Juvenile Delinquency and Theories

Question 1.

Biological theory best applies to juvenile offenders. Offenders whose family members are criminals are also likely to follow the same path. Genes can explain or predict whether a youth will have a criminal tendency. The classical theory fails because on many occasions youth commit a crime without making calculated choices of the risks and benefits involved. Some will just act out of peer pressure.

Question 2.

I agree that delinquency is strongly explained by psychoanalytic theory. The instinctual or inborn antisocial drive that every child is born with is responsible for delinquency is they are not brought into control. Childhood trauma or abuse can further instill delinquency making him or her to be ever in conflict with his instinctive nature and the demands of his culture. Put differently, the frustration that a child encounters make him to develop deviant behavior as a mechanism to face the frustrations. 

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Question 3.

Lemert explained primary deviations as mild and received no social reaction or corrective reaction. This could be a student speaking out of turn in class. However, he noted that as the deviant behavior becomes repetitive or persistent, then societal reaction becomes stronger and more punitive. Such deviant behaviors that produce societal penalties that lead to stigmatization are secondary deviations.

Question 4.

There can be no unifying theory to juvenile delinquency. Crime is unique and similar in different ways making it difficult to explain with one theory. For example, a teen who had been sexualized abused as a teenager could be forced to crime due to a mere lack of food. Moreover, recent changes in what is socially acceptable also make it difficult for a unifying theory. For example, the acceptance of homosexuality has challenged the psychoanalytic community which had best describe why individuals develop the behavior (Lingiardi & Capozzi, (2004). 

References

Lingiardi, V., & Capozzi, P. (2004). Psychoanalytic attitudes towards homosexuality: An empirical research. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85(1), 137-157. https://doi.org/10.1516/aafk-h7n2-yvca-27mc