Juvenile Delinquency

Human beings have free will...we can make choices

Criminal justice system is founded on the fact that human being have free will

• Desire to seek pleasure (benefits)
• Desire or need to avoid pain

An act (Actus rayus) in ItaliaYou have to actually do somethingMensrea: you need a mental decision that is wrong (i.e. Drive care...hit ice….kill person…an act BUT not intended)

because they believe that committing the crime will lead to some sort of pleasure or benefit

• Give punishment: Reeducate them that this crime will lead to pain
• The more severe the punishment the more effective it is in detouring criminal behavior

• Severity
• Certainty (**most important**): Want them to associate crime with being punished

Swiftness

S.C.S...like S.O.S


Human limitation: There are other values. We are not all about catching criminals…we have “Do process”.

Holding back criminal acts


Imperfect: Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t

• Critisism: There is a lack of statistical support that shows that punishment do not worked
• **There is no way to record when someone deters from doing a crime…no crime is committed so how would we know?

Uncontrollable (Keyword), psychological or physical trait combined with environmental stressors causes delinquency

Free will: They don’t believe in it (uncontrollable) when environmental triggers are present

Fix it by: Treatment NOT punishment because they are victims with uncontrollable traits

Self proclaimed prophecy: **Belief Shapes Behavior**

By telling someone they have an uncontrollable trait your removing the idea they can stop which can induce criminal acts and is not empowering

• Treatment: Key is that the person need o be motivated to change…motivated because of pain
• If you are selling drugs and making money but put into treatment there is no motivation to change because there is no pain.

Not given a lot of credit in juvenile court

Part of Biological theory: (Criminal activism): criminal a throwbacks to a more primitive stages of humans…went into jails to experiment

• In Biological Theory
• : show fundamental similarities of behaviors even when growing up away from each other

More fruitful than geneticsPeople that commit crimes have disproportionate amount of learning disabilities

Freudian (psychodynamic theory)

Behavioral

A maladaptive thought and behavior pattern. Originated as an adaptive thought and behavior

THREE components that make up personality and THREE stages of development

Id: original component of mind. Seeks pleasure and drive for all behavior

Ego: sense of self apart from others: how we see ourselves (moderates both systems)

Superego: moral code...internalization of what is right and wrong

THREE stages of development

Oral: Main reality for a baby is stimulation to mouth

Anal: Have some words but being trained to conform (potty training)

Phallic: Genitals stimulation

If some trauma happens during one of these phases they have problems during rest of life (Anal retentive: over controlling )

most important so a Freudian would say a criminal is ID dominated

A personal personality is shaped by positive and negative reinforcements

Behavior that is praised is increased

Behavior that is negatively reinforced is reduced

Not just what we experience but what we witness