Adolescent Delinquency

             Adolescent delinquency is a major concern in society today, but in order to understand why it occurs, it is important to look at the factors that can cause one to become a delinquent. Different factors are focused on in many different theories. Each theory would seek to explain adolescent delinquency in ways in which they feel is contributing to the cause of the problem. This essay will seek to explain the cause of adolescent delinquency from a psychosocial, social learning, and a systems theorist view.
             A psychosocial theorist would explain adolescent delinquency by examining one's development pertaining to their needs, abilities, and social expectations. Erikson classifies individual stages of development with adolescents ranging from ages 12-24 (early and late), but I feel that it is more important to focus on the early adolescent age group. He associates different task that basically occur during each stage of development. The tasks he associates with adolescence can help in explaining adolescent delinquency. For example, in early adolescence, and individual goes through physical, emotional, and sexual changes. All of these changes can help to explain changes in behavior, as compared to behavior during the middle childhood stage. Also, adolescence delinquency could also be partly a result of failure to learn tasks in earlier stages, such as early moral development in the early school age stage. If a child is not taught morals at an early age, then they grow up not realizing the importance between right and wrong behavior.
             A psychosocial crisis is a natural part of human development that occurs during each life stage. These crises are partly caused by cultural expectations and pressures in one's society. The psychosocial crisis that occurs roughly during the time of the early adolescence stage is group identity versus alienation. During this stage, individuals are highly influenced by their peers. If one...

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Adolescent Delinquency. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:13, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/97222.html