Various factors are attributed to the rate at which minors engage in crime and criminal activities (delinquency). Ranging from personal, social to economic, these factors include, amongst others, age. Even though the various studies into the patterns of delinquency generally show the trends of young adults as being actively engaged in delinquency, this follows a given graph (McCord & Conway, 2018) . The study of the rise and fall of delinquency across the various age brackets of young adults is vital in putting in place intervention measures for each specific group. Studies into delinquency more closely reveal that the rates at which minors engage in crime and criminal activities begin to rise in preadolescence, that is, early adolescence, and then reach its peak in late adolescence. After this point, the rates start to fall as an individual progress into young adulthood. Researchers have used the spirit of adventure as a factor to explain these observations, stating that as an individual step into adolescence, they tend to be more actively involved and high spirited (McCord & Conway, 2018) . This high level of energy if not properly monitored, could be channeled in the wrong direction, in this case, crime, and criminal activities, as the young adults begin to explore their surroundings.
The other factor for high delinquency rates worth noting is the prenatal and perinatal medical factors. This comprises of a very heterogeneous set of clinical and latent conditions. Researchers have explored over the years a broad variety of conditions that occur before an infant's birth, and through the first seven months of gestation (Rice, Langley, Woodford, Smith, & Thapar, 2018) . These factors may compromise the nervous system, though in sporadic cases, creating vulnerabilities in the child. These vulnerabilities could subsequently lead to abnormal behaviors. The situation gets even more complicated for children living with prenatal and perinatal complications who additionally have to live a deviant, impoverished, or abusive lifestyles. These developmental risks have additive adverse effects on child outcomes (Rice, Langley, Woodford, Smith, & Thapar, 2018) . In simple terms, these conditions can alter an individual's nervous system's functionality, their ability to reason and make informed decisions. Therefore, as they grow older, they are more prone to committing socially unacceptable mistakes and bad deeds, some of which include their involvement in crime and criminal activities. These children could easily get influenced by their peers as they have relatively low capabilities of making independent sound decisions. Researchers elaborate that hyperactivity, attention problems and impulsiveness in children with prenatal and perinatal complications directly influence their delinquency.
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Lastly, individual capabilities, competencies, and characteristics have a direct bearing on an individual's personality, and subsequently their ability to engage in risky, reckless or immoral behaviors. Psychologists point out to the fact that disciplined and focused students rare mostly self-driven and know what they want in life, such students, and individuals will rarely get involved in activities, or with friends that do not seem to share in their visions or promote the values, they stand for (Rabiner, Godwin, & Dodge, 2016) . To this end, principles and personal values play an essential role in reducing delinquency rates in America. Additionally, students who are competent in their school work tend to be more determined as they strive towards their future, and would therefore not engage in any activity that would in any way jeopardize these plans. This is in contrast to students who do perform well academically. These students would tend to have low self-esteem and no long-term plans in life since they are led to believe that they are failures (Rabiner, Godwin & Dodge, 2016) . Engaging in crime and criminal activities thus is their way of venting out, or for getting back at the individuals they feel are either blessed more than them or those that look down upon them.
References
McCord, J., & Conway, K. P. (2018). Patterns of juvenile delinquency and co-offending. In Crime and social organization (pp. 33-48). Routledge.
Rabiner, D. L., Godwin, J., & Dodge, K. A. (2016). Predicting academic achievement and attainment: the contribution of early academic skills, attention difficulties, and social competence. School Psychology Review , 45 (2), 250-267.
Rice, F., Langley, K., Woodford, C., Smith, G. D., & Thapar, A. (2018). Identifying the contribution of prenatal risk factors to offspring development and psychopathology: what designs to use and a critique of literature on maternal smoking and stress in pregnancy. Development and Psychopathology , 30 (3), 1107-1128.
