A popular view of adolescence portrays it as a period of “storm and stress” (Twiford & Carson, 1980, p.25-26). Experts have described adolescents as inconsistent, unpredictable, erratic, emotional, and self-centered. Broadway’s “West Side Story” presented various stereotyped views of adolescent behavior within urban ghettos, where gang warfare and delinquency are superimposed against a background of adolescent love and emotion. G. Stanley Hall applied the phrase “storm and stress” as he saw turmoil during adolescence as a universal and inevitable co

nsequence of normal human development. For most adolescents, the transition period of adolescence is a happy and trouble free period of life. For a few, the teen years are troublesome, sometimes marked by antisocial or illegal behavior (Sanders, 1991, p.2).

A number of other psychological traits have also been linked to the onset of delinquency. The two most prominent are personality and intelligence (Siegel & Senna, 1991, p.106). Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (1974, p. 2) identified a number of personality characteristics that characterize delinquents:

Another area of great interest in trying to understand youth and delinquency has been the cognitive school. Psychologists with a cognitive perspective focus on mental processes and the way people perceive and mentally represent the world around them, how they solve problems, and how they perceive their environment.

The development of intelligence and its subsequent relationship to behavior is another topic that concerns psychologists. Of particular importance to the study of delinquency is the allegation that there is an inverse relationship between IQ and youthful law violence (Healy & Bonner, 1926, p.181). On the contrary, Edwin Sutherland (1973, chap.15) evaluated IQ studies of criminals and delinquents and noted significant variations in their findings. The discrepancies were believed to reflect refinements in testing methods and scoring rather than differences in the mental ability of criminals. After many years of neglect regarding intelligence and delinquency, Travis Hirschi and Michael Hindelang (1977, p.586) revived interest in the association between IQ and delinquency. After conducting a statistical analysis of a number of data sets, Hirschi and Hindelang concluded both that IQ tests are a valid predictor of intelligence and that “the weight of evidence is that IQ is more important than race and social class” for predicting delinquent involvement.

Juvenile crime is increasing rapidly and getting much more violent. Not a single theory, whether it be a sociological, psychological, environmental , or criminological can solely explain the phenomenon of delinquent behaviors. I believe that besides psychologically, education, family support and strong values is the key to depreciate the number of criminal activities being committed by our country’s youth today.

Some topics in this essay:
Twiford Carson, Siegel Senna, Hirschi Hindelang, Stanley Hall, Mental Instability, Richard Speck, Edwin Sutherland, Eleanor Glueck, Lawrence Kohlberg, , siegel senna, siegel senna 1991, senna 1991, carson 1980, twiford carson 1980, twiford carson, moral development, human development, senna 1991 p96, criminal behavior, significantly impaired, senna 1991 p105, “storm stress”, antisocial behavior,  defiance ,