THEORIES OF DEUNQUENCY
THEORIES OF DELINQUENCY
The major theories of delinquency may be grouped under four major headings. These are Psychological Theories,Sociological Theories, Biological Theory and labeling theory.
PSYCHOLOGY THEORIES: The Psychological Theory explains delinquency as a result of faulty learning on the part of the child or an inability to acquire skills that are necessary to meet the demands of the society. The proponents of this theory believe that delinquency islearned. Children as they grow watch and tend to imitateadult behavior.
The proponents of the psychological theory View delinquency as a result of the weakness of the socialization process. The child according to them, experiences strong desires to indulge in delinquent behavior but training makes him to inhibit their expression. Delinquency therefore occurs when the socialization process is unable to check these inner tendencies of the child.
Another dimension of the psychological theory states that delinquency comes as a result of conflicts within the individual which make him unsatisfied and unhappy with himself. As a result, the individual seeks delinquent acts as substitute activities or outlets which offer, if not all, at least partial satisfaction of the inner drives and desires of the individual. From the studies they carried out, they concluded that delinquents had unhappy home lives and felt discontented with their life circumstances. The nature and sources of the unhappiness differed: Some felt rejected by parents, others were jealous of siblings, others felt inadequate or inferior while others still were affected by inability to achieve unrealistic goals set by themselves or imposed by parents. But whatever the nature and cause of the unhappiness, delinquency was seen as a solution, because it brought attention to those who suffered from parental rejection or neglect, provided support from peers , for those who felt inadequate, and brought on punishment for those who sought to reduce guilt feelings.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Those who proposed the sociological theory of delinquency believe that delinquency
comes as a result Of some factors that are found within the environment, the child’s culture and the society in general. The theory argues that the largest percentage of youths committed their delinquencies in company of others and that the places where delinquency is frequent have some characteristics that tend to initiate and promote delinquency. These characteristics according to them include, over- population leading to over - crowding of people in an area. Others are broken homes, and poor parental relationship with children. The supporters of the theory argue that in the face of all these characteristics, it is natural to see important causes of delinquency residing not in the youths family alone but in the cultural context of his home and neighborhood.
Those who proposed the sociological theory of delinquency believe that delinquency
comes as a result Of some factors that are found within the environment, the child’s culture and the society in general. The theory argues that the largest percentage of youths committed their delinquencies in company of others and that the places where delinquency is frequent have some characteristics that tend to initiate and promote delinquency. These characteristics according to them include, over- population leading to over - crowding of people in an area. Others are broken homes, and poor parental relationship with children. The supporters of the theory argue that in the face of all these characteristics, it is natural to see important causes of delinquency residing not in the youths family alone but in the cultural context of his home and neighborhood.
Right here in Nigeria, there are areas eg. Ajegunle in Lagos where a child’s natural history is to participate in delinquent behavior. The child does not think that checking such behavior is necessary because patterns of delinquent and criminal actions are all around the child.
OTHER THEORlES
1- BIOLOGICAL THEORY: The biological theory states that delinquency is mainly inborn. That is to say that delinquents are born not made. The theory further states that delinquents are born with certain body structure which predispose them to commit crimes. Their evidence in this regard which is the criminal record of identical twins shows that once one of th identical twins is a delinquent, the other twin is likely to be delinquent since they have the same genotype and other biological make-ups.
1- BIOLOGICAL THEORY: The biological theory states that delinquency is mainly inborn. That is to say that delinquents are born not made. The theory further states that delinquents are born with certain body structure which predispose them to commit crimes. Their evidence in this regard which is the criminal record of identical twins shows that once one of th identical twins is a delinquent, the other twin is likely to be delinquent since they have the same genotype and other biological make-ups.
Another argument put forward by the followers of the biological view is that, during child formation in the womb, the normal child has a Cell Combination at XY which results in a normal male offspring and that if there is a mistake and number extra Y is added giving a cell combination of XYY, the result is a male child with behavior problems because of the extra Y chromosome which will make him unusually tall, aggressive, maladjusted and deviant in all he does.
LABELING THEORY
The Labeling Theory was propounded by Dr. L. M. Dunn in (1973). The theory states that Delinquency is maintained by labeling. According to him labeling people who manifest behavioral problems as delinquents could could further precipitate and maintain delinquency in them. Such labeling could easily become a self fulfilling prophecy as people often start acting according to the names and labels assigned to them. This theory is very relevant to the Nigerian culture in which tremendous importance is attached to names. Names are used to express positive or negative deep felt feelings. People are usually expected to act according to their names, for example a person whose name is “Obioma' meaning "Kind Heart" in igbo language is expected to be kind. People will be surprised if he is not.
The Labeling Theory was propounded by Dr. L. M. Dunn in (1973). The theory states that Delinquency is maintained by labeling. According to him labeling people who manifest behavioral problems as delinquents could could further precipitate and maintain delinquency in them. Such labeling could easily become a self fulfilling prophecy as people often start acting according to the names and labels assigned to them. This theory is very relevant to the Nigerian culture in which tremendous importance is attached to names. Names are used to express positive or negative deep felt feelings. People are usually expected to act according to their names, for example a person whose name is “Obioma' meaning "Kind Heart" in igbo language is expected to be kind. People will be surprised if he is not.
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