FAMILY AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Abstract

The basic and most essential unit of social organization, the family, has been carefully studied by many researchers, all of whom have agreed that in it lies a tremendous force which determines the behaviour of youth.
The family is the prime determiner of social behaviour. From it emerge children who are indelibly stamped with high ideals and noble aspirations, or with low, vile, anti-social attitudes towards life.
Main factors influencing juvenile delinquency are family structure to which children are exposed to and the relationships adolescents have with parents. As with patterns of juvenile delinquency, family structure has also changed dramatically over the last century, becoming very diverse in today’s society. Adolescents of all ages are living in many various types of homes, such as with single, married, or cohabiting parents. The families that children grow up in and the social environment in which they live in can have major effects on their well-being . There is a large body of research that shows children from non-intact homes show higher rates of juvenile delinquency than children from intact homes, partially due to weaker parental control and supervision in non-intact homes.
Another potential factor of youth’s delinquency is family socioeconomic status. Children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are at greater risk of a range of negative outcomes throughout their life course than their peers; however the specific mechanisms by which socioeconomic status relates to different outcomes in childhood are as yet unclear.
In this article we hope to point out a few of the most potent factors in the home which are determinants of juvenile delinquency.
Methods: The article will analyze data from a research of valid court cases on the area of Primary Court in Skopje. The focus will be on cases against people who did not fulfilled 18 years of age in the time of committing the crime (juveniles), in the period of 2005 – 2016.