1. According to your text, what social factors are critical in the causation of juvenile delinquency?

Section B

You have just been appointed as a presidential adviser on urban problems. The president informs you that he wants to initiate a demonstration project in a major city aimed at showing that government can do something to reduce poverty, crime, and drug abuse. The area he has chosen for development is a large inner-city neighborhood with more than one hundred thousand residents. It suffers from disorganized community structure, poverty, and hopelessness. Predatory delinquent gangs run free and terrorize local merchants and citizens. The school system has failed to provide opportunities and educational experiences sufficient to dampen enthusiasm for gang recruitments. Store, homes, and public buildings are deteriorated and decayed. Commercial enterprise has fled the area, and civil servants are reluctant to enter the neighborhood. There is an uneasy truce between the varied ethnic and racial groups that populate the area. Residents feel that little can be done to bring the neighborhood back to life. You are faced with suggesting an urban redevelopment program that can revitalize the area and eventually bring down the crime rate. You can bring any element of the public and private sector to bear on this rather overwhelming problem–including the military! You can also ask private industry to help in the struggle, promising them tax breaks for their participation.

Questions

1. What do Social Structure Theories tie delinquency to?
2. Use at least two Specific Social Structure Theories that you think would best explain this scenario. The three theories are: 1) social disorganization, 2) anomic/strain and 3) cultural deviance. In answering: a) Identify the theories you choose; b) discuss their basic premises; c) explain how they fit and what the implications for prevention would be. See your text and class notes for these.
3. How does living in such an area contribute to higher delinquency rates?
4. Is poverty related to delinquency – think back to the information from OJJDP – also see your text; or is poverty merely an excuse and delinquency a matter of personal choice? Explain your answer. This should be based on facts not anecdotal information.
5. Based on your text, what types of programs do you feel could break the cycle of urban poverty? What would you do and why?
6. Would reducing the poverty rate produce a lowered delinquency rate? Why or why not? Assignments 2
7. Discuss in general, how a strain theorist might explain adolescents’ greater propensity for crime.
8. Compare Agnew’s with Merton’s theory.
9. What are the policy implications of this theory for juvenile justice?
10. What is a “social bond”?
11. Give examples for each of the four dimensions identified in Hirsch’s theory.
12. Give examples how recent changes in family, community and school might influence each dimension of Hirschi’s social bond concept.
13. In what ways might a weak or broken social bond also be the result of a “flawed individual” or “flawed society?” Assignments 3
    

    Sociological Views of Delinquency

    Assignment Three

    8 PointsPost your responses to the Assignments Link.Go to the following website and read the article found thereArticle on Saints & the Roughnecks

    Questions

    1. Explain labeling or social reaction theory. How does it relate to self-fulfilling prophecy?
    2. How does this article exemplify both labeling and self fulfilling-prophecy? Give specific examples.
    3. How did your high school experiences compare with this?
    4. Analyze a situation where you or someone you know has been negatively or positively labeled. Did the label make a difference to them in how they saw themselves and acted? Did it result in self-fulfilling prophecy?
    5. Do you think it is possible to overcome labels? What are some methods a person could use to counteract labels?
       

       Assignment Four

       6 PointsPost your responses to the Assignments Link.

       Questions

       1. Explain social conflict or critical theory.
       2. What do they see as the cause of delinquency?
       3. What does your text suggest as prevention programs using Critical Theory?
       4. Are you aware of any instances in which people who are the “haves” (economically) seem to be better served by the law and law enforcement than those who are not? Give two specific examples.
       5. Should this be changed? How would you deal with this?

 

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