THE EFFECT OF FAMILY STRUCTURE ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AMONG SCHOOL ADOLESCENT IN PORTHARCOURT
ABSTRACT
The Effects of Family Structure on Juvenile Delinquency by Studies show that family structure is an important factor in explaining delinquency among adolescents (Price & Kunz, 2003). There is a lack of research, however, pertaining to cohabitation. The main goals of this study are to determine if there are variations in delinquency between cohabitating and other family types, and to examine the extent to which parental social control measures account for the variation in delinquency by family structure. Juvenile delinquency is seen as one of the menace that destroys life and property in our society today. Because of the nature of crime committed by juvenile parents, guidance, sponsors and well-wishers are worried and disturbed about our future leaders. Crime associated with juvenile include: rape, stealing, Kleptomanism, burglary, disobedience, homicide, truancy, vandalization and robbery etc. therefore, this study seeks to look at the nature and consequences of juvenile delinquency. The objective of this study aims at finding out why juvenile engage in delinquent act, why juvenile offenders continue in crime after being punished or sanctioned, what Nigeria government needs to do in order to improve or educate juvenile about crime and the negative impact of crime on individual and society at large. However, the expected outcome of this study is that to reduce or eradicate juvenile delinquency in our society government and voluntary organization should be involved in the following ways: Government should provide employment opportunities for youths, greater thought should be given to setting up more amenities in the rural areas, stoppage of pornographic films and some American films, where our youths learns techniques in stealing and destroying properties, parents should adopt method of positive and negative reinforcement and government should educate or enlightening parent on the effects of unmet needs like starvation (food), parental care and affection etc. on their children to enable them (parents) make adjustment. Method of data collection used in this study was only questionnaire.
