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Juvenile Delinquency: A Product of Nurture Rather than Nature

Brown, Christopher M.

0636352

William (Kit) Nash

Online

June 3, 2010

Juvenile Delinquency: A Product of Nurture Rather than Nature

Criminal behavior is often viewed as resulting from some combination of internal

and external features in ones life. The former of these denotes some psychological

imbalance resulting in deviant behavior whereas the latter notes some set of externalities

producing a tendency toward criminal behaviors. Where juvenile subjects are concerned

though, this opens a number of problematic assumptions regarding the qualifications of a

child or adolescent to effectively judge the difference between right and wrong. Many

specific contexts of deviant behavior may occur in contexts where complexity, nuance and

emotion make judgment difficult for those lacking a certain degree of maturity. It is within

this difficult context that we attempt to determine what degree of juvenile delinquency is

the result of nature and what degree is the result of nurture.

Our research tends to demonstrate that most juvenile offenders are less likely to

demonstrate a categorical nature of criminality, but that instead most are likely to be the

product of deficiencies in formative nurturing. In addition to this conflict with

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development psychology theories regarding the moral, intellectual and emotional

development of children, there are myriad theories for deviant behavior amongst children

that are based on external rather than internal stimuli. Sociological explanations for

deviant violence and persistent criminal activity often suggest that environmental realities

have conspired to cause emotional disorder and disturbed behavior, reinforcing the view

that nurture is a primary instigator for such patterns. For instance, in addition to the

resolution that the absence of a father in a family unit is positively correlated with

economic problems, educational shortcomings and a susceptibility to criminal behavior, it

also becomes clear here that the reverse is true. In individuals suffering from certain

adverse emotional conditions, there is a greater likelihood that further probing will reveal

the absence of a father. In particular, there is such a connection between adverse emotional

effects and the fathers legal status. For children of fathers in jail or prison especially, this

holds true.

So is this demonstrated in the research endeavor conducted by Wilbur et al (2007),

in which a survey amongst 102 respondents yields a pattern indicative of the psychological

consequences of patriarchal incarceration. To the point, Wilbur et al find that children

whose fathers were in jail had higher Children's Depression Inventory total scores

compared with children without incarcerated fathers, indicating more depressive

symptoms. This finding was robust in multivariate analyses after adjustment for children's

age, gender, prenatal cocaine and alcohol exposure, and school-age violence exposure.

(Wilbur et al, 678) The adjustment for this variance of factors which can also be said to

impact ones vulnerability to depression reveals that the incarceration of ones father is a

prime determinant of the presence of emotional difficulty or psychological disorder for the

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child. Here, we can see that the mental disorders associated with a delinquent nature might

not properly identify the root of the subjects emotional distress and that further, such

diagnosis would prevent the usage of such potentially useful therapeutic methods as

cognitive behavioral reprogramming.

Other explanations for juvenile delinquent behavior suggest that there are even

broader cultural reasons for this. For instance, Gilligan (1997) presents a unique angle on a

long-held conversation that affiliates deviant behavior in children with violent television

and video games. Blame of the media, for instance, for stimulating violent behavior in

children, is addressed as an inverse way of understanding the omnipresence of human

violent impulses. Gilligan contends that the pornography of violencethe

sensationalizing of violenceis a means by which we distance ourselves from it, perhaps

render it less frightening and more manageable by reducing it to the dimensions of

titillation and entertainment. (Gilligan, 30)

Once again, this seems to suggest that the context in which the child is nurtured is

often an appropriate place to look in order to find root causes for criminal tendencies.

Proper diagnosis of environmental distress might help to remove children from situations

and context which stimulated delinquent tendencies.

Works Cited:

Gilligan, J. (1997). VIOLENCE: Reflection on a National Epidemic. Vintage.

Wilbur, M.A.B.; Marani, J.E.; Appugliese, D.; Woods, R.; Siegel, J.A.; Cabral, H.J. &

Frank, D.A. (2007). Socioemotional Effects of Fathers Incarceration on Low-Income,

Urban School-Aged Children. Pediatrics, 120(3), 678-685.

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