevier Elonheimo et.al. (2010),Generic and crime type specific correlates of youth crime:a Finnish population-based study, Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol.46(9), 903-914 Elrod P. & Ryder S. R.(2013) Juvenile Justice: A social, Historical and Legal Perspective, Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Georgoulas S. (2009), Youth and Crime in the Greek Context, International Journal of Academic Research,1(1) Jones C. G. & Weatherburn D. J. (2011), Willingness to Pay for Rehabilitation Versus Punishment to Reduce Adult and Juvenile Crime, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 46 (1), 9-27 Shoemaker J D. (2009), Juvenile Delinquency, Rowman and Littlefield. Siegal L. J. & Welesh B. C., (2011), Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law, New York: Cengage Learning Star Trek (2013), Chi-square test for independence, retrieved on September 4, 2013 from: http://stattrek.com/chi-square-test/independence.aspx Thompson H. A. (2011), Criminalizing Kids-The overlooked Reason for Failing Schools, Dissent, Fall, 23-27 World youth report 2003:The Global Situation of Young People,(2004) United Nations Publications, retrieved on 03-09-2013 from http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aOUbnx7RZFAC&pg=PA198&dq=juvenile+crime+economical+aspects&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2rYlUuvUMsilrQfm74HwBA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=juvenile%20crime%20economical%20aspects&f=false Read More