Criminology

According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, parents play an important role in the growth and development of a child. In their theory of self control, they argue that parents influence the level of self control of the child. Individuals with low self control are more likely to commit crimes compared to those who have a higher level of self control.  The way parents respond to a child antisocial behavior instills self control on the child. This means that if parents are not there to respond to antisocial behaviors of their children, their children have a higher likelihood of committing crimes. This is true considering the current state of youth crimes.

Today, youth crime is one of the major problems that the society is facing. From simple crimes like graffiti to complex murder crimes, youths have been documented to commit all manner of crimes. Apparently, this has been contributed by poor parenting which leads to inadequate supervision of what the child is doing. Children are left to grown to grow alone without guidance and they get guidance from their peers rather from their parents.  Effective parental supervision has been shown to lead to guidance that helps children to grow along good moral projectile. When parents are there to tell their children that what they are doing is wrong, children are not likely to repeat that again and this helps them to gain self control.

In our current situation, parents have become so much occupied with their careers that they have no time for their children. Children have been left without family love and they are seeking love elsewhere. There is no parent to guide children on what is right and wrong and therefore they devilwood less self control. When children cannot find a family at home, they join gangs in the street since they are organized more or less like a family. It is from these gangs that children are learning to commit all manner of vices and this has led to increased youth crimes. Since parents are not there their children they are falling prey to street gangs which recruit children to commit crime. To a larger extent, youth crime is a problem of our own making.