Juvenile Delinquincy And The Ageing Out Process

In the year 2000, juveniles were responsible for 17% of all arrests, 53% of arsons and 33% of property crime committed in the United States (1). In that same year there were 7,327 arrests for every 100,000 youth ages 10-18 in the U.S (2). Although this number has dropped since the early 1980’s when juvenile crime was on the rise it is still high. To help understand why these statistics are so high we need to understand the theories behind why juveniles commit crime. There are several factors which are currently being attributed to juvenile delinquency ranging from socioeconomic status and neighborhood quality to ones identity perception or age.

Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson are renowned criminologist who have been theorizing about delinquency for over 30 years. Their theory on the aging out process is that age and crime has remained the same for years an

According to criminologist Kyle Kercher, personal factors (such as gender and race) and social factors (such as lifestyle, economic status and peer relations) significantly impact the age-crime relationship (5). Statistically over time males commit more crime than females and are incarcerated more often and have lengthy sentencing in comparison to their female counter parts. Females tend to commit less crime and if they are arrested they will spend less or no time in prison. This same rule applies to the Juvenile population as well. Having worked for the Oregon Youth Authority for 4 years, I know that only 13% of the total incarcerated juvenile population in the state of Oregon are female. Most females are raised socially different then males in that they tend to be better supervised by parents and react to provocation with anxiety or depression. On the other hand males tend to be raised with the idea that they must retaliate with aggression rather than emotion. It is widely argued that most female juvenile offenders lack typical female traits but this only represents a small majority thus the smaller amount of female offenders.

Societal norms also have an impact on juvenile decision making and delinquency. Earlier I spoke about the expectancy of girls or woman in our society and how their upbringing and family growth expectation played an effect on their delinquent outcomes. The same is true for boys as well. Males have learned from an early age that they are to act masculine and respond to hostile or unpredictable situations in an aggressive and sometimes violent manner. Adolescent males who come from low income or poor family environment are at high risk for committing crime. This is true in that they will turn to whatever they f

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