The number of juvenile delinquents in America is growing rapidly.5 million juvenile arrests a year (Regnery 115). Some causes for the rise of juvenile delinquency include lack of proper attention from their parents, the surrounding neighborhoods juvenile grew up in are not a principled environment, and from the material juvenile observed on the television. .
Some juveniles crave attention due to low self-esteem. They think if they commit a crime it will get the attention they are lacking. It will get them attention, but in the wrong way. Grolier Encyclopedia suggests that juveniles become delinquent because they don't have the good bonds with their parents, education or religion. It also says that if a juvenile is abused then they are most likely to be bad (Juvenile Delinquency). Other theories say, "Juveniles from single-parent families are more prone to commit crimes" (Maginnis 62). Juveniles from single-parent families are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than juveniles in two-parent families. They are more likely to drop out of school, to get pregnant as teenagers, to abuse drugs, and to be in trouble with the law. Teens are increasingly the perpetrators-and the victims-of criminal behavior. The number of juveniles arrested under eighteen years of age rose eighteen percent from 1983 to 1992. Murder arrests among people under the age of eighteen years old increased one hundred and eight percent; rape was up to twenty-five percent; and aggravated assault was up ninety-five percent (Maginnis 63). Juveniles who have single-family parents are more likely to use drugs more heavily and commit more crimes throughout their lives, and become gang members. They make up seventy percent of juvenile delinquents in state reform institutions and are more likely to be expelled from school.
Some theories have shown that some juveniles become delinquent because of the place and way they are growing up.