Solutions for vulnerable Populations presentation

Criminal Behavior among Teens
(Name)
(Institution)Criminal Behavior among Teens
Criminal behavior among teenagers within a community qualifies as a social problem. According to Sullivan (2012), a criminal behavior includes all actions that threaten the social order. The effects of criminal behavior among teenagers spread to the people around them mainly their immediate families and friends. Teenagers, especially those considers as the group leaders within their social circle can influence the rest of the members into participating in criminal actions when they are part of it. As a result, the number of criminal teenager’s rises and the circle continues as more and more friends are drawn into the criminal act. The result is always an uprising of a gang of criminals made up of teenagers destroying the peace within a community. There are usually high changes than an individual will lose their families members through gunshots, arrested or even health complications for the case of criminal activities such as drug abuse. Furthermore, there will be cases where people within the community will stop trusting other members and hence destroying friendship and relationships in the neighborhood.
The society plays a significant role in shaping the behavior of teenager’s right from childhood. In every community around the country, there are set of social morals that are passed to children in schools, churches and at home to enable then distinguish between what is right and wrong. Despite the high level of negative influence from peer pressure, the combination of various elements in the social set up such as family and schools can shape the attitude and character of teenagers limiting the manifestation of criminal groups made up of teenagers.

The process of enforcing policies on teens is somehow difficult as in most cases they get away with crimes easily since they are considered to be minor. Without punishing or regulating the criminal acts among teenagers, the behaviors and attitudes are likely to manifest and influence other teens to participate. According to Trzesniewski et al. (2006), practices such as hunting among teenagers has led to some of them growing into killer and sociopaths. Teenagers who have been reported to have grown up in an abusive family set up have a history of acting out their anger on animals around them.
Several initiatives can be adopted to alleviate cases of criminal teen groups in the society. The police can take up the role of educating teenagers against actions that are considered a crime by the law. The local businesses can create more job opportunities with decent salaries for teenagers who are out of school to occupy their time with constructive activities during their free time. Local schools, on the other hand, can seek motivational speakers from around the country and organize seminars for educating teens against criminal behavior and attitude. Lastly, the local churches and clergy too can organize seminars, forums, and crusades and educate teenagers on how to behave righteously and relate to the rest of member of the community as per the Christian values and morals.

References
Sullivan, T. J. (2012). Introduction to social problems. Pearson Higher Ed.
Trzesniewski, K. H., Donnellan, M. B., Moffitt, T. E., Robins, R. W., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2006). Low self-esteem during adolescence predicts poor health, criminal behavior, and limited economic prospects during adulthood. Developmental psychology, 42(2), 381.