Solution
David answered on
Dec 20 2021
Youth Delinquency: Youth at Risk
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Case Analysis
Youth Delinquency: Youth at Risk
Youth Delinquency: Youth at Risk
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Part 1
Background Research
In order to perform the appropriate and valid assessment of psychological and behavioral
impedance, at different stage of human life cycle, here in this study the core aspect under study
or evaluation is the ‘Youth Delinquency’. It is one of most frequently seen or experienced
problem in general societal scenarios. Every region of the world has somewhat greater or lesser
influence of youth or juvenile delinquency on their societal system. Considering the specific
egional perspective, the statistical trends of the juvenile delinquency in Singapore reflects the
inclination in overall extent of Youth delinquency. In consideration to that, specific efforts are
made to understand the basic causes behind such psychological and behavioral changes, and
ascertain extent of influence, so that co
ective treatment plans can be developed.
In initial review it seems to be an extremely complex psycho-behavioral problem, as it
involves different kind of social and behavioral aspects of individual’s personal life, like, child-
parent relationship, social development process and procedures, individual performance at
school, college and other social places, and certain kind of cognitive deficiencies, etc. One of the
significant factors, which have been proposed by several researches as cause of the inclining
youth or juvenile delinquency rate, is the influence of friends, especially negative influence.
Bagwell (2004) has proposed that negative peer influence certainly provokes the adaptation of
similar behavior with delinquent and rebellious attitude. These negative peer influences are quite
common in society and most of the cases it appears to be the prime reason of the rebellious or
aggressive behavior of youth in certain specific situations.
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It’s not the single negative peer influence which has such impact on the psychological
and behavioral aspects of the individual, but there also exists certain other factors, which have
specific role in stimulating the delinquent behaviors and suppression of noble or kind aspects of
human behavior. In order to ascertain the respective influence of these social and behavioral
aspects, a
ief overview can be presented as mentioned below:
Child-Parent Relationship Effect: Basic nurturing of the psychological aspects, behavioral
norms, and social acts of a child is being performed at home, where parents establish a socio-
ehavioral system based on generally acceptable social norms. Following that specially designed
system will guide an individual to align its acts with the generally acceptable norms. An effective
design of system and effective coordination between the child and parents leads to the rational
and efficient growth of the individual, with high degree of rational thinking and susceptibility to
socially beneficial norms. (Brock and Green, 2005)
However, certain imbalances in these system and interpersonal relationship status exert
the opposite influence, as unhealthy coordination and relation between child and parents, induces
individual to feel socially isolated or spared. Thus, in such case individuals starts relying on
certain other societal factors to extract guideline for their social behavior. It makes the context
more or less situational; as if the individual has received co
ect insight from other factors , then
it guides to socially acceptable behavior adoption else inappropriate influences lead to
deficiencies in behavior and stimulates the cases of youth or juvenile delinquency.
Social Development Process and Procedures: As soon as an individual starts interacting with the
societal factors, its respective behavior starts taking shape as per the experience of the specific
interaction. Through such experiences a cognitive approach is implied in the behavior of the
Youth Delinquency: Youth at Risk
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individuals, which guides the specific course of action related to certain specific kind of social
scenarios. On basis of such experiences, social development of the individual generally seen to
e occu
ed which plays detrimental role in procedural implementation and influence of such
social development process. Based on curiosity level and inclination of interest the social
ehavior of the individual is aligned towards specific nature, either socially acceptable behavior
or aggressive and delinquent behavior leading to juvenile delinquency. (Brock and Green, 2005)
Peer Group Influence: The most crucial factor, affecting the social and rational behavior of the
individual, is the positive or negative influence of friends and close acquaintances over the
thought process and behavior of the individual. In such situation the most effective element is the
friendship state of the individual with other people. Higher will be the intensity of relation and
interdependency, higher will be the influence of positive or negative behavior, or vice-versa. As
proposed by Wenar (1971, cited in Serafica, 1982) that parent-child relationship has general
tendency to suppress the characteristic of intimacy, mutual dependency and support, while the
intrinsic nature of the peer relations facilitates the growth of such characteristics.
In general overview peer relation is considered to be detrimental to support psychological
needs of individual’s self esteem and identity, facilitation of performance comparison values, and
adhere with the sense of belongingness apart from family. However, if any of the peer member is
victim of youth or juvenile delinquency, then there exist optimum chances that individual will
also be fascinated from that and adopt the behavior of the delinquent peer member. Such
inclination of interest and potential impact on behavior is termed as the negative peer influence,
causing significant change in the individual’s behavior, leading to juvenile delinquency.
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It has been propounded by Bagwell (2004) that the antisocial behavior of the individual is
directly related to the negative peer influence being received and adopted by person from its peer
members. Although it was further extended and elaborated that such deviant behavioral attributes
are already present in the individual person, before any interaction with the peer member; that’s
why individuals get attracted to the delinquent behavior friend. This new association with
delinquent friend amplifies and stimulates the previously existing aggressive behavior of the
individual, which was initially either in suppressed or less explored state.
Individual Performance at School, College and other Social Places: Another important factor,
which generally causes aggressive behavior in the youth of age group of 14 to 16 years, is the
performance of individual at school and college level. As in that specific age group most of the
interaction or performance of activities are done in school or college, so major impact on the
ehavior is also exerted from the different kinds of experiences in that place. If the person has
positive performance in school or college then he motivates to sustain it for longer duration and
plans his behavior keeping in mind the cu
ent position of his performance in social places like
school, college etc.
However, this effect gets reversed if the specific performance of the individual at school
or college is not as per the desired level; it causes dissatisfaction and mental pressure on the
person. Extreme pressure put by parents on their child to compete hard and remain in list of top
performer causes state of tension in minds of school or college going youth. Continuous
existence of tension and inability of person to find appropriate resolution to the problem causes
frustration and develops aggressive attitude in youth. This aggressive attitude and frustration,
when receives active stimulus or extreme situation then it compels youth towards juvenile or
delinquent behavior. Thus it can be infe
ed from the facts that the aggressive or delinquent
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ehavior of an individual may be caused by the specific downgraded performance of the person
in school, college or other social places. (Brock and Green, 2005)
Cognitive Deficiencies: In the list of probable and potential reasons behind the aggressive or
delinquent behavior, there also exists an effective factor related to the psychological system of
the individual, like Cognitive deficiencies. There exist...