Criminal justice represents a set of acts and bills of a state. The legislation is focused on maintaining social control as well as discouraging and alleviating crime. Juvenile justice is an area in criminal law aimed at handling illegal acts committed by young offenders.
Summary Statement
The subsequent paper reviews a broad body of study and pursues to elaborate on youth perception of juvenile justice. The paper describes research while classifying and expounding on the factors that increase the risk or the statistical probability that a young person will become delinquent in prospect. Reasons, why the youth starts to lead a violent way of life, are also examined in detail. The aim of the essay is to evaluate youth violence as it is one of the aspects of juvenile justice. Various data sources and numerous methods that can be used to analyze the data have also been studied, taking into account their benefits and drawbacks. Finally, the paper contains the most appropriate method for the research and supportive arguments in favor of this method.
Youth Violence
It is reasonable to expound on youth violence as it is particularly pertinent to juvenile justice. The person’s improper conduct that can start early and continue until young adulthood is referred to as juvenile delinquency. A young individual can be a criminal, target, or an eyewitness to the wrongdoing; however, nowadays the youth is more frequently convicted of different crimes due to their forcefulness and fierceness. Moreover, deadly and non-lethal assaults involving young people increase the rates of untimely death, harm, and ill health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). As a result, not only the individuals but also their relatives, associates, and societies are harmed by youth violence. Thus, youth violence is the cause of a range of wrongdoings committed by the youth.
Causes of Violence among the Youth
Various theories and facts have been presented to expound on the reasons why young people implicate in youth violence. Apparently, all existing factors explain why young people participate in unlawful acts. In most cases, violent conduct is mostly caused by different factors rather than is an inborn quality. Thus, a person first observes the factor and then they put obtained knowledge into practice. However, under certain conditions, the person starts to behave in a violent way due to incomprehensible reasons. Hereby, it is crucial to examine some rational causes of youth violence.
Family Factors
Primary causes of violence can be found in the early learning obtained in the household. The home setting represents the basic factor in the development of violent conduct of young people. The factors involve tenuous family connection, ineffectual upbringing and management, and violence acquaintance at home. Philosophies, approaches, attainment of anticipation and sensitive responses that maintain or support the use of violence may also trigger adolescent violence. Among other family factors that cause teenage violence, there are paternal misconduct, child cruelty, hardships of living in a low-income family, and a low level of parental contribution. Apparently, the connection with criminal relatives or friends affects teenagers’ behavior. Moreover, the observation of violence or bodily abuse causes early forcefulness in the household. According to the study, the stated contact forms violent conduct during infancy and considerably increases the risk of such conduct during teenage years. In fact, the acquaintance with violence and bodily abuse on the part of family members has a stronger modeling effect. Moreover, one’s observation of heavy forcefulness on television is indirectly related to later violence. Certain distinct characters and assimilated natural differences may also contribute to later violence in adulthood. Parents or guardians with inadequate problem-solving abilities and a history of violent acts may become role models for developing children. Teenagers with forceful parents are also likely to become involved in youth violence.
Neighborhood Context
There are numerous prospects of learning and engaging in violence. The existing gangs and banned markets not only make children become involved in violence but become role models that teenagers want to copy by participating in violent activities. Among the most characteristic factors leading to violence are single-parent families, ineffectual nurturing, high failure rates, violent schools, great teenage pregnancy rates, substance misuse, and substantial rates of joblessness. Moreover, there are no social establishments in these localities. Apparently, it becomes hard to create mutual morals and standards, informal support systems, and effective social controls. Thus, the absence of the needed order leads to involvement in youth violence. The problem is that in such areas it is allowed to associate with gangs since violence is not forbidden. By residing in such districts, the youth adjust to living in such conditions by acquiring bad traits so that they can become the perpetrators of violence in prospect. Furthermore, ethnic prejudice may fuel youth violence.
The School and Peer Factors
The school has a profound influence on youth conduct, thereby leading to arguments, frustration and violent acts in early childhood. Schools introduce own performance requirements and complicated tasks one has to complete; thus, if a person fails to meet them, they face pressure from teachers and peers. The exacerbation and intensification of the conflicts combined with reduced watching and control in these environments increase the possibility that violence will finally emerge. Rivalry for the position and status-related clashes facilitate violence in schools, thereby creating the division into castes. The combination of educationally poor students and violent agitators in the same class in line with capacity tracking contribute to mutual adaptation to school disappointment and peer denial. Criminal peer groups tend to appear in the above-mentioned classes, and distinct moods of fury, denial, and isolation lead to violence. Thus, aberrant youth create gangs and inspire each other to implicate in violence to meet their means.
Alcohol, Illicit Drugs, and Firearms
Substance use and violence lead to numerous cases of killings and battery at home. Alcoholic parents and those that use illegal drugs tend to be charged with bodily harm and are frequently indifferent to their children. Though there are no proofs that alcohol is connected to forceful conduct, it is evident that a person who abuses alcohol is often involved in violent activities. In fact, youngsters who have an upbringing in such families tend to be more violent in prospect. What is more, the youth presently and regularly carry weapons. Hereby, drug merchants and those with a violent record tend to be more forceful and use the weapons to commit wrongdoings.
Adolescence-Adulthood Transition
The life in deprived areas provides no prospects of obtaining adequate work during the switch from puberty to maturity. Moreover, the person has little chance of marriage due to repressed upbringing. As a consequence, the adults decide to become involved in violence since they lack the capability, although there might be some opportunities for a better life. The result is that many remain in prolonged adolescence and continue participating in violent juvenile conduct.
Individual Medical and Physical Factors
Prenatal and delivery traumas may be a reason for future forcefulness. Many young delinquents have a history of delivery injury. In fact, a low and relaxing heart rate is characteristic of a fearless personality or the one who would not display hostility and violence in case of provocation. Thus, such people are not likely to be accused of ferocious misconduct. On the contrary, attentiveness difficulties, agitation, and hyperactivity may be connected with difficulties and future youth violence. Research on injuries and problems related to pregnancy and delivery shows that a person might have a neural impairment that in turn could trigger violence.
Situational Factors
There are situations that provoke one to behave in a violent way. Thus, such factors as the existence of a firearm or intake of alcohol or drugs by the criminal or the target may lead to violent conduct. Moreover, other issues include onlooker’s performance, delinquent’s intentions, the connection of the criminal to the victim, and the target’s conduct. Thus, the stated factors play a substantial role in the violent behavior of youth.
Societal Factors
Developed rates of childhood violence are caused by low levels of communal interconnection within a city. Several factors like fast demographic variations in the youth populace as well as revenue disparity and growth have become linked to youth violence. In fact, social assimilation degree within a community affects the rates of youth violence. Young persons living in areas that lack social capital tend to become involved in violence in prospect. The decrease in social capital leads to augmented suspicion ensuing from an organization and facilities, increasing the possibility of violent conduct. Trust intensities in a community impact significantly on the prevalence of violence wrongdoings. Among the social factors that may cause youth violence are demographic and social variations.
Political Factors
The quality of a country’s governance, including its decrees and the extent to which they are enforced as well as the policies on social protection play a significant role in youth violence. The reason is that society enforces its existing laws against violence. With regard to the governance, it impacts on violence, particularly as it affects the youth. Moreover, the police have become identified as the principal perpetrators of violence against young people and particularly those from lower social and economic classes. Thus, the move represents an important factor in the cultural violence emergence among marginalized youths.
Cultural Influences
Values that fail to offer peaceful substitutes for determining battles appear to have developed high rates of youth violence. Culture defines how individuals react to a changing situation when some social factors affect the extent of violence in society. Thus, culture uses forcefulness to decide clashes and educates the youth to embrace norms and values while approving violent conduct.
In curbing the youth violence, several steps are observed to ensure youth violence does not become uncontrollable. Thus, it is crucial to adopt personal tactics so that defensive factors related to distinct expertise, approaches, and opinions are established. Moreover, the introduction of social growth programs assists in monitoring violence. Training on correct childcare through mentorship programs can also help reduce adolescence violence. Furthermore, the decrease in income disparity, reduction of poverty and media violence, and augmentation of public data crusades also aid in controlling vice.
Youthful justice ensures certain measures are instituted to alleviate youth violence. The system supports probation and bail plans that include a gathering of prisoners who describe the cruelty of prison life. Apparently, trying young wrongdoers in adult courts will reduce violence. The system also campaigns for residential programs taking place in psychiatric establishments and correctional bodies.
Data Collection
In the report, updated facts and figures on childhood violence have been collected from different sources. The bases include CDC facts basis, centralized information sources, and non-federal statistics sources. The CDC sources are pertinent to the research as they deliver illustrative figures about all kinds and roots of nonfatal wounds treated in American hospital emergency departments nationwide. CDC uses the data to generate national estimates of nonfatal injuries, including those related to youth violence. CDC has established a scheme in 18 states to gather, share, and connect state-level facts on youth violence and other violent acts.
The Department of Justice offers statistics on wrongdoings, dupes, lawbreakers, benches, police, confinements, and penitentiaries in America. Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention have been helpful in providing figures on youthful criminality, harassment, and youth association in youthful impartiality system. The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being also offers countrywide symbolic longitudinal facts drawn from first-hand intelligence of teenagers, parents, and other caregivers regarding children’s demeanor.
Non-federal data sources that get used in the paper include Monitoring the Future. The source represents a continuing education instructing American secondary school scholars, university undergraduates, and adults in the conduct, insolence, and standards.
Statistical Methods for Data Analysis
Data analysis represents the systematic process of applying statistical or logical techniques to describe, illustrate, evaluate and summarize data. Various analytic measures provide a way of drawing inductive interpretations from data and distinguishing the phenomenon of interest from statistical variations present in the data. While data analysis in a qualitative study can comprise statistical processes, analysis becomes a continuing iterative undertaking where information continuously gets collected and analyzed almost concurrently. Moreover, patterns in observations are investigated through the entire data collection. Accurate and appropriate analysis of research findings represents an essential component of ensuring data integrity. Improper statistical analysis distorts scientific findings, misleads casual readers, and may negatively influence the public understanding of research. Therefore, integrity issues are also relevant to the analysis of non-statistical data. With regard to data analysis, it can be divided into the descriptive analysis, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and confirmatory data analysis (CDA).
Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive statistics represents the discipline of quantitative description of the main features of the items of information or the quantitative description. Contrary to inferential statistics, descriptive statistics are aimed at summarizing a sample instead of exploiting the population data that a piece of data is thought to represent. Therefore, probability theory is not the basis for the development of descriptive statistics analysis.
The advantages of descriptive analysis are that the scholar has the possibility to use both measurable and qualitative figures to examine the occurrence in an inquiry. The analysis provides a multidimensional tactic for information analysis. Thus, the descriptive analysis provides awareness about life familiarities, eliminating the obstacles of stringent hypothetical methods.
The disadvantages of the analysis are that it lacks discretion due to the fact that subjects are regularly not honest as they feel the necessity to convey to the investigator what they think the scientist wants to hear. The method is also prone to objectivity and faults because queries, for example, become prearranged and narrow. The study may comprise errors as the investigator may only study what they want to perceive and disregard facts not compliant with the investigation plan.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Exploratory data analysis represents an approach to the analysis of data sets aimed at summarizing their main characteristics often with the help of visual methods. Apparently, the method uses the inductive approach in analysis. Talking about the advantages of the method, it encourages statisticians to explore the data and possibly formulate the hypothesis testing task. The technique offers flexible ways to create assumption and cherishes more truthful accounts of exactness. The process does not necessitate more than data can sustain and encourages a deeper understanding of procedures. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it regularly does not offer conclusive responses. Thus, it becomes hard to evade bias created by overfitting that necessitates decision and creativity.
Confirmatory Data Analysis
Confirmatory data analysis involves a method of statistical inference when data sets are compared or a data set obtained by sampling is compared against a synthetic data set from an idealized model. The technique involves inferential statistics that use the logical style. Advantages of the process are that it offers accurate facts in the correct conditions and employs an ingrained concept and techniques. The disadvantages include the false impression of exactness in less than perfect situations. Since the study is driven by predetermined notions, it becomes challenging to notice unpredicted outcomes.
Qualitative Analysis
In the qualitative method, investigators have numerous choices while evaluating statistical facts. Qualitative data analysis represents a way of recording people’s attitudes, feelings, and behaviors during a long period of time. The sources involved scrutinizing qualitative facts include interviews, focus groups, observations, surveys, and discourse analysis. In fact, qualitative data analysis has numerous advantages.
The method allows one to broader study, involving a greater number of subjects that enhances the generalization of the results. The method can also provide greater objectivity and accuracy of results. It is worth stating that qualitative analysis methods offer data summaries that support generalizations about the phenomenon under study. To ensure validity and reliability, few variables and many cases are used. Thus, research is replicated, analyzed, and compared with similar studies using the standard means. Researchers can avoid personal bias by distancing themselves from the subjects and employing subjects unknown to them. Moreover, the method provides profundity and facts. Therefore, the investigator examines the subject in detail rather than evaluates positions and accounts by examining approaches, moods, and conducts. Furthermore, the method creates openness. Hereby, the individuals are encouraged to develop their reactions and can assess new areas not originally deliberated. The method also motivates people’s involvement by explaining why persons act in a certain way and analyzing their approaches to the actions.
The disadvantage of qualitative data analysis is that fewer individuals are considered. A collection of qualitative data is more laborious than measurable facts collection; thus, unless time is considered, it becomes necessary to involve a smaller illustration size. Moreover, it is complicated to simplify the method since few individuals are studied, and therefore it is difficult to generalize outcomes to the populace. Furthermore, in this method, whole numbers are usually reported rather than fractions. Thus, it is complicated to make methodical contrasts, and the method is dependent on the researcher’s skills.
Preferred Choice
Quantitative data analysis represents a systematic approach to investigations during which numerous sets of data are collected or observed and transformed into numerical data. The approach often describes a situation or event, answering the questions about something, and involves measuring or counting attributes. Quantitative data analysis is often connected with the process of finding evidence to negate or support an idea or hypothesis one might have.
There are several disadvantages of quantitative data analysis. Sometimes, one collects a much narrower and superficial set of data. Results insufficiency is prevalent as the method offers numerical analysis rather than a comprehensive narrative and provides less elaborate accounts of human perception. The analysis is conducted in an unnatural but rather artificial environment so that the level of control can be applied to the exercise. The control level might not normally be in place in the real world yielding laboratory results as opposed to real-world outcomes. Moreover, preset answers will not necessarily reflect how people perceive the subject and in some cases might simply be the closest match. Furthermore, the development of standard questions by the analyst can lead to structural bias and false representation, where the data reflects the view of the analyst instead of that of the subject in participation. However, like various other methods, quantitative data analysis is faced with the problem of time consumption so that a lot of time is spent when conducting the analysis to enhance reliability and accuracy.
Based on the research, the most appropriate method to use in the research is qualitative data analysis method. The reason is in the possibility provided by the method to conduct extensive research, thereby enabling results generalization. What is more, the method is accurate and reliable. Moreover, it will guarantee a quality analysis of the subject in question, avoiding the problems associated with the technique. Furthermore, the method provides consistency and proofs. Also, qualitative analysis method will assist in reaching conclusions and help assess new areas that were not originally scrutinized. The process will allow one to generalize about the phenomenon under examination by offering summaries. It is worth mentioning that with qualitative data analysis, the problem of bias will be eliminated. Therefore, the method provides the most suitable way to collect and analyze data.
