JUVENILE DELINQUENCY THE CORE 5E Chapter 7: The Family and Delinquency The Changing American Family • Traditional family is a thing of the past • Changing sex roles have created a family where women play a greater role in the economic process • Egalitarian family structure • Fathers are now spending more time with children than they did 20 years ago and mothers are spending less time with children than they did 20 years ago Family Makeup  After a decades-long decline, 2/3 of underage minors now live in two parent families  Significant racial differences in family makeup still exist:  75% of White, non-Hispanic children live with two parents  61% of Hispanic children live with two parents (decreased from 75% in 1980)  35% of Black children live with two parents Teen Moms/Single Moms  Today, more than 90% of teens who give birth are unmarried  Living a single parent home, especially one headed by an unmarried teenage mother, has been long associated with difficulties for both mother and child  Kids born into single-parent homes are more likely to live in poverty and to experience long-term physical and social difficulties  There are fewer teenage moms in the population today, due to birth control and the legalization of abortion Figure 7.1 Percentage of Children Ages 0-17 Living in various Family Arrangements Child Care • 48% of children ages 0-4 with employed moms are cared for by a relative • 24% are cared for in a formal daycare or center • 14% are cared for by a nonrelative in a home-based environment • Day care workers are often paid minimum wage • Family day care homes: • Single provider takes care of three to nine children • Although some states mandate registration and inspection of day care providers, 90% are “underground” • Children from working poor families are likely to suffer from inadequate child care • According to Polakow, lack of access to affordable high-quality child care is related to family poverty, joblessness, and homelessness Economic Stress • About 6 million American youth live in poverty • Majority of the families live in substandard housing without adequate health care, nutrition, or child care • Recent political trends suggest that the social “safety net” is under attack • Poor families can expect less government aid in the coming years • Will this economic pressure be reduced in the future? • The recent economic upheaval and high unemployment rate has caused families to remain under stress… Family’s Influence of Delinquency  The family is the primary unit in which children learn the values and attitudes that guide their actions  Family disruption or changes can have a long lasting effect  Four categories of family dysfunction promote delinquency: ① Families disrupted by spousal conflict or breakup  Family breakup ② Families involved in interpersonal ...

1. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
THE CORE 5E
Chapter 7: The Family and
Delinquency
The Changing American Family
• Traditional family is a thing of the past
• Changing sex roles have created a family where women play a
greater role in the economic process
• Egalitarian family structure
• Fathers are now spending more time with children than they
did
20 years ago and mothers are spending less time with children
than they did 20 years ago
Family Makeup
-long decline, 2/3 of underage minors now

2. live in two parent families
-Hispanic children live with two parents
1% of Hispanic children live with two parents (decreased
from 75% in
1980)
Teen Moms/Single Moms
unmarried
one headed by an
unmarried teenage mother, has been long associated with
difficulties for both mother and child
-parent homes are more likely to live in
poverty and
to experience long-term physical and social difficulties
There are fewer teenage moms in the population today,
due to birth control and the legalization of abortion

3. Figure 7.1 Percentage of Children Ages 0-17 Living in various
Family Arrangements
Child Care
• 48% of children ages 0-4 with employed moms are cared for
by
a relative
• 24% are cared for in a formal daycare or center
• 14% are cared for by a nonrelative in a home-based
environment
• Day care workers are often paid minimum wage
• Family day care homes:
• Single provider takes care of three to nine children
• Although some states mandate registration and inspection of
day
care providers, 90% are “underground”
• Children from working poor families are likely to suffer from
inadequate child care
• According to Polakow, lack of access to affordable high-
quality
child care is related to family poverty, joblessness, and
homelessness

4. Economic Stress
• About 6 million American youth live in poverty
• Majority of the families live in substandard housing without
adequate health care, nutrition, or child care
• Recent political trends suggest that the social “safety net”
is under attack
• Poor families can expect less government aid in the coming
years
• Will this economic pressure be reduced in the future?
• The recent economic upheaval and high unemployment rate
has caused families to remain under stress…
Family’s Influence of Delinquency
values and attitudes that guide their actions
n or changes can have a long lasting effect

5. delinquency:
①Families disrupted by spousal conflict or breakup
②Families involved in interpersonal conflict
③Ineffective parents who lack proper parenting skills
④Families that contain deviant parents
Figure 7.2 Family Influences on Behavior
Family Breakup
produce children who are confident and independent
raised
in broken homes may be more likely to exhibit to antisocial
behavior

6. likely to
demonstrate behavior problems and
hyperactivity
The Effects of Divorce
apart from their biological fathers are typically less
adjusted than children who grow up with both biological
parents.
in some cases, divorce reduces stress and insulates
kids
from exposure to harmful parents
Family Conflict

7. -family conflict is a common experience in many
American families
was
established more than 50 years ago by F. Ivan Nye
in
maladapted homes, and witness discord or violence, later
exhibit
emotional disturbance and behavior problems
ated report growing up in
dysfunctional
homes
inconsistent rule setters and less likely to show interest in their
children
Family Effectiveness
• Children raised by parents who lack proper parenting skills are
more at risk
for delinquency

8. • Delinquency will be reduced if parents provide the type of
structure that integrates
children into families, while also giving them the ability to
assert their individuality-
known as “parental efficacy”
• “Violence begetting violence” cycle
• Violent parents more likely to produce violent children
• Evidence show that inconsistent supervision can promote
delinquency
• F. Ivan Nye found that mothers who threatened discipline, but
failed to
carry it out, were more likely to raise delinquent children than
those who
were consistent
• Poor child/parent communications have been related to
dysfunctional activities
such as running away and entering the ranks of homelessness
• The more children in a family, the greater the chance of
youthful misbehavior –
resource dilution

9. Family Deviance
delinquency than children
of non-incarcerated parents
nal fathers became chronic
offenders, compared to 37% of
sons WITH criminal fathers
number of factors may play a
role:
havior
may be genetic
involved in drug abuse and delinquency
released, will exhibit lower levels of
effective parenting

10. Family Members Arrested for the Same Crime –
Current Example
Family Deviance
ing is a delinquent, there is a
significant likelihood that his brother or sister will engage in
delinquent behavior
Birth Order and Delinquency –
Current Example
Defining Abuse and Neglect

11. trauma to a child for which no reasonable explanation can
be found
single
act
behavior are cumulative
they
represent different forms of maltreatment
is a form of aggression against the child that
often requires
medical attention
Forms of Abuse and Neglect
suffocating, biting,

12. and deliberately disfiguring a child
ken Baby Syndrome
care, or
protection from physical abuse for their children
Forms of Abuse and Neglect
• Emotional Neglect:
• Inadequate nurturing, inattention to a child’s emotional
development, lack of concern about maladaptive behavior
• Abandonment:
• Parents leave their children with the intention of severing the
parent-child relationship
• Sexual Abuse:
• Exploitation of children through rape, incest or molestation by

13. parents, family members, friends, or legal guardians
Fresno Family Massacre –
Current Example
The Effects of Abuse
ts have
found that abused kids experience mental
and social problems across their lifespan
personality disorders
at risk for stress and anxiety
The Extent of Child Abuse
abuse
communicate

14. 1.9 million children were
subject to
physical abuse from their parents
had
declined due to a decrease in parental approval of corporal
punishment
monitoring the extent of maltreatment through its annual
survey of child protective services
Who are the Victims of Abuse?
ave an almost equal chance of being
victimized
Native
children suffer much higher rates of child abuse than European
American, Hispanic and Asian children
parent either acting alone
or with

15. someone else
abuse
Causes of Child Abuse and Neglect
neither a single cause nor a single solution
tepparents and abuse,
and
social class and abuse
Figure 7.3 Reported Maltreatment Types of victims
Child Protection System:
Philosophy and Practice

16. • Troxel vs. Granville (2000)
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the due process clause of
the
Constitution protects against government interference with
certain
fundamental rights, including parents’ right to make decisions
concerning the care, custody, and control of their children
• In 1974, Congress passed the Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment
Act (CAPTA)
• Provides funds to states to bolster their services for maltreated
children and their parents
• All states have statutes requiring that persons suspected of
abuse
and neglect be reported by those who suspect abuse is taking
place
• Many states have made failure to report child abuse a criminal
offense
The Process of State Intervention
• Procedures vary from state to state
• If the allegation of abuse is confirmed, the child may be

17. placed in protective custody
• Most state statues require that the court be notified
“promptly” or “immediately” if the child is removed
• If the child has not been removed from the home, state
authorities are given more time to notify the court of
suspected abuse
• When an abuse or neglect petition is prosecuted, an
“advisement hearing” is held
• If the parent deny the petition, the case is continued
for a “pretrial conference”
Trial and Disposition
• Research has shown that no more than 10 cases out of every
100 actually
reach the trial stage of the process
• If the state’s case is proven, the parents may be found guilty
of criminal
charges of child abuse and face probation or a prison sentence
• The most crucial part of an abuse or neglect proceeding is the

18. “disposition
hearing”
• The social service agency presents its plan for how best to
proceed
• Utmost consideration given to well being of the child
• Today, social service agents avoid removing children from the
home
• Instead try to employ techniques to control abusive
relationship
• Balancing-of-the-interests approach
• The courts is to balance the parents’ natural right to raise a
child with the
child’s right to grow into adulthood free from abuse
The Abused Child in Court
t problems associated with abuse
cases is the trauma a child must go through in a court
hearing
hearsay

19. ①Ability of physicians and mental health professionals to
testify
about statements made to them by children
②The way children testify in court
make
poor witnesses
Abuse, Neglect, and Delinquency
with subsequent episodes of delinquency and violence
themselves
ted increases the chances of arrest as a
juvenile and as an adult

20. arrest
be
arrested later for a violent crime
lected females were at increased risk of arrest for
violence as juveniles and adults
-term effects
-of-home placement was not related to the number of
arrests
The Abuse-Delinquency Link
ions remain to be answered about the abuse-
delinquency link
external
factor
shape its impact

21. more than it does others
Summary
juvenile delinquency
undergoing
breakup and delinquent behavior
delinquents than those that function harmoniously
parenting on delinquency
Summary
behavioral choices

22. stages in the child protection process
-child
maltreatment debate