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Juvenile Delinquency - For Better or Worse: Does Divorce Matter? Although divorce cannot be blamed for being the only factor influencing juvenile delinquency rates, it is still a major contributor to increase in delinquency levels in youth. The vast sociologists and researchers agree that family is the foundation of the society. As family's influence is critical to appropriate upbringing of the child, family disruption obviously affects behavior in children, sometimes leading to delinquent behaviors if family does not function properly (where properly means violence free, two parent, and openly communicating household). Family is one of the most influential socializing forces in childs life, as family members teach how to respect the rights of the others, how to control unacceptable and to avoid antisocial behavior. Alternatively, families can teach children antisocial, aggressive and violent behavior (Siegel and Welsh).
Therefore, it can be easily concluded that families influence childs behavior and can encourage or cause negative, inappropriate behavior, thus leading to increased rate of juvenile delinquency. Children who live in families where only one spouse is present (due to divorce) display a number of behavioral (also including delinquency), psychological and other problems more often than children living in two parent families. There are three theories explaining correlation between disrupted families and juvenile delinquency, namely, life course theories (child is affected by a number of stressors associated with separation), trauma theories (the loss of parent causes damaging influence on child) and selection theories (disrupted families are directly related to high juvenile delinquency rates, as there are pre-existing differences in child rearing methods, family income, etc). In such a way, it can be concluded that although divorce is not the only factor, it is still the major contributor to increase in juvenile delinquency rates. Works Cited Siegel, L.
and L. Welsh. Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law, International Edition. Belmont, CA: Thompson Higher Education, 2009.
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Research essay sample on Juvenile Delinquency Rates Major Contributor To Increase Family
