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Factors Predisposing Children to Offences

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Abstract

It is hard to isolate any one factor and assert that it invariably causes deviance/offence by children. It relies on a mix of individual traits, family experiences, school experiences, peer influences and the community where he or she lives. The empirical results and the secondary literature suggest, however, that lack of attachment, a negative environment and wrong role models which children observe and experience in life have an adverse influence on them, contributing to their growth and maturation into unacceptable behaviour. By contrast, if children remain attached to their family, school and community they are less likely to be lured into deviant behaviour. A self-account of the children in conflict with the law has been presented in this chapter, highlighting the factors that pushed and pulled them to deviant behaviors and how they ended up in detention centres.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    He is a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Epidemiology at the Western Psychiatric Institute in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

  2. 2.

    Marva Delores Collins is an American educator who started Westside Preparatory School in the impoverished in Chicago in 1975. She is known for applying classical education in particular the Socratic Method, modified for use in primary schools, successfully with impoverished students.

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Parackal, S., Panicker, R. (2019). Factors Predisposing Children to Offences. In: Children and Crime in India. Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16589-5_4

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