The Qualitative Analysis of Psychosocial Profile of Juvenile Offenders and Exploration of Their Perception towards Delinquent Behaviors

uvenile delinquency or juvenile offending generally means the failure of children to meet certain obligations expected of them by the society. The study aimed for qualitative analysis of psychosocial factors which played a crucial role in exhibiting the delinquent behavior of juveniles and also explored the perception towards their offences. Cross sectional research design was used and thirty juveniles within the age range of 10-17 years involved in delinquent activities were selected by the use of purposive sampling method. Out of 30 juveniles, fifteen of them had committed heinous crimes like rape and murder and the remaining fifteen juveniles had committed non-heinous offenses like burglary, theft, kidnapping, physical assault and cybercrime. The qualitative analysis found many factors like poor tolerance level, anger management and school performance, media influence, low socio-economic status, presence of illness in the family and crime in neighborhood as risks for juvenile delinquency. It was also noticed that juvenile offenders had poor sense of responsibility, understanding or comprehension and awareness related to the delinquent act. Majority of them attributed their delinquent act to the external factors and denied having any positive Original Research Article feelings towards the victim. The exploration of risk factors and offenders understanding and perception toward crime would help in prevention and intervention programs. Implication and limitations of the study were discussed

Psychosocial Profile of Juvenile Delinquents

Juvenile delinquency has become the most important subject matter of discussion in various fields. The disarray and destruction due to deviant behavior is assuming alarming proportions which is an awakening call to the society. The present study aims to assess various psychosocial factors which play a crucial part in the exhibition of delinquency behavior. Purposive sampling was implemented to collect data after obtaining informed consent from a sample of 30 juveniles (15 heinous and 15 non heinous offenders). Independent sample t test is used to see the difference of the different variables between heinous and non heinous offenses and product moment correlation is used to find the relationship between the different variables. Results indicated that resilience factors like emotional insight, empathy, and availability of the family, connectedness with family, negative cognition and social skills are found to have correlation with delinquent behavior. Temperamental characteristics like activation control, attention, inhibitory control and perceptual sensitivity is negatively correlated with the delinquent behavior while aggression is positively correlated. Significant difference is also found in these factors between heinous and no heinous offenses. It is also found that attachment with mother and peers play an important role in exhibiting delinquent behavior