Juvenile Delinquency

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The Charlestown Secondary School serves to provide a quality education system for all students and the aim of the school is to promote students with skills and learning styles.

The purpose of this research is to show how juvenile delinquency develops in today’s school system. The intention of this research is to prove that our educator’s need to be responsible for taking action to curve delinquency at the first sign of problem instead of disciplining the adolescent when it has evolved to an even greater problem. Also the research would help schools and educational organizations to consider delinquency as a major focus and help maintain a child’s mental stability throughout their educational years.

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RESEARCH DESIGN

In this study, the researcher utilized quantitative research to investigate the negative impact of juvenile behaviour in the Charlestown Secondary School. Quantitative is generally referred to statistical data and numerical information. In term of quantitative data the researcher employed the use of questionnaires and a total of twenty questionnaires were distributed to number of twenty students of the Charlestown Secondary School. The students of the Charlestown Secondary School were selected for this study, as they are from different environment, but dwell in same learning institution. Also a few students would have been exposed to juvenile delinquency. These questionnaires were given out on 31st October, 2016 and then collected on 1st November, 2016. After the questionnaires were collected, the researcher then analyzed the data and presented them in form of charts and diagrams

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Delinquency is a major problem confronting adolescents today. World Youth report (2003) describes delinquency as to set of behaviours that are not in line with the collective practices or ethics of the dominant social group. Essentially, these behaviors deviate from social norms and more specifically they violate established criminal codes and laws.

Becker’s (1960) stated that “social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders.”

Merton (1938) stated that deviance has goals and means when look upon the strain theory. According to Merton (1938) anomie is the state in which social goals and the legitimate means to achieve them do not correspond. He postulated that an individual’s responded to societal expectation and the means by which the individual pursued those goals were useful to understanding deviance. K Cohen’s (1955) cultural theory, opposed Merton’s views that the motivation for deviant behaviour arises out of the frustration of failing to achieve success by legitimate means. He also noted that deviant acts are not always undertaken for financial gain but rather a collective response. He sees the cause of much delinquency as status frustration.

In a study done by Moffitt (1993) the impact of delinquency can be seen by examining risk factors for onset and differences between those who begin offending early (prior to adolescence) versus those who begin offending in midadolescence. Moffitt also suggested that

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early-onset delinquents are more likely than later-onset delinquents to be more serious and persistent offenders. According to Moffitt, early- onset delinquents with disabilities and those that suffered peer pressure are more likely to become recidivist.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Quantitative data is associated with positivism. Quantitative data also proved to be advantageous, including that it perceives human behaviors to be measureable and observable allowing exact responses.

The researcher employed quantitative as mean of collecting information on the issue of this study. Quantitative data was used since it allowed the researcher to be able to analyze the variables of this study in detail. As well, it allowed the researcher to incorporate the theory of functionalism.

Functionalism suggests that society depend on school since it is an institution which contributes to society stability and function to promote students with skills and learning styles which will be beneficial in society. The use of quantitative data proved to be advantage because it allowed the researcher to be more objective about the finding of the research.

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THE SAMPLE

According to Mustapha (2013), a sample can be defined as a subset of a population that is used to represent the entire group as a whole. A sampling frame was utilized to study the desired portion of the population. Stratified random sampling was incorporated, a total of twenty questionnaires was randomly distributed to students of the Charlestown Secondary School in Charlestown, Guyana.

This method of simple random sampling was chosen beacause it allowed for a broad variety of responses as the respondents would be of varies age group, ethnicies and genders.

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DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT

The Bishops’ High School

84 Carmichael Street

South Cummings Burg

Georgetown, Guyana.

Dear Respondent,

I am a student of The Bishops’ High School who currently in six (6) Form Lower Arts. This survey is being carried out in The Charlestown Secondary School, Guyana to investigate the negative impact of Juvenile behaviour.

This survey is being conducted for a Sociology School based Assessment (SBA), which will help the researcher for the upcoming Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

As such, I am kindly asking you to complete a questionnaire in this regard. You are not required to write your name and all information received will be strictly confidential. Thank you.

Yours Respectively,

……………………..

Tyron Rhamanohar

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QUESTIONNAIRE

- What gender are you? [pic