Bad Parenting is a series of actions that can seriously harm or affect a juveniles attitude and mental condition. Bad parenting may not be intentional but surely has a negative impact on the child.
Signs of bad parenting
- Lecturing a child excessively for any mistake.
- Disciplining the child in front of strangers or relatives.
- Only advising instead of encouragement.
- Less affection or emotionally disconnected.
- Not having disciplinary rules and boundaries.
- Not being supportive enough.
- Constantly comparing with other children’s in everything.
- Not praising children for their hard work and achievements.
- Not addressing the child’s feelings.
- Not being a good parent role model.
Impact of bad parenting
The impact of bad parenting will be in terms of the attitude of children and their psychology. The efforts can be observed as depression, lacking empathy, faces difficulty with relationships, antisocial behavior, being less affectionate towards others, etc.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
When any offense or crime is committed by a minor usually under the age of 18, it is said to be juvenile delinquency and the person is said to be Juvenile Delinquent.
For males, the age limit is below 16 and for females, the age limit is below 18. Common crimes committed by minors are murder, rape, robbery, theft, chain snatching, etc. The law relating to juveniles are Indian Juvenile delinquency law, Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act, 2000.
A small gist on JJ [Juvenile Justice] ACT, 2002:- An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, by providing for proper care, protection and treatment by catering to their development needs, and by adopting a child-friendly approach in the adjudication and disposition of matters in the best interest of children and for their ultimate rehabilitation through various institutions established under this enactment.
There are five chapters and 70 sections in Juvenile Justice, ACT 2002
CHAPTER I- Preliminary
CHAPTER II- Juvenile in conflict with the law
CHAPTER III- Child in Need of Care and Protection
CHAPTER IV- Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration
CHAPTER V- Miscellaneous
The juvenile will be kept in an observation home till the proceedings are done before the competent authority. The maximum detention for a juvenile is of three years depending on the gravity of the crime committed by him.
The common reason for minors to commit a crime is usually lack of awareness, lack of education, improper guidance, lack of values and morals, poor enforcement of law and common peer pressure, curiosity, etc.
Many researchers have studied and given theories about juvenile delinquency. There are three main sociological theories including structural-functionalism, symbolic interaction, conflict theory, which are the most prominent theories to explain delinquency.
Few other theories like differential Association theory by Edwin Sutherland, Labeling theory by Franklin Tannenbaum (1938), are one of the important theories of juvenile delinquency. A theory of legal bureaucracy pointed out that groups in society will experience more delinquency than others may be largely a matter of deciding which laws will be enforced.
According to conflict theorists, for minority youth appear this proportionality in our delinquency statistics more because of class bias, police, and court pre justice than because of actual behavioral differences.
In recent times or in the 21st century, technology has become the emerging tool of bad parenting and a new model for juvenile delinquency where the minors are committing more cybercrimes, as the chances of being caught in cyberspace are difficult.
About 2.1 million minors were arrested in the United States in a single year and approximately 1.7 million delinquency cases were disposed of in juvenile courts as overall rates over the past year.
According to the NCRB report 2017, Delhi showed the highest rate of crimes committed by juveniles. There was a total number of 2677 crimes committed by juveniles, 46 were murder cases, 132 are rape cases, 93 molestation cases, 320 robberies, 17 unnatural sex, 7 decoities, and 4 of rash driving cases and 1381 were reported to be only theft.
Here the children were below the age of 18 [minors], either school dropouts or illiterates or the results of bad parenting. In the same year, there were 1611 juvenile cases were pending. The juveniles were living with their parents, local guardians or they were homeless. There is a high rise in the crimes committed by juveniles in the past few years.
CASE STUDIES
Here are a few case studies showing the correlation between bad parenting and juvenile delinquency.
- A 17-year-old driving a four-wheeler drove over on a 32-year-old person and killed him.
- In another case, an Uber driver was shot dead by two reckless teenagers.
- A 17-year-old troubled teen sexually abused a little girl who was his neighbor. The boy was poor, had a bad education life, a bad influenced peer group, started stealing money, became stubborn and aggressive, and slowly got addicted to porn. The curiosity and wanting to do what he saw made him assault the little girl. He was given counseling and the therapists helped him cope up with his behavior.
- In this case, an 18-year-old boy fell into drug addiction. His parents moved to the Gulf and left him with guardians who couldn’t supervise his actions due to their busy life. There was no proper communication channel between him and his parents, not observed by his local guardians, his loneliness pushed him into the wrong crowd where he started doing drugs. To meet his expenses he started stealing money, jewels, and small items from his guardians. His actions came to light when his uncle received a letter from college stating that the boy won’t be allowed to give exams as he has not attended the classes all year. The boy was taken to a therapist and was given treatment.
‘By Maheswara Singh Premika‘
Maheshwara Singh has completed her Msc in Criminology and Forensic science, School of social work Mangalore University, Mangalore.
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