Juvenile Violence
Abstract
Juvenile violence in the United States of America has been rising over the past two decades. Scholars have identified it to have been often caused by several factors such as drug trafficking, perceived disrespect, and geographical boundaries. There has come a need to study the types of such violence and the instances in which they occur, and the consequences after that. Therefore, this paper aims to learn different kinds of juvenile violence, what causes them, and the consequences they have on the juvenile.
Causes Of Juvenile Violence
Juvenile violence refers to the injury, trial, or real application of force by a person or even many people that end up in physical or unseen injuries to an individual. The young, over the recent years, have been violated through various forms of harmful activities ( Stanko, & Crews, 2019).). Activities such as drug trafficking, perceived disrespect, gang activities, and disrespect for the young have majorly contributed to the issue of juvenile violence in the United States of America. Discussed below are some of the causes of violation of the young.
The first cause of juvenile violence is drug trafficking which is gang activity. Young people are actively involved in the use of drugs, supply of illegal drugs, and violent crime. The majority of the gang members have been engaged in unlawful activities that collectively contain violence before they engage in gangs. Several youth gangs are surrounded by street-level use of illegal drugs, though they generally do not happen to rule over trafficking activities. Therefore, the increase in the use of illegal drugs by the young has given rise to increased juvenile violence.
The second cause of juvenile violence is assault. Teenagers are often more likely to engage in fights. For instance, the children may engage in a battle at school and thereafter be forwarded to a resource official. Therefore, they would assault victims as part of other illegalities, such as pulse snatching and stealing (Miron et al.2021). Many juvenile offenders act like bullies at school, which might give rise to violence and emotional abuse. Therefore, the people involved in juvenile justice might overreact, causing adolescent violence.
The third type of juvenile crime is disorderly conduct. It is committed where an individual does such acts of nature to interfere with the public’s morals, violate the feeling of the decency of the people, interfere with the peace of those who might witness them, or engage in fighting and bullying. This is, therefore, what is referred to as disorderly conduct and may lead to charges to those involved in such an act.
Another factor that causes juvenile crime is abuse and exposure to family violence. Children exposed to abuse more often have low self-esteem and process the feeling of not belonging to the family (Saeed, Rehman, & Usmani, 2018 ). This is because they do not experience proper parental love and care. Also, children exposed to family violence end up practicing immoral activities and thus may be charged for the same. This could therefore lead to violence on the juveniles.
Again, sexual offenses form another type of juvenile crime. Several teenagers may commit sexual crimes. These teenagers may be abused sexually and may also willingly act sexually with others (Stanko & Crews, 2020). They may not be subjected to judgment and may display nude pictures for them or other people, which may be charged as holding child phonography. Other teens may also be raped, while others may engage in prostitution and end up in sex trafficking, thus juvenile violence.
Lastly, juvenile crime may arise as a result of illegal purchases. It is a common tendency of the young wanting to be involved in activities they are too young for. Teenagers may attempt to engage in unlawful acts like purchasing alcohol or cigarettes. They may try to persuade older people to buy such items for them or even employ the use of identifications that are wrong to secure such items. They may also get involved in drugs and may be subjected to the law for such acts. Teens are also a target by the gangs to be used as distributors of drugs and thus end up being drug addicts.
In conclusion, we have seen that juvenile violence has been rising over the past years in the United States of America. It is also seen that several acts like drug trafficking, assault, unlawful purchase, and disorderly conduct bring about juvenile crime. These crimes lead to judgment and charges that may end up causing harm physically or mentally to the young. In order to do away with juvenile violence, the following actions should be put in place; parents should ensure proper interaction with their children, education to the young on how they should behave, recreation in which youths and the young should be allowed time for interaction, development of bullying prevention program and ensuring the end of a repeat of offenses.
References
Stanko, S. C., & Crews, G. A. (2019). Violence is as American as cherry pie: Mass incarceration and juvenile violence. In Handbook of Research on School Violence in American K-12 Education (pp. 305-317). IGI Global.
Miron, M., Tolan, S., Gómez, E., & Castillo, C. (2021). Evaluating causes of algorithmic bias in juvenile criminal recidivism. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 29(2), 111-147.
Stanko, S. C., & Crews, G. A. (2020).). Etiology of juvenile criminality in Kinshasa Said Kuluna phenomenon. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 6(1), 14-22.
Saeed, N., Rehman, T. U., & Usmani, M. A. (2018). Impact of Violence in Movies on Juvenile Delinquency. International Journal of Civic Engagement and Social Change (IJCESC), 5(1), 55-68.