Dr.

Arcadio Santos National High School

Km 15 East Service Road SSHW San Martin de Porres, Paraaque
City

EFFECTIVE WAYS TO ALLEVIATE THE GROWING

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

A Research Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the
Requirements in English IV

Submitted to
Hilda Rongap- Laurel
Adviser/ English Teacher

By
Janine Marian D. Notarte
IV-Diamond

February 9, 2015

I.

INTRODUCTION
For many young people today, traditional patterns guiding the
relationships and transitions between family, school, and work are
being challenged. Social relations that ensure a smooth process of
socialization are collapsing; lifestyle trajectories are becoming more
varied and less predictable. Youth nowadays, regardless of gender,
social origin or country of residence, are subject to individual risks
but also being presented with new individual opportunities, some
beneficial and potentially harmful. Quite often, advantage is being
taken of illegal opportunities as young people commit various
offenses, become addictive to drugs and use violence against peers.
Juvenile delinquency, also known as "juvenile offending", is
participation in Easton Huddleston's illegal behavior by minors or
juveniles, which are individuals younger than the statutory age of
majority. It is the negative behaviors of children and teens that may
result in crimes or legal actionfrequently causes widespread
problems in communities.
Statistical data indicate that youth crimes rose in 1990s, and
many of the criminal offenses are related to drug abuse and
excessive alcohol use. Young people who are at risk of becoming
delinquent often live in difficult circumstances. Children who for
various reasons including parental alcoholism, poverty,
breakdown of the family, overcrowding, abusive conditions in the
home or the death of parents during armed conflicts- are orphans or
unaccompanied and are without the means of subsistence; housing
and other basic necessities are at greatest risk of falling into
juvenile delinquency. The number of children in especially difficult
circumstances is estimated from 80 million to 150 million between
1992 and 2003 in virtually all parts of the world. In our case, here in
Philippines, it increases quite rapid.
The problem of juvenile delinquency is becoming more
complicated and universal, and crime prevention. Programs are
either unequipped to deal with the present realities or do not exist.
On the whole, current efforts to fight juvenile delinquency are
characterized by the lack of systematic actions and the absence of
task oriented and effective social work with both offenders, whether
real or potential.

II.

INDICATIONS OF GROWING JUVENILE

DELINQUENCY
Increasing Rate of Crimes among Youth

According to a research, there has been an observed increase in

violent and aggravated crimes among youth and a number of drugrelated crimes are growing. An available data show that delinquency
and crime have strong gender association. Police offenders are
more than double those of young females, and conviction rates six
or seven times higher, for a number of reasons such as various
restrictive and simulative factors encourage women to conform to
social norms that do not apply to men like the fear of sexual assault
and stronger family control than the males. Generally, delinquent
youth is increasing and it is reasonably alarming.

Blowing of Early Pregnancy

There is about 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 and some 1 million

girls under 15 give birth every year most in low and middleincome countries. It is alarming and terrible issue nowadays
especially in our country where higher percentage has been
marked, although uneven, in the birth rates among adolescent girls.
Pregnancies among female teens wretchedly become like an
ordinary matter, yet it is much dreadful in the part of our
government whom support people in providing shelter and health
securities among its people. The blowing rate of early pregnancy is
a further dossier of dilemma about space, food and mind to
educate. Recent (2014) data from the Philippine Statistical Authority
(PSA) reveal that every hour, 24 babies are delivered by teenage
mothers. According to the 2014 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality
(YAFS) study, around 14 percent of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 are
either pregnant for the first time or are already mothersmore than
twice the rate recorded in 2002. Among six major economies in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines has the
highest rate of teenage pregnancies and is the only country where
the rate is increasing, per the United Nations Population Fund.

Addictive and Vicious Teenagers

There has been a rapid increase of youth entering alcoholism,

drugs and smoking. In addition, there has been juvenile groups
appeared which is quite tough to end for it influences group of
youth very rapid and it is becoming terrible gradually. According to
UN report cited by the US Department of State in its 2012
International Drug Control Strategy Report, which is posted on the
website of the US Embassy in Manila, the Philippines has the highest

abuse rate for methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, in East

Asia, according to the latest United Nations World Drug Report. The
state department also disclosed that 2.1 percent of Filipinos aged 16
to 64 were using shabu, and domestic consumption of
methamphetamine and marijuana continued to be the main drug
threats in the Philippines.

Mounting Rate of Prostitutions among Teenagers

Girls who are involved in prostitution are increasingly getting
younger, dropping from 14 to 13 and 12 years of age. There is an
estimated 600,000 children fewer than 18 are involved in
prostitution and pornography. Up to 90% of prostitutions are under
the control of a pimp. In Philippines, the issue of prostitution
became less as the act for cyber sex was proclaimed. But there still
who enter this horrible activity and it is increasing clandestinely. To
assuage this matter, in coordination of DSWD with other social
sectors and defense, there are plans established and to prevent the
mounting rate of prostitution and capture the people behind the
appalling commotion.

Escalating Rate of Out of School Youth

According to statistic, the proportion of youth population 7 to 24
years old who were out of school and those who were unemployed
and have not graduated from college increased by 852 thousand,
from 3.0 million in 1989 to 3.8 million in 1994. In the Philippines,
particularly in western Mindanao, the percentage of Out of School
Youth (OSY) is 18.7%, the highest OSY in 1994 in whole nation,
followed by ARMM (17.5%) and Central Visayas (17.4%) except for
CARs impressive record of 7.3 %, the rest of the regions reported
OSY proportions ranging from 11.6% in Ilocos to 16.3% in Northern
Mindanao.

III. CAUSES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Media

Many researchers have concluded that young people who watch

violence tend to behave more aggressively and violently,
particularly when provoked. It is media where aggressive and
criminal behavior is positively portrayed creating a confused picture
of acceptable societal norms within some youth subcultures. Media
brings individual to violence in three matters. First, movies
demonstrate violent acts that excite spectators and the aggressive
energy can then be transferred to everyday life, pushing an
individual to engage in physical activity on the streets. Second,
televisions can portray ordinary daily violence committed by
parents or peers. As a result, children continually exposed to the

use of violence in different situations and the number of violent acts

in television appears to be increasing. Lastly, violence depicted in
the media is unreal and has a surrealistic quality easing a shift in
the system of human values and indirectly leads children to view
violence as a desirable and even courageous way of reestablishing
justice.

Environment around the Family

Studies show that children who receive an adequate supervision
are less likely to engage in criminal activities. On the other hand,
dysfunctional family setting, characterized by conflict, inadequate
parental control, weak internal linkages, puny integration and frail
premature autonomy, are closely associated with juvenile
delinquency.

Migration
The difficulties encountered by immigrants and their
descendants in certain countries are sometimes related to the high
levels of group crime deriving from the activities of ethically based
delinquent group. Differences in norms and values and the varying
degrees of acceptability of some acts in different ethnic subcultures
result in cultural conflicts, which are the main sources of criminal
behavior. Native urban populations tend to perceive immigrants as
obvious deviants.

Exclusion
The growing gap between rich and poor has led to the
emergence of unwanted others. The exclusion of some people is
gradually increasing with accumulation of obstacles, ruptured social
ties, and unemployment and identity crises. Studies show that the
act of labeling may lead to the self adoption of a delinquent image,
which later results delinquent activity.

Peer Influence
Youth policies seldom reflect an understanding of role of the
peer group as an institution of socialization. Membership in a
delinquent gang, like membership in any natural grouping, can be
part of the process of becoming an adult. Quite often delinquent
groups can counterbalance or compensate for the imperfections of
family and school. A number of studies have shown that juvenile
gang members consider their group a family. For adolescents,
constantly facing violence, belonging to gang can provide protection
within the neighborhood.

Economic and Social Factors

Juvenile delinquency is driven by the negative consequences
of social and economic development, in particular economic crises,
political instability, and the weakening of major institutions
including the state, system of public education, and public
assistance and the family. Socio-economic instability is often linked
to persistent unemployment and low incomes among the young
which can increase their involvement in criminal activity.

Cultural Factors
Delinquent behavior often occurs in social setting in which the
norms for acceptable behavior have broken down. Under such
circumstances many of the common rules that deter people from
committing socially unacceptable acts may lose their relevance for
some members of society. They respond to traumatizing and
destructive changes in the social reality by engaging in rebellious
deviant or even criminal activities.

Urbanizations
Geographical analysis suggests that countries with more
urbanized populations have higher registered crime rates rather
than do those with strong rural lifestyle and communities. This may
be attributable to the differences in social control as a means of
cohesion. The ongoing process of urbanization in developing
countries is contributing involvement in criminal behavior.

IV. EFFECTIVE WAYS TO ALLEVIATE JUVENILE

DELINQUENCY
Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at
preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal, or other
antisocial, activity. Development of delinquency in youth is
influenced by numerous factors, prevention efforts need to be
comprehensive in scope. Prevention services may include activities
such as substance abuse education and treatment, family
counseling, youth mentoring, parenting education, educational
support, and youth sheltering. Increasing availability and use
of family planning services, including education
and contraceptives helps to reduce unintended pregnancy and
unwanted births, which are risk factors for delinquency. Education is

the great equalizer, opening doors to lift themselves out of poverty.

Education also promotes economic growth, national productivity
and innovation, and values of democracy and social
cohesion. Prevention through education aides the young person to
interact more effectively in social contexts therefore diminishing
need for delinquency.

Societal Approaches
Changing the social and cultural environment to reduce violence
is the strategy that is least frequently employed to prevent youth
violence. Such an approach seeks to reduce economic or social
barriers to development for instance, by creating job programs or
strengthening the criminal justice system or to modify the
embedded cultural norms and values that stimulate violence.

Establishing Educational Programs

Educational programs are helping young people learn how to
engage in positive self appraisal, deal with conflict and control
aggression. These programs will debunk the myth of gang glamour
and help young people find alternatives to illegal behavior. These
may help also the troubled youth to help them develop the social
and cognitive skills necessary to avoid conflict and control
aggression.

Changing the urban Environment

Altering the physical features through architectural and
landscape planning and providing opportunities to engage young
peoples interest may reduce the level of juvenile delinquency. A
park redesigned and build may create more leisure and recreational
activities for juveniles and their parents.

Juveniles Empowerment in Community

Community based improvements in slum and squatter
settlements have the potential to prevent children from living on the
streets and to help reintegrate them into their neighborhoods.
Another objective of preventive work is to help street children
engage in optimistic self appraisal and form positive attitudes.

Involvement of Agencies in Empowering the Youth

A promising development of efforts to prevent juvenile

delinquency and crime is the involvement of NGOs and volunteers
in social work with adolescents. Programs for preventing gang

delinquency should endeavor to integrate children and youth into

organized group, and this can be achieved through social service
agencies or organization such as YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts and
community centers. Local government recreational activities also
serve this purpose.

Strong Family
The family, as the primary institution of socialization, appears to
play the most important role in the prevention of juvenile
delinquency. The most impressive prevention efforts focus on the
families of troubled youth, including those young people with
serious behavior problems. In US, there is implemented seminar
called Parent Management Training and Children Program. In
relation to this, special attention must begin to street children and
adolescents who have lost their families and no appropriate family
surveillance. Skill training programs on parenting aim to improve
family relations and child-rearing techniques and thereby to reduce
youth violence. Their objectives include improving the emotional
bonds between parents and their children, encouraging parents to
use consistent child-rearing methods and helping them to develop
self-control in bringing up children

Relationship Approaches
Another common set of prevention strategies address youth
violence by attempting to influence the type of relations that young
people have with others with whom they regularly interact. These
programs address such problems as the lack of emotional relations
between parents and children, powerful pressures brought to bear
by peers to engage in violence and the absence of a strong
relationship with a caring adult.

Suppressing Gang Violence

Community programs to prevent gang violence have taken on
several forms. Preventive strategies have included attempts to
suppress gangs or to communities affected by gang violence in such
a way that youth gangs operate differently and with less criminal
activities. Rehabilitative or corrective strategies include outreach
and counseling programs for gang members as well as programs
that seek to channel gang activities into socially productive
directions.

Tackling Gun Violence among Youths

Changing the social environment so as to keep guns and other

lethal weapons out of the hands of children and unsupervised young
people may be a viable strategy for reducing the number of deaths
arising from youth violence. Young people and others who should

not possess guns will inevitably get hold of them. Some of these
people will do so intending to commit crimes, while others whose
judgments are impaired by alcohol or drugs will lack the proper
care and responsibility that should accompany the possession of
firearms.

Comprehensive Law
Last October 9, 2013, President Noynoy Aquino signed in a law
named Republic Act No. 10630 the amends Juvenile Delinquency
and Welfare Act 2006. The Republic Act of 9344 is also established
which is a comprehensive juvenile justice and welfare system,
creating the juveniles and welfare council under the Department of
Justice with appropriate funds for other purposes. This law states
that LGU should allot budget for homes and counselors as part of
the Delinquency Prevention Program like in the Bayawan City,
Negros Occidental. It also prohibits imprisonment as it will only
subject the children into more harm than good. Nevertheless,
government plays a great role in alleviating juvenile delinquency
and it is very important that everyone unites especially agencies in
our country.

V.

CONCLUSION
Juvenile delinquency, also known as Juvenile Offending, is
participation in illegal behavior by mirrors, individuals younger than
the statutory age of majority. This issue is alarming every state in
the world, for it increasing and terribly becoming horrible as time
goes by. In the Philippines, there has been 2600 juvenile
delinquency cases reported in 2009 and it is quite terrible. With this,
it is very important to alleviate it as long as possible and to take
care youth which is the future of each society.
The intensity and severity of juvenile offences are generally
determined by the social, economic and cultural conditions.
Therefore, it is very important that each aspect of persons life is
secured to avoid factors that may influence delinquent behavior.
Because substance abuse and delinquency are inextricably
interrelated, identifying substance-abusing youth in the juvenile
justice system is an important first step for intervening in both their
substance abuse and their delinquent behavior. Drug identification
strategies, followed by effective interventions, help prevent further
illicit drug use and delinquency. Drug testing can be a constructive
means of helping youth overcome denial of their substance abuse.
As a part of intervention, drug testing can be used to help youth
achieve and maintain recovery and curtail other deviant behaviors.

Over time, effective drug identification will help juvenile justice

agencies achieve the goals of a balanced approach including
community protection, youth accountability, and competency
development.
Violence against children endangers their human rights. It is
therefore imperative to convince individuals and institute to commit
the time, money, expertise and other resources needed to address
this global problem. A number of ways are available to control
juvenile delinquency such as giving enough attention and
opportunities the juveniles, establishing educational programs,
strengthening family bonding, empowering seminars and
recreational activities and also creating comprehensive laws for
youth. In the case of our country, after establishing a
comprehensive law known as RA 2009, a later year and it became 1,
200. Consequently, it is in the hand of each of us to alleviate
juvenile delinquency. We need to have systematic action; taskoriented and effective social work and desire of completely alleviate
juvenile delinquency. It is in our hand, the better future we desire.

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