ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON DELINQUENCY

Families, peers, schools, and socioeconomic status are all social factors that are examined in many of the causal theories.
Families are important to consider when we explain juvenile delinquency. The family unit is crucial to a child's development and
healthy upbringing. In addition, much of what a child leams is through their family or guardians. A criminal parent can teach their
child adverse lessons about life when their child views or witnesses their parent's delinquent behavior.
Peers can also teach an adolescent or child criminal behavior just as the family member can. Family members and peers can
also cause delinquent patterns of behavior by labeling their child as delinquent. This is somewhat of the "if the shoe fits, wear it^{n}
saying. If a child feels as though they are viewed as delinquent, then they will act as such and find a sense of self-esteem by doing so.

To simplify the environmental sources of delinquency, the following are considered:

A. FAMILY BACKGROUND
The Home
- The family or the home is one of the most influential environmental factors that would lead a person to either a law abiding
or a criminal. It is said that the home is considered as the "cradle of human personality" for in it the child forms fundamental
attitudes and habits that endure throughout his life. The kind of conscience the child develops depends largely upon the kind of
parents he has.
-The parents are the most influential persons in the family when they give love, attention, guidance, security, standards, and all
other things that the child needs, the children are the mirror of the home for they reflect what the home look like. Thus, a child
who was provided with love, attention, guidance, security, standards, and all other things he needs comes to regard people as
friendly, understanding, dependable, loyal, and worthy of his respect and admiration. On the other hand, if he experienced cold,
 despairing, rejecting, neglectful, and cruel environment in the home, most likely he will learn to distrust, disobey, dislike and even
to hate people (Tradio, 1983).
Given a home, the child tends to become law abiding if the following conditions are met:
1. The Child is loved and wanted and knows it.
2. He was helped to grow up by not having too much or too little done for him.
3. He is part of the family; he has fun with the family he belongs.
4. His early mistakes and badness are understood as a normal part of growing and he is corrected without being hurt, shamed, or
confused. 5. His growing skills are enjoyed and respected.
6. He feels his parents care as much about as they do to his sisters and brothers.
7. The family sticks together with understanding and cooperation.
8. He is moderately and consistency disciplined.
Traditionally, the family has performed four principal functions:
1. the socialization of children;
2. the inculcation of moral values;
3. the reproduction and regulation of sexual activity; and
4. the provision of material, physical and emotional security.
The family is the primary institution that molds a child to either a law-abiding person or a delinquent. The effects of
pathological social relations in the home are usually influence anti- social behaviors. This means that the home can be a potent force
of either good or evil.

The Family's Influence on Delinquency.

Most experts believe a disturbed home environment can have a significant impact on delinquency. The family is the primary unit in
which children learn the values and attitudes that guide their actions throughout their lives.
Family disruption or change can have a long-lasting effect on children.
1. Family Structure
a. Family size - Parents of larger families tend to give less parental attention to their children.
- Children of large families are having a greater chance to become delinquent, and this is a predictive factor. It was found that
delinquency is associated with the number of brothers in the family, but not with the number of sisters.
- Members of large families had been found to be lacking in educational success, they perform poor in school and they score low in
IQ test, and low intelligence.
b. Child's Birth Order in the family
Family Birth order affects the birth behaviors with the delinquency more likely among middle children than first or last children.
The first child receives individual attention and affection of parents, while the last child benefits from the parent's experience of
raising children, as well as from presence of siblings, who serve as models. In some cases, the delinquent child is the first or last child.

2. Relations between Parents and Children - The strongest predictive factor for delinquency is having criminal parents. While a very
small part of this effect may be accounted for by genetic factors, most of it must be related to the relationship of parents toward their
children. It may be that parents provide a model of behavior for the children to copy or a model of aggressive and antisocial behavior
which in turn leads to delinquency.

3. Family Rejection - Studies found a significant relationship between parental rejection and delinquent behavior.
Some children are being rejected by their parents as a result, they are deprived of one or both of their parents through abandonment,
hospitalization, divorce, death, or intervention of public agencies.
According to John Bowlby, A British Psychologist, even a short absence on the part of the mother could have deleterious effects on
the psychic well-being of the child.
A child who is deprived of his mother goes through three phases:
a. Protest - cries and screams for mother, shows panic, clings when she visits and howls when she leaves.
b. Despair - after a few days, child becomes withdrawn, sucks thumb
c. Detachment - loses inters in parents, and is not concerned whether they are there or not.
Discipline in the Home
A. Inadequate supervision and discipline in the home have been commonly cited to explain a delinquent behavior.
B. Where discipline is erratic or harsh, children tend to become delinquent in adolescence. Such parents differ from normal parents in
punishing harshly, and in giving many commands.
C. Certain children are difficult to discipline; shouting and incessant commands are a parental reaction to the child's constant
misbehavior.
D. The fact that parents of normal children can make their children behave worse simply by giving more commands is an indicator
that discipline is a shaping factor.

There are four categories of family dysfunction seem to promote delinquent behavior:
- families disrupted by spousal conflict or break-up,
- families involved in intra-personal conflict,
- negligent parents who are not attuned to their children's behavior and emotional problems, and
- families that contain deviant parents who may transmit their behaviors to their children.
These factors may interact; drug abusing parents may be more likely to engage in family conflict, child neglect and marital break-up.
PATHOGENIC FAMILY STRUCTURE
1. FAMILY BREAK-UP
One of the most enduring controversies in the study of delinquency is the relationship between a parent being absent
from the home and the onset of delinquent behavior. Research indicates that parents whose marriage is secure produce children
who are secure and independent. In, contrast, children growing up in homes with one or both parents absent may be prone to
anti-social behavior.
2. FAMILY CONFLICT
Not all unhappy marriages end in divorce; some continue in an atmosphere of conflict. Research efforts have
consistently supported the relationship among family conflict, hostility, and delinquency. Adolescents who are incarcerated
report growing up in dysfunctional homes. Parents who are beyond-control of youngsters have been found to be inconsistent
rule setters, to be less likely to show interest in their children, and to display high levels of hostile detachment. Kids who report
having troubled home lives also exhibit lower levels of self-esteem and are more prone to anti-social behavior.
Although damaged parent-child relationships are associated with delinquency, it is difficult to assess the relationship. It
is also assumed that pre-existing family problems causes delinquency, but it may also be true that children who act out put
enormous stress on a family.
3. FAMILY DEVIANCE
A number of studies have found that parental deviance has a powerful influence on delinquent behavior. Deviant
behavior is Intergenerational; the children of deviant parents produce delinquent children themselves. Parental deviance
disrupts the family's role as an agent of social control.
4. FAMILY NEGLECT
It is the passive neglect by a parent or guardian, depriving children of food, shelter, health care, and love.
 Child neglect is a form of child abuse illustrating the lack of a parent to provide the child with basic requirements such
as house, food, clothing, education, and medical care. Apart from the materialistic angle, child neglect also encompasses the
emotional domain. Children without proper supervision, guidance, love. and care also suffer from child neglect.
Juvenile delinquency and child abuse and neglect have a very strong link with each other. Certain factors that make the
research linked in this field rather blurred include lack of differentiation between child abuse and neglect in particular, weal
structuring of the research pattern and discrepancy in the actual definition of terms such delinquent act, child abuse and
neglect. Nevertheless, reports highlight strong association between abuse and neglect and delinquency.
B. THE SCHOOL
Part of a broader social process for behaviour influence is the school. It is said that the school is an extension of the home
having the strategic position to control crime and delinquency. It exercises authority over every child as a constituent. The
teachers are considered second parents having the responsibility to mold the child to become productive members of the
community by devoting energies to study the child behaviour using all available scientific means and devices to provide each the
kind and amount of education they need.
The school takes the responsibility of preventing the feeling of insecurity and rejection of the child, which can contribute
directly to maladjustment and to criminality by setting up objectives of developing the child into a well-integrated and useful law-
abiding citizen.
The school has also the role of working closely with the parents and neighborhood, and other community agencies and
organizations to direct the child in the most effective and constructive way.

However, the school could be an influence to delinquency and criminality when teachers are being disliked for they are too cross,
crabby, grouchy, never smile, naggers sarcastic temperamental, unreasonable intolerant, il mannered, too strict, and unfair Conditions
like these makes the students experience frustration, inadequacy, insecurity, and confusion, which are most of the time the
"undergarten of crime" In short, next to parents the teachers stand as foremost in their influence to human behavior.
Instances of deviant conduct of children attributed to the school inadequacy are as follows:
Truancy
Membership in fraternities and sureties,
Lack of faculties for circular and extra-circular activities,
Failure of the mentors in character development of the students
Methods being used which create the conditions of frustration and failure on the part of the students.
Corruption

SCHOOL AND DELINQUENCY

The school plays a significant role in shaping the values and norms of every individual especially the children.
a. Academic Performance and Delinquency- Poor academic performance has been directly linked to delinquent behavior
There is general consensus that students who are chronic underachievers in school are also among the most likely to be delinquent. In
fact, researchers commonly find the school failure is a stronger predictor of delinquency than such personal variables as economic
class membership, racial or ethnic background, or peer group relations
b. School Failure and Delinquency- While there is general agreement that school failure and delinquency are related, some
question exists over the nature and direction the relationship takes: One view is that the school experience is a direct cause of
delinquent behavior Children who fail at school soon feel frustrated, angry, and rejected. Believing they will never achieve success
through conventional means, they seek out like-minded companions and together engage in anti-social behaviors. Educational failure,
beginning early in the life course, evokes negative responses from Important people in the child's life, including teachers, parents, and
perspective employers These reactions help solidity feelings of social inadequacy and, in some cases, lead the underachieving student
into a pattern of chronic delinquency.
c. School Climate -School climate has been found to be a critical determinant of delinquency within the schools Both girls and
boys who perceive a positive school climate are less likely to manifest psychological and behavioral problems than those who fail to
share such positive perceptions. Schools located in high crime areas are reported relatively less crime when they maintain a positive
and supportive climate. School stability then may help neutralize the delinquency producing effect of neighborhood disorganization
and high crime rates.

C. PEERS AND DELINQUENCY

Experts have long debated the exact relationship between peer group interaction and delinquency. Research shows that peer
group relationships are closely tied to delinquent behaviors. The peer groups are another very potential agent of socialization. As
the child grows the role of the family in socialization is gradually supplemented and at times replaced by the peer group. The peer
group is an informal grouping of two or more individuals, about the same age levels, neighborhood, school, or friends. Other calls
the peer group a gang or is commonly known as barkada. This is a group wherein parents have no control.
Gang - The term is frequently associated with groups in socially disorganized and deteriorated Inner-city neighborhoods.
They are group of youths who collectively engage in delinquent behaviors. Gang types
a. Social Gang-is involved in few delinquent activities and little drug use other than alcohol and marijuana. Membership is
more interested in the social aspects of group behaviors
b. Party Gang - concentrates on drug use and sales, foregoing most delinquent behavior except vandalism.
c. Serious Delinquent Gangs- engages in serious delinquent behavior while eschewing most drug use. Drugs are used only on
social occasions.
d. The Organized Gang-heavily involved in criminality and drug use and sales.
 Characteristics of a Gang
1. Organization- this states that a gang or gang members has collective goals.
2. Leadership- they have leaders that may decide matters related to the organization.
3.Turf- it involves the identification and control.
4.Cohesiveness- it refers to gang's very close, tight-knit organizations with loyal members bound to one another by mutual
friendship and common interest.

D. BAD NEIGHBORHOOD
It refers to areas or places in which dwelling or housing conditions are dilapidated, unsanitary, and unhealthy which are
detrimental to the moral, health, and safety of the populace.
It is commonly characterized by overcrowding with disintegrated and unorganized Inhabitants and other close relatives. Most
inhabitants in a bad neighborhood are experiencing economic difficulties, alcoholism, substance abuse, gambling, and many other
problems in life. This connotes that bad neighborhood is the habitat of bad elements of society by reason of anonymity because
the situation is so conducive for the commission of crimes. Bad elements prefer to dwell in such community not only because of
the sense of anonymity among its members but also because they are not welcome in decent places.

E. THE CHURCH
Religion is a positive force for good in the community and an influence against crime and delinquency.
The church influences people's behavior with the emphasis on morals and life's highest spiritual values, the worth and dignity
of the individual, and respect for person's lives and properties, and generate the full power to oppose crime and delinquency.
 Just like the family and the school, the church is also responsible to cooperate with Institutions and the community in dealing
with problems of children, delinquents, and criminals as regardless to the treatment and correction of criminal behaviors.

F. THE POLICE
It is one of the most powerful occupation groups in the modern society. The prime mover of the criminal justice system and the
number one institution in the community. with the broad goals maintaining peace and order, the protection of life and property,
and the enforcement of the laws.
The police are the authority having a better position to draw up special programs against crime because it is the very reason
why the police exist. That is to protect the society against lawless elements since they are the best equipped to detect and identify
criminals. The police are the agency most interested about crime and criminals and having the most clearly defined legal power
authority to act against them.

G. THE MASS MEDIA

The media is the best institution for information dissemination thereby giving the public necessary need to know, and do help
shape everyday views about crime and its control.
-It may be in the form of print, broadcast or electronic wherein everyone could be reached and influence due to its tri-media
system, including children. Its influence could either be for good or bad.

-CBRA.