There has been an increased concern about crime committed by young individuals from the 1980s.Every community worries about the criminal behavior of young people due to its implications on individual losses and public property destruction. Juvenile crime can also have a negative effect on the economic growth of the community, future adult behavior and school dropout. Changes in behaviors are attributed to the erosion of traditional patterns holding and guiding relationships in schools, homes and work environments. The social standards for the society are slowly fading. Children’s behaviors are becoming more unpredictable and violent. According to the United Nations, an antisocial behavior can be a normal part of growth in children at the beginning of a long-term criminal behavior. Some psychologists argue that youthful delinquency is often a part of growth process in children that will eventually disappear when they grow up. Some studies reveal that majority of the juvenile delinquency cases in many countries are a group phenomenon. Those juveniles who commit offences alone are also likely to be associated with an existing violent group. Juvenile delinquency is found in almost every class and cultural context. The conditions favoring delinquent offences are found at each level of the social structure, institutions or organization (World Youth Report, 2003). The aim of his study is to analyze the inverse relationship between juvenile delinquency and education from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The study will mainly examine how education can lead to a rise in the level of delinquency in juveniles.
Literature Review
A study conducted by Ntshangase (2015) using a qualitative design revealed that the level of juvenile delinquency in schools is increasing at a very high rate and needs the attention of the stakeholders of education in all countries. She further found out that there is is a direct positive relationship between the education performance and juvenile crimes. According to her, there is very little intervention on the juvenile behaviors because policymakers lack the will to implement the necessary interventions. Rud & Klaveren (2013), also conducted a similar study using the technology of skill formation theory. They concluded that the characteristics of juvenile crimes are quite different from adult crime. They also found a close relationship between crime and education. Although early juvenile crimes are likely to have a negative impact on education attainment, education can also reduce the probability of the criminal behavior in youths. The study concluded by an examination of components such as incapacitation effects, skill acquisition, and peer influence.
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Ward & Williams, (2014) conducted a study to reveal whether juvenile delinquency reduce educational attainment. Their study focused on two educational attainment parameters in 16-year-old: high school graduation and college level graduation. The study concluded basing on the data from the very rich National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in 1997 that, delinquency at the age of 16 drastically scales down the chances of graduating from high school or college. The study further found out that the perceived rewards from crime and a subjective notion on the least probability of arrest are the technical reasons for juvenile delinquency.
Unlike most studies on juvenile offenses, Donges (2015), studied juvenile delinquency from an ethical perspective to get an insight into the prediction of antisocial behavior in juveniles. Besides, the research confirmed that there is no relationship between juvenile delinquency and crime. According to him, poor academic performance is caused by low self-efficacy and self-esteem. E ducational failure demoralizes students making them feel unfit in any school environment thus making them resort to delinquency.
Mallaney (2016), conducted a similar research in a school environment. Her study particularly viewed education as both a cause and a consequence of poor performance in education. She too confirmed that delinquency does not negatively influence the academic achievement. Instead through the use of Thornberry’s interactional model, she deduced that there is an inverse relationship which is mainly caused by school inattachment and poor academic achievement.
Research Gap
A lot of research has examined the effects of juvenile delinquency on educational performance. However, very little research has been done to examine the complexity of the inverse relationship between education and juvenile deliquency. Poor performance in students may lead to a bad relationship with teachers and peers. Therefore, Juvenile deliquency could be a reflection of poor performance in education or poor educational relationships with the teachers and other students. This leads to the primary subject matter of this study on the negative relationship between education and deliquency.
Objectives
To establish the relationship between school-related problems and juvennile deliquency.
To identfy the most commonly juvinille crimes commited among the target froup.
To establish the commonly causes of juvenille deliquency among the school-going children.
Research Question
What is the relationship between school-related problems and deliquency?
What are th emost school-related problems that lead to junille deliquency?
What are the most common causes of juvenille deliquewncy among school-going children?
Hypotheses
There is a relationship between school-related problems and juvenile deliquency
There is no relationship between scholl-related problems and deliquency.
School-Related Problems and Juvenile Delinquency
Some violent children have had the pressure to drop out of school. Although deliquency is expected to increase in level after school drop out, some studies reveal that a number of children have shown signs of transformation from bad criminal habits to good behaviour. According to the National Academy of Sciences (2018), there is a clear evidence that poor educational performance and disobedience of school rules lead to deliquency. Students who underperform or fail to obey rules in school are isolated from the larger group emotionally making them appear as failures in life. This isolation demoralizes students making them find alternative means of goal achievement through antisocial behavior.
According to Rud & Klaveren (2013), juveniles and older people do not have the same form of motivational drivers to engage in criminal activities. Adults are motivated by economic prosperity while juveniles' primary motivation is for consolation, pleasure, and entertainment. Thus mischievioues crimes in juveniles may be because of boredom of the routine educational rules and pressure. In some situations, the youths seek to find physical activities that are not found in the school.
However, not every underperforming kid commits a crime. It is only apparent that violent juveniles have a record of being part of school-related problems. Besides, school-related problems determine the frequency of deliquency. Unsolved issues of underperformance or school in attendance create a repetitive cycle where the students feel rejected and resorts to bad behavior frequently. Peers also have a significant role to play in encouraging crime through delinquent conversation, peer isolation, and bad-behavior grouping. Criminal activities are perceived to be risky, and anyone who engages in them is known to be a daring superhero among peers. Therefore some juveniles may opt to participate in crime to earn particular respect which is not derived from academic achievement.
Methodology
This section discusses the research design, the area the study will be conducted, the target population, sample selection technique and the instruments of data collection and data analysis.
Research Design
The research design that will be used will be a qualitative survey. This design will entail collecting information from a selected group of people using survey questions and interview questions. The opinions of the entire target population will be deduced from the findings of the selected group.
Population
This study will target teachers of all senior level schools in America. The accessible population will be 300 teachers from Brookhouse and Brookside high schools in Midland in Texas. This population comprising of teachers is appropriate since they are the ones responsible for the wellbeing of youths in schools. Besides, they will be in a better position to explain the behavior of pupils because their major proffessional roles depends on monitoring student behaviors.
Population Sample
Teachers of both Brookhouse and Brookside schools may be too many for a successful survey. A smaller proportion of the sample will be selected. The total population of teachers of both schools is around 300. The study will only require 30 teachers.
Technique of Sample Selection
Random sampling technique for selecting the sample will be used to ensure equal representation and accuracy of the study of the variables of the study. The method will also be the best in eliminating sampling bias. The researcher will assign codes against the names of the accessible population. The next step will be to find random numbers and selecting the sample.
Data Collection
The survey questions will act as a primary instrument for collecting data. The research questions will comprise of three section. Section A will be the personal information of the respondents; section B will contain questions on statistics of juvenile crime in schools and part C will have questions on the relationship between school-related problems and deliquency. The researcher will also supplement the survey questions with an interview technique. The responses will be recorded in tape recorders and some written down by the researcher. However, the researcher will mainly use the tape recorder to save time and to focus on critical areas of the study. The researcher will have to inform the respondents and ask for their consent before recording. Besides, they will also be notified of the confidentiality of the study.
Data Analysis Technique
Data obtained will be anlysed through SPSS(Stastical Package for Social Sciences) to establish the relationship between variables. The researcher will first document the results of the findings. Then the data will be categorized into groups based on the relenant research questions. The last step will involve reporting the findings of the research through tables, ratios as well aspercentages using Stastical Package for Social Sciences computer software.
Ethical Consideration
The researcher will first seek permission from the university before carrying on with the research. He/she will also requested the permission of the administration of the schools. Furthermore, he/she will seek the consent of the participants by first explaining to them the research obectives and allowing them to take part freely. Withdrawal in the middle of the research will also be allowed. They will also be reassured of confidentiality and that the research findings will be purely for academic reasons. The researcher will maintain a peaceful environment for the comfort of the participants.
Possible Limitations of the Research
Some participants may be unwilling to participate to the end interfering with the number of the selected sample. Access to the population may be a challenge and may require a lot of legal procedures. The due date of the task may limit the time for investigating the research problem and analysis.
Survey Questions
Section A : Personal Information
1.Gender: male [ ] Female [ ]
2. Age:…………………….
3. Profession :…………………………..
4. residence: …………………………
Section B: Juvenile crime in schools
5. What is your definition of juvenile crime?.................................................
6. in your opinion, do you think youth-related crime is a problem in your school? Yes [ ] No [ ]
7. what crimes committed by young people are most common in your school?
[ ]Theft [ ] misconduct [ ] property destruction [ ] drug abuse [ ] other (specify )………………….
8. how many cases of youth crimes have been reported this year?
Less than 10 [ ]
Between 10 to 50 [ ]
Between 50 to 100 [ ]
Over 100 [ ]
9. Do you believe that the government is doing enough to prevent juvenile crime?
Strongly agree [ ]
Agree [ ]
Undecided [ ]
Disagree [ ]
Strongly Disagree [ ]
10. Who is responsible for most of the antisocial behavior in your community?
Youths/children [ ] adults [ ]
11. how would you rate the level of discipline in your school?
Very Good [ ]
Good [ ]
Average [ ]
Poor [ ]
Very poor [ ]
12. is there anything that you would wish to change the behavior of most children in your school?
Yes [ ] No [ ]
13. If yes what is it and why ?...............................................................
Section c: the relationship between school-related problems and deliquency
14. what do you think leads young people to commit crime?............................................... why?.................................................................................
15. Do you think juvenile crime has an effect on education?.....................................................................
What is it?....................................................................
16. what do you think is the main reason leading children to commit a crime?
Home printing [] parental negligence [ ] peer influence [ ] education-related stress[ ]
17. Do you believe school-related problems lead to Juvenile Delinquency? Yes [ ] No [ ]
18. what are the most common problems in your school
Lateness [ ] underperformance [ ]
19. Do you believe that underperforming students are socially isolated by teachers and their peers in the school?
Strongly agree [ ]
Agree [ ]
Neutral [ ]
Disagree [ ]
Strongly disagree [ ]
20. Underperforming students are the most violent perpetrators of trouble in school.
Strongly agree [ ]
Agree [ ]
Neutral [ ]
Disgree [ ]
Strongly disagree [ ]
Conclusion
This research is vital for finding the correlation between school-related problems like underperformance and lateness to the rate of juvenile deliquency. Furthermore, the study will analyze the state of deliquency in high school. The two schools, Brookside and Brookhouse, are representations of the entire American community. Therefore, at the end of the study a valid conclusion will be arrived at on the real picture of the level of youth deliquency in the entire country. Apart from that, these results will provide a ground for further research on the study of juvenile behaviour which will open up for an advanced analysis on the ways of dealing with juvenile crime.
References
Donges, W. E. (2015). Causes of Juvenile deliquency. The Qualitative Report 2015 Volume 20, No. 7 , 1009-1028.
Mallaney, S. (2016). Cause or Effect: the relationship between Academic Achievement and Delinquency in America. Educational Research , 212-214.
Ntshangase, M. P. (2015). A study of juvenile deliquency amongst adolescents in secondary schools in Gauteng .
Report, W. Y. (2003). Juvenile Delinquency.
Rud, I., & Klaveren, C. v. (2013). Education and Youth Crime.
Sciences, T. N. (2018). Education and Delinquency: Summary of a workshop. The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine , 13-20.
Ward, S., & Williams, J. (2014). Does Juvenile Delinquency Reduce Educational Attainment?
