Getting Started

You might be a juvenile delinquent if… Before you became an adult, did you ever… 1. Smoke cigarettes? 2. Use any other tobacco product such as snuff or chew? 3. Drive a car without a license? 4. Purchase alcohol? 5. Consume alcohol? 6. Use a false ID? 7. Use any regulated legal drug without a prescription? 8. Have sex…including any sexual behavior? 9. Use pornography?

You might be a juvenile delinquent if… 10. Purchase pornography? 11. Skip school? 12. Cheat in school? 13. Run away from home? 14. Take money from a parent without telling them? 15. Eat food on a subway? 16. Use curse or swear words? 17. Stay out too late? 18. Talk back to or defy your parents? 19. Hit, threaten, or become subordinate with a teacher? 20. Take a knife, gun or other weapon such as nail clippers to school? 21. Wear disapproved of clothing to school? 22. Drive your parents’ car while it contained alcohol?

Why aren’t most kids called delinquents? All of the above could get you sent to juvenile detention. Why weren’t you sent to juvy? Social structures, circumstances and luck—not behavior—are the greatest determinants of whether a person “becomes” delinquent.

Why aren’t most kids called delinquents? General truths about juvenile status offenses:  “Normal Behavior” is often a status offense if you are in a bad situation, wrong place, or fit some profile  All kids are potentially juvenile delinquents  Until the latter part of the 20th century, states treated status offenders and juvenile criminals alike  We run the risk of creating more problems for status offenders if we treat them like criminals.

Why aren’t most kids called delinquents? General truths about juvenile crime:  Criminal Behavior Peaks around Age  Juveniles commit a disproportionate number of crimes (rate for age group) but not more crimes than adults  In many ways, crime is a problem that hits juveniles hardest—as victims  Most will commit fewer crimes as they age, this is called “Aging Out”—even with no sanctions, most will stop committing crimes  The majority of juvenile crime events, however, are by a small proportion of kids  We run the risk of creating more problems if treat all criminals like criminals.

Why aren’t most kids called delinquents? Group Work—Expecting High Juvenile Crime We often ask why juveniles commit crimes or break rules, as if we are shocked and surprised when we see it. However, shouldn’t we expect juveniles to commit crimes or break rules? Group discussion: Briefly provide three reasons that juveniles ought to be more involved in crime and rule violations than older persons? Choose a group spokesperson to present your ideas to the class— nothing needs to be turned in.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency We should expect a lot of juvenile delinquency in the US for structural reasons as well. Linked to Juvenile Delinquency:  Guns  Poverty  Family Problems  Urban Decay  Inadequate Education The US has a high concentration of these things for its youth.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some rough numbers to consider: Guns: Firearms killed 3,365 children age 19 and under in 1999—that's nearly 9 children every day. Of these, 1,990 were murdered, 1,078 committed suicide, and 214 were victims of accidental shootings.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some rough numbers to consider: Poverty (Less than $19,000/year for a family of four):  17% of all children live below the poverty line (22% in Alabama)…Compare with 11% of senior citizens  Affordable and quality child care is out of reach, and for many working families, it is barely affordable.  1 in 7 children younger than 18 have no health insurance.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some rough numbers to consider: Family Problems:  Divorce affects about half of all marriages  Children in single-parent households are more poor and more delinquent, and half of all children will live part of their childhood with one parent  There has been a slow, steady decline in overall teen birth rates in the United States since the 1950s, we still have the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates among western industrialized nations—currently 27/1,000 births per female 15 – 17 (36 in Alabama).  Around a million confirmed victims of maltreatment (including physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and other abuses) each year.  Three-quarters of the perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, and an additional tenth were other relatives.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some rough numbers to consider: Urban Decay:  The 1980s saw a divestment from urban areas, we were recovering in the 1990s, but are now divesting again  Opportunities for criminal involvement are greater in “run down” areas.  Economic deprivation, increased homicide, more wrecked lives from poverty and/or dependence, homelessness lead to less direction, more despair, and greater ambivalence toward norms

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some rough numbers to consider: Inadequate Education:  Full-day child care easily costs $4,000 to $10,000/year (prohibitive for many)  Education is the “success filter” in American society  Poor and/or minority children attend significantly worse schools  American K-12 educational achievement lags many industrialized countries  10% High school drop-out rate for current students (11% Alabama)

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency Some would argue that Americans wage a war on its children. We do not lack wealth, but our children are worse off than those in most other developed countries. Where America Stands, May, 2001 Among 25 industrialized countries, the United States ranks:  First in military technology  First in Gross Domestic Product  First in the number of millionaires and billionaires  First in health technology  First in military exports  First in defense spending  10th in eighth-grade science scores  11th in the proportion of children living in poverty  16th in living standards among the poorest one-fifth of children  16th in efforts to lift children out of poverty  17th in rates of low birth weight births  18th in the income gap between rich and poor children  21st in eighth-grade math scores  22nd in infant mortality  Last in protecting our children against gun violence

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. children under age 15 are:  12 times more likely to die from gunfire  16 times more likely to be murdered by a gun  11 times more likely to commit suicide with a gun  Nine times more likely to die in a firearm accident than children in 25 other industrialized countries combined. Source: The State of America's Children Yearbook 2001.

US Factors Contributing to Delinquency The State of America's Children Yearbook Key Facts About American Children 1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood. 1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents. 1 in 3 will be poor at some point in their childhood. 1 in 3 is behind a year or more in school. 1 in 4 lives with only one parent. 2 in 5 never complete a single year of college. 1 in 5 was born poor. 1 in 5 is born to a mother who did not graduate from high school. 1 in 5 has a foreign-born mother. 3 in 5 preschoolers have their mother in the labor force. 1 in 6 is poor now. 1 in 6 is born to a mother who did not receive prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy. 1 in 7 has no health insurance. 1 in 7 has a worker in their family but still is poor. 1 in 8 lives in a family receiving food stamps. 1 in 8 never graduates from high school. 1 in 8 is born to a teenage mother. 1 in 12 has a disability. 1 in 13 was born with low birthweight. 1 in 15 lives at less than half the poverty level. 1 in 24 lives with neither parent. 1 in 26 is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care. 1 in 60 sees their parents divorce in any year. 1 in 139 will die before their first birthday. 1 in 1,056 will be killed by guns before age 20.