The Effects Of Juvenile Delinquency On The Criminal...

Now in time it seems that crime is being exposed and done by minors. Juvenile delinquency has impacted the criminal justice system in various ways. It has grown over the past years and many do not know how it evolved. For once, family structure can affect juvenile delinquency in numerous of ways. The independent variable is family structure and the dependent variable is juvenile delinquency. Home environment does indeed play a role in the production of juvenile delinquency. Kierkus and Hewitt (2009) in The Contextual Nature of the Family Structure/Delinquency relationship discussed that family structure is an important factor in delinquency but there might also be other factors that influence this type of behavior. The relationship†¦show more content†¦For instance, one might think that a broken home, extended family, stepparent, divorce, or living with a family member is not the same to an upper class, white, sixteen-year-old female, who lives with her six siblings, in a small town, as compared to a lower class, African American, twelve-year-old male who lives with just one brother in a large urban area (Kierkus and Hewitt, 2009). As a concern, it would be impossible to test all effects in a single statistical model, as this would imply a six-way interaction effect; however, this study did attempt to test each of the relevant two-way interactions implied by this statement (Kierkus and Hewitt, 2009). This research used a large sample of adolesc ents and by evaluating the strength of interactive effects within a series of formal statistical models (Kierkus and Hewitt, 2009). It is clear that the interactive effects between family structure and context on delinquency vary according to the type of misbehavior under consideration this study utilized four different measures of delinquency as outcome variables (Kierkus and Hewitt, 2009). As a result, adolescents from different family structures were expected to participate in all four types of delinquent behavior: general delinquency, violent crimes, property crime, and substance abuse. Gender, socioeconomic status, and place of residence did not matter in the family structure. It was noticeable that the family structure/delinquency relationship was largely