There are a lot of different theories for juvenile delinquency. First and foremost, we know that youth's brains are not fully developed until around age 21, in particular, their frontal lobe which is the area of the brain that makes decisions and controls responses in a thoughtful manner as opposed to an impulsive one.
That being said, there are also some risk factors that may lead some youth toward crime such as parental incarceration, abuse/neglect, and especially poor self-control. Additionally, children are highly affected by those that they hang out with, so their peers have a large role in predicting their own behaviors. If someone hangs around other delinquent kids then they are likely to follow that path as well.
There are plenty of different mechanisms at play that affect whether someone will turn to crime during their youth, but normally, we tend to see individuals desist or stop committing crime around 20 years old. This is known as the age crime curve which I have included below!
Hi Jonathan,
There are a lot of different theories for juvenile delinquency. First and foremost, we know that youth's brains are not fully developed until around age 21, in particular, their frontal lobe which is the area of the brain that makes decisions and controls responses in a thoughtful manner as opposed to an impulsive one.
That being said, there are also some risk factors that may lead some youth toward crime such as parental incarceration, abuse/neglect, and especially poor self-control. Additionally, children are highly affected by those that they hang out with, so their peers have a large role in predicting their own behaviors. If someone hangs around other delinquent kids then they are likely to follow that path as well.
There are plenty of different mechanisms at play that affect whether someone will turn to crime during their youth, but normally, we tend to see individuals desist or stop committing crime around 20 years old. This is known as the age crime curve which I have included below!