NCJ Number
73479
Journal
Revista de Medicina de la Universidad de Navarra Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1972) Pages: 283-288
Date Published
1972
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Deviant behavior in juveniles is undoubtedly influenced by emotional disorders, a family history of mental illness and criminality, and nonbehavioral factors, such as chromosomal and genetic abnormalities.
Abstract
Juvenile delinquency is on the increase worldwide. Socioeconomic factors, such as the greater number of temptations to which young persons are exposed because of the conspicuous consumption of luxury goods beyond their reach, are only part of the story. As portrayed in a play by Maxwell Anderson in which the 'bad seed' is blamed for the triple murder committed by an eight-year-old girl, heredity cannot be dismissed as a criminogenic factor. Aggression is inherited, at least as a tendency. Juvenile delinquency can often be anticipated, and thus prevented, by closely observing the behavior of preadolescent children for signs of emotional instability. Psychoanalytical insights can also be useful in tracing early childhood traumas and endemic family problems in the lives of juvenile delinquents. A combination of psychobiological and social factors, emotional disorders, alienation, and anomie contribute to making adolescence a time of life fraught with dangers and problems projecting far into the future. Juvenile deviance and crime can be directly caused by substance abuse and enviromental and situational factors, but they are also associated with nonbehavioral factors, such as chromosomal and genetic abnormalities, physical deformities, mental retardation, and brain damage. The criminal act results from the interaction of personality with the environment and is triggered by circumstance.