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Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Delinquency Introduction The term Juvenile Delinquency is used to refer to deviant and social acts conducted by individuals who fall in the category of children as well as teenagers. The issue of Juvenile Delinquency is on a rise and is impacting the overall society and the individual themselves in a negative manner. Juvenile Delinquency is an issue of great concern and due to this several policies regarding this issue have been created in different parts of the world.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs, reports that during the period of 2010, more than 4k out of 100k individuals who fell in the age category of young adults was arrested in the region of US (OJJDP, 2012, p.1). They state that the number of arrests have decline in comparison of the number of arrests of 1996. Although US have experienced a decline, still a long way needs to be travelled to counter the situation in an absolute manner. Different theorists have figured out different causes of Juvenile Delinquency, some have argued that biological conditions have a major role to play and some argue that psychological issues are the main causes.

This writing will compare and contrast both the biological as well as the psychological theories of Juvenile Delinquency. Body The main difference between the biological and psychological theorists of Juvenile Delinquency is that the biological theorists believe that individuals are born to be criminals and the psychological theorists claim that the environment is responsible for an individual’s criminal behavior. Garofalo suggested that genetics play a major role in causing an individual to commit antisocial activities (Burfeind, 2011, p.120). Biological theorists assert that genetic issues may make an individual of a family deviate from the behaviors and norms that are created and followed by the society and family.

Biological theorists who are considered as modern world theorists suggest that relationship that are biochemical in nature such as activity of the brain wave and other biological elements determine an individual’s deviant activities. According to biological researchers, an individual acts in an aggressive manner because certain chemical in his/her brain might be absent. Biological theories of Juvenile Delinquency are not new; they have existed since the middle ages when while identifying the real criminal out of the number of suspects, the person who appear to be uglier was regarded as the offender.

Shapes of different body parts such as skull as well as shape of nose and lips have even been associated with causes of criminal behavior. Different kinds of bodies have even been associated with criminal behavior, according to William Sheldon there are three forms of body types and these body types have different personality characteristics (Burfeind, 2011, p.120). He concluded that individuals who have an athletic body are at a higher risk of committing criminal like activity as compared to those who are fat and fragile.

On one end are those who biological theorists who believe that genetics, body shape and size and body chemical are the underlying reasons of criminal behavior and on the other hand are the psychological theorists who believe that environment is to be held responsible for criminal activity. According to psychological theorists, individuals who come from weak backgrounds, who belong to the portion of the nation that represents the poor and live in poor regions develop personality that is disturbing and antisocial.

When individuals are experience adolescence they are experiencing internal conflict, have to pass through ambiguous situations and have ample amount of energy vested within them. They have expectations from their caregivers and if these expectations are not met, the outcome is quite disturbing. Juvenile Delinquency conducts various activities due to internal conflicts and while conducting these activities they tend to show impulsive behavior and act in a very hostile manner. Such activities reflect that individuals are experiencing low control over themselves and this lack of self control is a result of weak connections and deprivation of care provided by parents at an early age in life (Cowen, 2012, p.634). Psychologists even claim that this kind of compulsive and aggressive behavior is even an outcome of children being a victim of abuse.

This kind of behavior is not necessarily an outcome of abuse caused to the child directly, this kind of behavior can even be witnessed if at an early age the child has witnessed abuse taking place in households (Cowen, 2012, p.634). Conclusion There are various theories that try to explain why children indulge in criminal behavior. Two of these theories include the biological perspective and the psychological perspective. According to the biological perspective, children are born with certain genes which increases their risk of committing crimes and psychological theorists assert that children become antisocial as a result of their environment.

References Juvenile Arrest Rate Trends. (2012, December 17). Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05200 Burfeind, J. W., & Bartusch, D. J. (2011). Juvenile delinquency: an integrated approach (2nd ed.). Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Cowen, P., & Harrison, P. J. (2012). Shorter Oxford textbook of psychiatry (6th ed.). Oxford [etc.: Oxford University Press.