Child maltreatment at home and on the streets is an old menace that significantly revolves around the quality of parenting. This maltreatment has been linked to subsequent involvement in crime and delinquency during childhood and adolescence. Child abuse and neglect at home increases the risk of adolescents becoming perpetrators of violence and crime. The abuse unbalances their emotional well-being by rendering them less sensitive, rebellious and violent. In the attempt to seek identity and prove their parents or abusers wrong, they perpetrate crimes and delinquencies (Kronberga, 2017).
Research also indicates that childhood physical and psychological abuses increase the risk of children running away from home before adolescence. Teenage runaways leave home to avoid further physical or mental torture; however, running away from home increases the likelihood of engagement in crime and delinquency. Once the children run away from home and are under no care or moral restraint, they engage in deviant or risky behavior such as theft, selling drugs, shoplifting, and prostitution as a means of survival. Long-term homelessness increases the risk of violent crime perpetration, including aggravated assault and robbery (Kronberga, 2017).
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The treatment model established juvenile courts in the endeavor to intervene whenever parents were unable or unwilling to provide the physical, emotional and educational needs of the child. The doctrine was subsequently expanded to address instances where the child was at risk for criminal behavior. This model gives the responsibility of care to foster parents (Mathys, 2017). It is unclear how the foster parents are regulated under the same doctrine. It would have been better to enact a more definitive framework of operation and conduct of adoptive parents. The same theory also needs to define the legal consequences accruing to parents unwilling to care for their children’s needs. Such legislation would decrease cases of neglect among parents.
The juvenile system has recently focused more on punishing delinquents through long sentences rather than rehabilitating them. These delinquents remain a potential problem upon release. Rehabilitation initiatives have been useful in addressing cognitive behavioral treatment, strengths-based programs, and criminogenic needs (Mathys, 2017).
References
Kronberga, I. (2017). Life without crime as a fundamental right of the child: On the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Juridica International, 25 , 74. doi:10.12697/JI.2017.25.08
Mathys, C. (2017). Effective components of interventions in juvenile justice facilities: How to take care of delinquent youths? Children and Youth Services Review, 73 , 319-327. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.01.007
