Defining and Understanding the Development of Juvenile Delinquency from an Environmental, Sociological, and Theoretical Perspective

This chapter purports that there are sociological environments, interactions and theoretical reasons as to why some juveniles, as they develop and mature in life, transform from being law abiding juveniles into law breaking juvenile delinquents. Information is presented in this chapter regarding the various environments juveniles live through and what they experience from the people functioning within these environments. There is an examination of how the people, who are models working and living in these environments, influence and shape the behavior of the juveniles. Various theories are presented and discussed as well as the relevance of their value in explaining how observation, processing of information, learning of observed behavior and then replication of behavior with positive reinforcement all contribute to the transformation of a juvenile into a juvenile delinquent.