Chapter II.

Explaining Juvenile Delinquency

I. Supernatural Theory
1. Delinquency is the result of demonic possession.
II. Classical School Theory
1. Believe that people are rational, intelligent beings who exercise free will or the ability to make
choices.
2. People calculate the cost and benefits of their behavior before they act.
3. Behavior is a conscious decision people make, they must be held accountable for their action and
their consequences.
III. Neoclassical School Theory
1. This theory strongly argued the rigidity of classical school theory.
2. Neoclassical reformers agreed to the concept of classical leaders that people were rational, intelligent
beings who exercised free will. But they also thought some crimes were caused by factors beyond the
offender’s control.
3. Mitigating circumstances, such as age or mental condition, sometimes influence the choices that are
made and affect a person’s ability to form criminal intent or mens rea. This is why children under
age of seven cannot legally commit a crime – they are presumed to be not capable of having a guilty
mind.
IV. Modern Classical School Theory
a. Rational Choice Theory. It claimed that delinquent are rational people who make calculated
choices regarding what they are going to do before they act. Offender collect, process, and evaluate
information about the crime and make the decision whether to commit it after they weighted the cost
and benefits in doing.
b. Routine Activity Theory. It focused on the crime target or anything an offender wants to take
control of, whether it is a house to break into or a bottle of beer to shoplift. Before crime will occur,
however, three elements must come together:
• Motivated Offender
• Suitable Target
• Absence of Capable Guardian
Crime increases when there are vulnerable targets (e.g., unlocked houses doors/keys left in the ignition)
and only a few people to protect them (e.g., police).
V. Biological and Psychological Theories
The emergence of the Positive School marked a shift in thinking about crime from a focus on the act of the
actor.
Charles Darwin was largely responsible for this change.
1. Scientific Study of Crime (Positivist School of Criminology) believes that crime was caused by factors that
are in place before crime occurs.
2. Biological Theories locate the causes of crime inside the person.
a. Physical Appearance and Crime
▪ Criminal Anthropology. Cesare Lombroso was the first to connect crime to human
evolution. Criminals were atavistic or throwbacks to an earlier, more primitive stage of
human development. They closely resembled their apelike ancestors in traits, abilities,
and dispositions.
▪ Physiognomy. founded by J. Baptiste Della Porta. The physiognomist Johann
Kaspar Lavater (1741- 1801) was one of the first to suggest a link between facial
figures and crime. Victor Hugo referred to his work in Les Misérables. The
philosopher Jacob Fries (1773- 1843) also suggested a link between crime and physical
appearance when he published a criminal anthropology handbook in 1820.
▪ Phrenology. From the Greek word “mind” and “logos”. This theory claimed that
character, personality traits and criminality are determined on the basis of the shape of
the head (e.g. by reading “bumps” and “fissures”). Franz Joseph Gall the develop in
1810 his work in craniology, in which he alleged that crime was one of the behaviors
organically controlled by a specific area of the brain. In 1843, François Magendie
referred to phrenology as “a pseudo- science of the present day”.

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 b. Body Type and Crime. William Sheldon (1954) suggested that there was a relationship between
body built and temperament which was known as somatotype theory.
▪ Endomorphy(ic) (Soft
Temperament). Focused on the
digestive system, particularly the
stomach (endoderm); has a tendency
toward plumpness, corresponds to
Viscerotonia Temperament.
▪ Mesomorphy(ic) (Square
Masculinity & Skeletal
Massiveness). Mesophorphy is
focused on musculature and the
circulatory system (mesoderm), has
the tendency towards muscularity, and
corresponds to the Somatotonia
Temperament.
▪ Ectomorphy(ic) (Linearity and Frailty). Ectomorphy is focused on the nervous system
and the brain (ectoderm) - the tendency towards slightness, corresponds to Cerebrotonia
Temperament.

Note: The Physique and Character Theory (Study) of Ernst Kretschmer was published 1921 earlier than Sheldon’s
Somatotype Theory.

c.Heredity and Crime (late 19th Century) people believe that criminality is inherited. Crime was
blamed on a substance called “germ-plasm” that caused people to have “bad blood”. Once a
person committed a crime, that fact is encoded in his/her germ-plasm and when they procreate, their
“bad blood” is transmitted to their children.
1. IQ and Delinquency the earliest to study and examine the relationship between heredity
and crime centered on intelligence.
Alfred Binet and Theophile Simon (1916) developed the first standardized IQ
Test in 1905. In 1912 the German psychologist W. Stern introduced the notion of an
“Intelligence Quotient” or IQ. Stern suggested that every person had a mental age that could
be represented by an IQ Score.
2. Historical Studies the earliest study, Henry Goddard (Kallikak Family) administered the
intelligence test to prison and jail inmates and discovered that 70% were “feeble- minded”.
This extremely high percentage of low- intelligence led the public to believe that low
intelligence predisposed people to commit crime.
Today, criminologist rather consistently report a link between IQ and Delinquency,
leading Murray and Herrnstein to conclude that Low IQ people are more prone to criminal
behavior.
3. Psychoanalytic Theory by Sigmund Freud, believe that personality consists of three (3) parts:
a. Id present at birth. It consists of blind, unreasoning, instinctual
desires and motives. The id represents the basic biological and
psychological drives, it does not differentiate between fantasy and
reality.
b. Ego represents the problem- solving dimension of the personality; it
deals with reality, differentiating if from fantasy.
c. Superego develop from ego and is the moral code, norms, and
values the child has acquired. The superego is responsible for the
feelings of guilt and shame, and is more closely aligned with the
conscience.

The child who possesses sound mental health exhibits harmonious integration among the three components
of their personality. However, when these three components are in a state of conflict, it can lead to maladjustment in
children, rendering them susceptible to engaging in delinquent behavior.

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 4. Behavioral Theory and Delinquency by Burrhus Frederic Skinner (B.F. Skinner), is the most widely
acclaimed behaviorist that believed that environment shapes behavior. His research with pigeons
demonstrated that organisms act on their environment to elicit a response through operant conditioning, a
type of learning where subjects do something and connect what they do to the response they receive.
Albert Bandura expanded on Skinner’s ideas and developed the Theory of Aggression where
children learn by modeling and imitating others. Children learn to be aggressive from their experience.
Delinquent behavior is learned from direct, face-to-face interaction or by observing others.
VI. Cultural Deviancy Theory (Early 20th Century) stated that children do not really commit deviant acts. Their
behavior may be considered deviant by larger society, but it is compatible with the behavior in their
neighborhood.

1. Neighborhood and Delinquency by

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay they blame
delinquency on the neighborhood where a child
lives. They hypothesized that delinquency rates
would decline the father one moved from the
center of the city, called zonal hypothesis,
and tested this idea by dividing Chicago into
five concentric circles or zones.

▪ Differential Association Theory (Social Learning Theory) by Edwin Sutherland. This

theory asserts that criminal behavior is learned primarily within the interpersonal groups. Criminal
behavior is modeled through observation, either directly through intimate contact with others, or
indirectly through media.
This theory suggests that children who grow up in a home where violence is a way of life
may learn to believe that such behavior is acceptable and rewarding.
Nine Principles of Differential Association Theory (DAT)
a. Delinquent behavior is learned.
b. Delinquent behavior is learned in interaction with others through a process of
communication.
c. Learning takes place in an intimate group.
d. In intimate groups, children learn techniques for committing crime as well as the
appropriate motives, attitudes, and rationalizations.
e. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal
code as being favorable or unfavorable.
f. A child becomes delinquent because of an excess of definition favorable to violation
of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.
g. Definition favorable to the violation of law are learned from both criminal and non-
criminal persons.
h. The tendency toward delinquency will be affected by the frequency, duration,
priority, and intensity of learning experience.
i. Learning delinquent behavior involves the same mechanisms involved in any other
learning.
j. Criminal behavior and non-criminal behavior are expressions of the same needs and
values.
VII. Strain Theories assumes that children are basically good but under pressure and as a result they would
deviate. Pressure for deviance comes from their having internalized society’s goals.
1. Robert Merton Strain Theory delinquency is blamed on conformity to conventional cultural values.
▪ Cultural goals that are regarded as worth striving for; and
▪ Institutionalized means or approved ways of reaching these goals.
The main goals in society are the acquisition of wealth and status.
Strain Theory (Merton) holds that delinquency belongs to those in the poverty strata. In instances,

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 individuals with poor educational attainment they have difficulty in achieving wealth and status by securing well paid
employment, they are more likely to use criminal means to obtains these goals. Merton suggests five adaptations to
this dilemma:

a. Innovation. Individuals who accepts socially approved goals, but not necessarily the socially approved
means.
b. Retreatism. Those who reject socially approved goals and the means of acquiring them.
c. Ritualism. Those who buy into a system of socially approved means, but lose sight of the goals. Merton
believed that drugs users are in this category.
d. Conformity. Those who conform to the system’s means and goals.
e. Rebellion. People who negate socially approved goals and means by creating a new system of acceptable
goals means.

2. Albert Cohen Strain Theory explained why urban, lower- class boys commit delinquency. Cohen
blames delinquency on the following:
▪ the frustration children experience because of their low status.
▪ their inability to live up to middle- class standards.

Delinquency is the consequence of children expressing their frustration toward middle- class norms
and institutions.

3. Robert Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin Strain Theory explained lower- class male delinquency.
Disparity between what children are taught to want and what is available to them is the root of
delinquency.
Criminal behavior develops in stable neighborhoods that provide children with illegitimate
opportunities to become successful criminals. In these communities:
▪ there are successful adult criminals who serve as role models.
▪ there is an integration of age levels, which enables younger people to learn from
older juveniles how to commit crime.
▪ there is cooperation between offenders and legitimate people in the neighborhood
such as bondsmen, lawyers and politicians.

In conclusion, delinquency is blamed on the pressures to succeed and on the obstacles lower- class
children face. Thus, there must be available legitimate opportunities for the success of the children so they
would not turn to criminality.

4. Robert Agnew Strain Theory added to the work of Merton, Cohen, and Cloward and Ohlin in his
General Strain Theory that increased the number of condition and produced frustration for
children.
Agnew’s Types of Strain:
▪ Failure to achieve positively valued goals. This type of strain may result from doing
poorly on an exam or not performing well in sporting event.
▪ Denial of previously attained achievement. This type of strain may stem from being
fired from job or being “dumped” by boyfriend or girlfriend.
▪ Exposure to negative stimuli. An example of a social interaction that may produce
this type of strain is being picked on by classmates or receiving a speeding ticket.
VIII. Social Control Theories assumes that children are amoral. They are inclined to break the law. Delinquency
is an expected behavior. What needs to be explained is why most children obey society’s rule most of the
time.
1. David Matza Social Control Theory believes that delinquency theories exaggerated the difference
between delinquents and non- delinquents. He believes delinquency is normal in all aspects except in
belonging to a subculture that teaches them it is all right to be a delinquent.
Matza also feels that many delinquents know that what they did was wrong and feel sorry for
it. If he is right, then why do they do it? Matza says it is because they pick up cues from
other children that lead them to believe delinquency is acceptable.
Techniques of Neutralization

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