Juvenile delinquency covers crimes committed by young people.
Juvenile delinquency is that which refers to crimes committed by young people. These are conducts contrary to the law that, therefore, are punishable in accordance with what is stipulated by law.
It should be noted that crime is a concept that comes from the Latin delinquentĭa and that allows us to name the action of committing a crime or the quality of being a criminal . To commit a crime is to commit a crime ; that is, breaking the law . The concept of crime, therefore, refers to all crimes or people who break the law.
Juvenile , for its part, is that belonging to or relating to youth . The term indicates the age between childhood and adulthood, a period that ranges from 15 to 25 years according to the United Nations (UN) .
Causes of juvenile delinquency
It is important to establish that there are a series of factors that can cause some minors and not others to fall into the sphere of juvenile delinquency. Among the most significant are living in a conflictive environment where crime is very common, abusing alcohol and drugs, having friends in "dark" areas, behavioral disorders, having severe depression...
All these circumstances and many more are what motivate many young people to fall into violent gangs, drug affairs, robberies or any other type of criminal acts. However, experts in the field do not hesitate to emphasize that among the reasons that most cause cases of this type are school absenteeism , unemployment , poverty or living in absolutely unstructured families.
Juvenile delinquency is usually tried by juvenile courts.
The juvenile courts
When a crime is committed by a young person, it is usual for juvenile courts to be responsible for analyzing the case and establishing the appropriate sentence. In the case of Spain, for example, the usual thing is that, when the person is considered guilty and always based on the seriousness of the matter, he can be confined for a certain period of time in a juvenile center, he has to pay an amount economically or even must perform community services.
In order to prevent cases of juvenile delinquency from occurring, it is essential that the relevant authorities take measures in educational matters, family counseling and even drug use treatment.
Juvenile delinquency as a social problem
Juvenile delinquency is a very important social problem. Young people represent the future of a country: if they turn to crime from an early age, it is very difficult to reincorporate them into the system . Furthermore, young delinquents tend to be left out of education and the usual restraint for older people.
In the case of minors , most legislation prevents criminal punishment and has youth centers or institutes that aim at resocialization through education.
This legal impossibility of punishment means that many juvenile offenders are used by adults , since they are aware that a minor cannot go to prison. That is why crimes committed by young people are usually the result of an intense debate that seeks to define how to help these young people and, in turn, how to prevent more victims of their criminal actions.