Juvenile Crime

Juvenile crimes refer to the antisocial or criminal activities of teenagers who violate the law. Nowadays, the prevalence of antisocial and delinquent behavior in juveniles has increased dramatically. The factors which lead to the increment of juvenile crimes are found at each level of social structure includes family, peer-group influence and media influence.

First of all, parental involvement is the major factors of the increase of juvenile crimes as parents play a crucial role in shaping behavior of teenagers (Wright & Wright 1994). Poor parental monitoring contributes to the antisocial behavior of teenagers and predictive of higher levels of delinquent acts (Kim, et al. 1999). Therefore, the probability for them to associate with juvenile crimes increases. Besides, positive communication for family functioning has major implications for delinquent behavior of teenagers (Clark and Shields, 1997). Poor parent-child relationship causes the increase of juvenile crimes since communication has a significant effect in behavior and personality of teenagers. Children may feel like being neglected. Therefore, they will led astray and eventually involve in juvenile crimes.

Moreover, peer-group influence also escalates the number of juvenile crimes. Teenagers are easily influenced by their peer with antisocial behavior. They may have weak social ties as they lack communication with social members (Office of the Surgeon General, 2001). They start to lack consideration (Thomas F. Tate 2006) for others and eventually cause damage to society. Besides, in a gang membership, due to the feeling of scare of being rejected by members, teenagers will resolutely join them to show their pro-social behaviors. Consequently, they are likely to become juvenile offenders.

Lastly, media influence also leads to the increment of juvenile crimes among teenagers. With the presence of internet and television, teenagers can get the video related to the acts of horrific violence easily as it is highly publicized in the media. When they expose to violence over a period of time, they are influenced by the culture of solving conflicts with violence (Craig A. Anderson, 2003). They tend to learn and display the action of violence to gain public attention (Christine A. Christle, C. Michael Nelson, Kristine Jolivette, University of Kentucky). Therefore, most of them have misused the media's corruptive force.

This is a crime statistics in Malaysia from 1980 to 2004:

In conclusion, juvenile crime is getting great attention from the news media and politicians. Approaches to understand the factors of family, peer-group influence and media influence in the increase of juvenile crimes are vital. Teenagers are important being the successor of today's society, the epitome of change and the moving force for advancement and change the future of the society with