SOCIOLOGY OF CRIMES, ETHICS AND HUMAN RELATIONS

CRIM. 4: JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND CRIME PREVENTION

DEFINITION OF TERMS

ABANDONMENT - The most common legal grounds for termination of parental rights, also a form of
child abuse in most states. Sporadic visits, a few phone calls, or birthday cards are not sufficient to
maintain parental rights. Fathers who manifest indifference toward a pregnant mother are also viewed as
abandoning the child when it is born.

ABUSE - Term for acts or omissions by a legal caretaker. Encompasses a broad range of acts, and usually
requires proof of intent.

ADJUDICATION - The phase of a delinquency hearing similar to a "trial" in adult criminal court,
except that juveniles have no right to a jury trial, a public trial, or bail. 

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE - Any of the processes involving enforcement of care, custody, or

support orders by an executive agency rather than by courts or judges.

ADOPTION - A legal relationship between two people not biologically related, usually terminating the
rights of biological parents, and usually with a trial "live-in" period. Once an adoption is finalized, the
records are sealed and only the most compelling interests will enable disclosure of documents.

ADOPTION AND SAFE FAMILIES ACT of 1997 - Moves children more quickly into permanent,
adoptive placements, rather than letting them languish in foster homes.

BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD RULE - Legal doctrine establishing court as determiner of best
environment for raising child. An alternative to the Parens Patriae Doctrine.

BREED v. JONES (1975) - Case allowing second prosecution in adult court for conviction in juvenile
court, based on idea that first conviction was a "civil" matter.
CASE LAW - Law established by the history of judicial decisions in cases decided by judges, as opposed
to common law which is developed from the history of judicial decisions and social customs.

CHILD PROTECTION ACTION - The filing of legal papers by a child welfare agency when its
investigation has turned up evidence of child abuse. This is a civil, rather than criminal, charge designed
to take preventive action (like appointment of a Guardian ad litem) for at-risk children before abuse
occurs.

CHILD SUPPORT – the act of being responsible for enforcing child support obligations.

CHILD VICTIMS' AND CHILD WITNESS' RIGHTS - A 1990 federal law allowing courts to take
extraordinary steps in protecting the emotional health of any child called to testify in a courtroom.

CHINS (CHild In Need of Supervision) - A term applied to status offenders adjudicated in juvenile court.

CIVIL PROTECTION ORDER - A form of protective custody in which a child welfare or police
agency order an adult suspected of abuse to leave the home.

CUSTODIAL CONFINEMENT - Court order for placement in a secure facility, separate from adults,
for the rehabilitation of a juvenile delinquent.

DELINQUENCY PROCEEDING - Court action to officially declare someone a juvenile delinquent. A

"delinquent" is defined as under the age of majority who has been convicted in juvenile court of
something that would be classified as a crime in adult court.

DEPENDENT - Anyone under the care of someone else. A child ceases to be a dependent when they
reach the age of emancipation.

DeSHANEY v. WINNEBAGO COUNTY (1989) - Case limiting extent by which government exercises
parens patriae power.
DISPOSITION - Phase of delinquency proceeding similar to "sentencing" phase of adult trial. The judge
must consider alternative, innovative, and individualized sentences rather than imposing standard
sentences.

DIVERSION - An alternative to trial decided upon at intake to refer the child to counseling or other
social services.

EMANCIPATION - Independence of a minor from his or her parents before reaching age of majority.

EQUAL PROTECTION – A clause requiring government to treat similarly situated people the same or
have good reason for treating them differently. Compelling reasons are considered to exist for treating
children differently.

FAMILY IMMUNITY DOCTRINE - Legal doctrine preventing unemancipated children from suing
their parents.

FAMILY PURPOSE DOCTRINE - Legal doctrine holding parents liable for injuries caused by a
child's negligent driving or other actions.

FOSTER CARE - Temporary care funded via Federal-State pass-through and arranged by a child
welfare agency in order to allow receipt of adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical
treatment for anyone raising a child that is not their own.

GUARDIAN AD LITEM - Phrase meaning "For the Proceeding" referring to adults who look after the
welfare of a child and represent their legal interests.

GUARDIANSHIP - Court order giving an individual or organization legal authority over a child. A
guardian of the person is usually an individual and the child is called a ward. A guardian of the estate is
usually an organization, like a bank, which manages the property and assets of a child's inheritance.
Guardians are usually compensated for their services.
ILLEGITIMACY - Being born to unmarried parents. The law assumes legitimacy via a married mother's
husband, whether or not this is the true father. Illegitimacy status limits inheritance rights.

IN LOCO PARENTIS - Teachers, administrators, and babysitters who are viewed as having some
temporary parental rights & obligations.

IN RE GAULT (1967) – (US) - Case that determined the Constitution requires a separate juvenile justice
system with certain standard procedures and protections, but still not as many as in adult systems.

INTAKE - Procedure prior to preliminary hearing in which a group of people (intake officer, police,
probation, social worker, parent and child) talk and decide whether to handle the case formally or
informally.

JUDGMENT - Any official decision or finding of a judge or administrative agency hearing officer upon
the respective rights and claims of parties to an action; also known as a decree or order.

KENT v. U.S. (1966) - Case requiring a special hearing before any transfers to adult court.

MATERNAL PREFERENCE RULE - Legal doctrine granting mothers custodial preference after a
divorce.

NEGLECT - Parental failure to provide a child with basic necessities when able to do so. Encompasses a
variety of forms of abuse that do not require the element of intent.

PARENS PATRIAE - Legal doctrine establishing "parental" role of state over welfare of its citizens,
especially its children. A 19th century idea first articulated in Prince v. Massachusetts (1944).

PAROLE - Release of a juvenile delinquent from custodial confinement prior to expiration of sentence;
sometimes called aftercare.
PATERNITY - Result of lawsuit forcing a reluctant man to assume obligations of fatherhood. Blood and
DNA tests showing a 98 or 99 percent likelihood are the standard. Laws vary widely in terms of statutes
of limitations and when paternity actions will not be allowed (estoppels).

PLEADING - In juvenile court, a plea of "not guilty" will move the case to adjudication, and a plea of
"guilty" or "nolo contendere" will result in waiver of the right to trial. State procedures vary widely in
how intelligent and voluntary pleas are accepted.

PRELIMINARY HEARING - The bringing of a juvenile before a magistrate or judge in which charges
are formally presented. Similar to an arraignment in adult court, and also called "advisory hearings" or
"initial appearances" in some state juvenile justice systems.

PREVENTIVE DETENTION - Keeping a juvenile in custody or under a different living arrangement

until the time when an adjudication can take place. Upheld in Schall v. Martin (1984), but the right to
speedy trial requires the dropping of charges if an unreasonable amount of time is spent in preventive
detention.

PROTECTIVE CUSTODY - Emergency, temporary custody by a child welfare agency, police agency,
or hospital for reasons of immanent danger to the child. A hearing must be held for the benefit of the
parents within a few days.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PARENT DOCTRINE - Legal doctrine granting custody to the parent whom the
child feels the greatest emotional attachment to.

RESTITUTION - A disposition requiring a defendant to pay damages to a victim. The law prohibits
making restitution a condition of receiving probation. Poor families cannot be deprived of probation
simply because they are too poor to afford restitution. Some states do not allow families to pay restitution.

RULE OF SIXTEEN – (US) - Federal and state laws that prohibit anyone under age 16 from
employment.

STANFORD v. KENTUCKY (1989) - Case in which it was determined constitutional to execute

juveniles between the ages of 16-18, but unconstitutional if they committed crimes while under age 16.
Won by a narrow majority, as in the 1988 case of Thompson v. Oklahoma which relied upon "standards
of decency".

STATUS OFFENSE - An activity illegal when engaged in by a minor, but not when done by an adult.
Examples include truancy, curfew, running away, or habitually disobeying parents.

STEPPARENT - A spouse of a biological parent who has no legal rights or duties to the child other than
those which have been voluntarily accepted.

SURROGATE PARENT - A parent who provided an egg, sperm, or uterus with an intent of giving the
child up for adoption to specific parties.

TENDER YEARS DOCTRINE - Legal doctrine that unless the mother is "unfit", very young children
should be placed in custody with their mother following a divorce.

TERMINATION HEARINGS - Process for legally severing the parent-child relationship. Initiated by
the filing of a petition in family court, and almost always brought forth by a child welfare agency.
Requires a finding of "unfitness" and a determination of the best interests of the child.

UNFIT PARENT - A temporary or permanent termination of parental rights in the best interest of the
child usually for reasons of abandonment, abuse, or neglect, but also including mental illness, addiction,
or criminal record. Poverty alone and character flaws are prohibited by law from being indicators of
"unfitness".

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Delinquency in General

Delinquency refers to any action; course or conduct that deviates from acts approved by the
majority of people. It is a description of those acts that do not conform to the accepted rules, norms and
mores of the society (sociological definition)

Delinquency, therefore, is a general term for any misconduct or misbehavior that is tantamount to
felony or offense. It is, however distinct from crime in the sense that the former may be in the form of
violation of law, ordinance or rule but it is punishable only by a small fine or short-term imprisonment or
both.
 Legally speaking, delinquency means the failure to perform an act required by law, or the non-
performance of a duty or obligation that is mandated by existing law or rule.

JUVENILE CRIME

Juvenile Crime, in law, term denoting various offences committed by children or youths under
the age of 18. Such acts are sometimes referred to as juvenile delinquency. Children's offences
typically include delinquent acts, which would be considered crimes if committed by adults, and status
offences, which are less serious misbehavioral problems such as truancy and parental disobedience.
Both are within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court; more serious offences committed by minors may
be tried in criminal court and be subject to prison sentences.
In law, a crime is an illegal act committed by a person who has criminal intent. A long-standing
presumption held that, although a person of almost any age can commit a criminal act, children under
14 years old were unlikely to have criminal intent. Many juvenile courts have now discarded this so-
called infancy defense and have found that delinquent acts can be committed by children of any age.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

The term juvenile delinquency is used to describe a large number of disapproved behaviors of
children or youths. In this sense, almost anything that the youth does which others do not like is called
juvenile delinquency. However, criminologist suggested the following factors of juvenile delinquency:

1. Juvenile delinquency includes the behavior specifically defined as delinquent according to the
various existing laws and ordinances concerning children or youth.
2. The definition of juvenile delinquency must take into account the social reality that reflected
through the media. Books, movies and television help people to define a particular reality for
them. If the media systematically portrays particular behavior as delinquent, they often come to
be accepted as real.
3. While almost all children engage in behavior that is in violation of juvenile codes and laws, we
believe that ultimately, juvenile delinquents refers to youths who have been successfully defined
as delinquents.

In a more specific view, acts of juvenile delinquency include violation of laws such as those
defined by juvenile codes and laws.

THE DELINQUENT PERSON

A delinquent person is one who repeatedly commits an act that is against the norms or mores
observed by the society. When a person habitually commits an act that is not in accordance with the rules
or policies of a community where he belongs, he is considered a delinquent.

THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT

 Juveniles are young people who are regarded as immature or one whose mental as well as
emotional faculties are not fully developed thus making them incapable of taking full responsibility of
their actions.

In legal points, the term juvenile is a person subject to juvenile court proceedings because of a
statutorily defined event or condition caused by or affecting that person and was alleged to have occurred
while his or her age was below the specified age limit.

In view of the above, juvenile delinquents are youthful offenders and have been adjudicated as
such by the court of proper jurisdiction. The term should only be applied to children who commits
criminal offenses and is in need of supervision or treatment.

BRIEF HISTORY OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

THE HARSH BEGINNING - Children were viewed as non-persons until the 1700's. They did
not receive special treatment or recognition. Discipline then is what we now call abuse.

There were some major assumptions about life before the 1700's. The first assumption is that life
was hard, and you had to be hard to survive. The people of that time in history did not have the
conveniences that we take for granted. For example, the medical practices of that day were primitive in
comparison to present-day medicine. Marriages were more for convenience, rather than for child-bearing
or romance. The second assumption was that infant and child mortality were high. It did not make sense
to the parents in those days to create an emotional bond with children. There was a strong chance that the
children would not survive until adulthood.

At the end of the 18th century, "The Enlightenment" appeared as a new cultural transition. This
period of history is sometimes known as the beginning of reason and humanism. People began to see
children as flowers, which needed nurturing in order to bloom. It was the invention of childhood, love and
nurturing instead of beatings to stay in line. Children had finally begun to emerge as a distinct group. It
started with the upper-class, who were allowed to attend colleges and universities.

Since ancient times, enlightened legal systems have distinguished between juvenile delinquents
and adult criminals. Generally, the immature were not considered morally responsible for their behavior.
Under the Code Napoléon in France, for example, limited responsibility was ascribed to children under
the age of 16. Despite the apparent humanity of some early statutes, however, the punishment of juvenile
offenders was often severe until the 19th century.

Prior to the 20th century, juvenile offenders were often treated as adults. The first development
contrary to this in the United Kingdom was the establishment of Borstal training center in place of
normal imprisonment, which was intended to build up the offender's character. They were unsuccessful,
and since the 1960s, policy has been directed away from the detention of young offenders towards
treatment in the community, beginning with avoiding court altogether. The police are encouraged to
caution juveniles who admit an offence, unless they are persistent offenders.

When juvenile offenders are dealt with more formally, they are tried by a dedicated juvenile
court, having as little contact with the mainstream system as possible. There is considerable emphasis
on parental responsibility, and the parents may be ordered to pay the juvenile's fine, or be liable to pay a
sum of money if the child is in trouble again.
If the courts need to punish juveniles, they can utilize community sentences. Attendance centers
orders, for example, require juveniles to attend during their leisure hours at centers where they will be
given a program of constructive activities. Supervision orders put juveniles under the supervision of a
social services department, and may include compulsory activities. Those aged 15 and over may also be
sentenced to probation orders (supervision), community service orders (compulsory work under
supervision), or a combination of both.

If juveniles are to be detained, those aged 15 or over may be held in a young offender institution
for between 2 and 12 months. Younger offenders can only be detained in the most serious of cases, and
there are national units to deal with them. All Offenders aged 10 to 13 can be detained only if convicted
of manslaughter or murder.

HISTORY OF JUVENILE JUSTICE

The modern practice of legally separating adult and juvenile offenders can be traced back to two
developments in English custom and law that occurred centuries ago: the development of POOR LAWS
and the creation of the English CHANCERY COURTS. Both were designed to allow the state to take
control of the lives of needy but not necessarily criminal children. This system was brought to the United
States where it was developed further until later it became the basis of the juvenile justice system in the
Philippines.

ENGLISH SYSTEM

POOR LAWS
- in 1535, statutes which mandated the appointed of overseers who placed destitute or
neglected children with families who then trained them in agricultural, trade or domestic
services; this practice is called indenture
 - in 1601, a system was created wherein church workers with the consent of justice of the
peace identified vagrant, delinquent and neglected children and took measures to put them to
work; these children were placed in workhouses until their adulthood

CHANCERY COURTS
- protected the property rights and welfare of minor children who could not care for themselves
- the courts dealt with issues of guardianship and the use and control of property
- the courts operated under the parens patriae philosophy which held that children were under
the protective control of the state

AMERICAN SYSTEM

- the practice of indenture and chancery courts in England were adopted by the states of
Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts, however, those youths who committed serious
criminal offenses continued to be tried in the same courts as adults
- middle-class civic leaders, who referred to themselves as CHILD SAVERS began to develop
organizations and groups to help alleviate the burdens of the poor and immigrants by
sponsoring shelter care for youths, educational and social activities and the development of
settlement houses; this was called the CHILD SAVING MOVEMENT
- they are responsible for creating a number of programs for indigent youths, including the
New York House of Refuge, a reformatory, which began operations in 1825
- the House of Refuge was created to protect indigent youths who were at risk to crime by
taking them off the streets and reforming them in a family-like environment
- the first comprehensive juvenile court was established in Illinois in 1899 through the passage
of the Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899 which set up an independent court to handle
criminal law violations by children under sixteen (16) years of age, as well as to care for
neglected, dependent, and wayward youths
- the purpose of the act was to separate juveniles from adult offenders and provide a legal
framework in which juveniles could get adequate care and custody
- Congress passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to identify
the needs of youths and to fund programs in the juvenile justice system
- its main goal was to separate wayward, non-dangerous youths from institutions housing
delinquents and to remove adolescents from institutions housing adult offenders

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

- an anti-social behavior or act which does not conform with the standards of society
- youth behavior which is against the norms and regulations of society which if left unchecked
would give rise to criminality
- describes a large number of disapproved behavior of children or youth
- anti-social acts or behavior of children which deviate from the normal pattern of rules and
regulations, custom and culture which society does not accept and which therefore justify
some kind of admonition, punishment or corrective measures in the public interest

JUVENILE
- a child or a young person, who, under the legal system may be dealt with for an offense in a
manner different from that of an adult
- persons below the age of majority, that is, below eighteen years old
AGE OF MAJORITY
- majority commences at the age of eighteen (18) years

EMANCIPATION
- freedom from parental authority, both over his person and property
- happens upon reaching the age of eighteen years

RA 6809
- the law amending the age of majority
- lowered the age of majority from twenty-one (21) to eighteen (18) years
- approved on 13 December 1989

DELINQUENT
- one whose behavior has brought him into repeated conflict with the law regardless whether
he has been taken before a court and adjudged a delinquent
- one who has committed an offense that violated the approved norms of conduct and is guilty
of a misdeed

STATUS OFFENSE
- certain acts or omissions which may not be punishable socially or legally if committed by
adults but become anti-social or illegal because the offender is a minor, such as:
a) truancy, or frequent, unreasonable absenteeism from school
b) use of profane language
c) running away from home
d) smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages
e) disobedience to parents, guardians or school officials
f) mendicancy or begging in the streets
g) association with delinquent gangs

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
- characterized by disobedience to, or disrespect for, authorities

PARENS PATRIAE (“father of the country”)

- the doctrine that does not consider delinquent acts as criminal violation, thus making
delinquents non-criminal persons and cannot be found guilty of a crime and punished like an
adult criminal
- views minor who violate the laws as victims of improper care, custody and treatment at home
- assumption by the State of the role of guardian over children whose parents are deemed
incapable or unworthy
- the authority of the state to act on behalf of the children

THREE TYPES OF DELIQUENCY

1) ENVIRONMENTAL DELINQUENTS
- characterized by occasional law-breaking

2) EMOTIONALLY MALADJUSTED DELINQUENTS

- characterized by chronic law-breaking, a habit which this type cannot avoid or escape from
 3) PSYCHIATRIC DELINQUENTS
- characterized by serious emotional disturbances within the individual and in some cases
associated with tendencies towards mental illness

TYPES OF DELINQUENT YOUTH

1) SOCIAL
- an aggressive youth who resents authority of anyone who makes an effort to control his
behavior

2) NEUROTIC
- one who has internalized his conflicts and is preoccupied with his own feelings

3) ASOCIAL
- one whose delinquent acts have a cold, brutal and vicious quality for which the youth feels no
remorse

4) ACCIDENTAL
- one who is essentially sociable and law-abiding but happens to be at the wrong time and
place and becomes involved in delinquent acts not typical of his general behavior

DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF DELINQUENCY

1) BIOGENIC APPROACH
- gives an explanation that law violations and delinquency are a result of some physical defects

2) PSYCHOGENIC APPROACH
- argues that the critical factors in delinquency are personality problems to which misbehavior
is presumed to be the response

3) SOCIOGENIC APPROACH
- attributes delinquency pattern to social structures
- views youthful misdeed as a result of a learning process through interactions with other
members of society

APPROACHES AND THEORIES OF CRIME

===========================================

If you were to find the answers of why some people commit crimes, where would you look for
the answers? Would you search for events that might have influence a criminal to commit crimes? There
are many approaches in the explanation of crimes in order to come to an answer to these questions.
Among them are the subjective, objective and the contemporary approaches, which most Criminologists
today adopted to be most significant.
 In general, the approaches in the study of crime are: 1) subjective approach, 2) objective approach
and 3) the contemporary approach.

SUBJECTIVE APPROACHES

It deals mainly on the biological explanation of crimes, focused on the forms of abnormalities
that exist in the individual criminal before, during and after the commission of the crime (Tradio, 1999).
Included under this approach are:

1. Anthropological Approach – the study on the physical characteristics of an individual offender

with non-offenders in the attempt to discover differences covering criminal behavior (Hooton).

2. Medical Approach - the application of medical examinations on the individual criminal explain
the mental and physical condition of the individual prior and after the commission of the crime
(Positivist).

3. Biological Approach –the evaluation of genetic influences to criminal behavior. It is noted that
heredity is one force pushing the criminal to crime (Positivist).

4. Physiological Approach – the study on the nature of human being concerning his physical needs
in order to satisfy his ants. It explains that the deprivation of the physical body on the basic needs
is an important determiner of the commission if crime (Maslow).

5. Psychological Approach – it is concerned about the deprivation of the psychological needs of

man, which constitute the development of deviations of normal behavior resulting to unpleasant
emotions (Freud, Maslow).

6. Psychiatric Approach – the explanation of crime through diagnosis of mental diseases as a

cause of the criminal behavior (Positivist).

7. Psychoanalytical Approach – the explanation of crimes based on the Freudian Theory, which
traces behavior as the deviation of the repression of the basic drives (Freud).

OBJECTIVE APPROACHES
 The objective approaches deal on the study of groups, social processes and institutions as
influences to behavior. They are primarily derived from social sciences (Tradio, 1999). Under this are:

1. Geographic Approach – this approach considers topography, natural resources, geographical

location, and climate lead an individual to commit crime (Quetelet).

2. Ecological Approach – it is concerned with the biotic grouping of men resulting to migration,
competition, social discrimination, division of labor and social conflict as factors of crime (Park).

3. Economic Approach – it deals with the explanation of crime concerning financial security of
inadequacy and other necessities to support life as factors to criminality (Merton).

4. Socio – Cultural Approach – those that focus on institutions, economic, financial, education,
political, and religious influences to crime (Cohen).

CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

Modern days put emphasis on scientific modes of explaining crime and criminal behavior. This
approach is focused on the psychoanalytical, psychiatric and sociological explanations of crime in an
integrated theory – an explanatory perspective that merges concepts drawn from different sources
(Schmalleger, 1997).

THE IMPORTANCE OF THEORY

A theory is any system of ideas arranged in rational order that produce general principles which
increase our understanding and explanations. 

The general principles in a theory are derived from, and representative, of particular facts, but
those principles are not dependent upon the particular thing to be explained (Kaplan 1964). 

“This means that theories have a life of their own in the ever-increasing generalities they
provide.  Theories are like children. Someone gives birth to them, and they go out into the world and no
longer belong to anyone.  Some of them become ideologies (get used for political purposes) and others
become endless puzzles that scientists work on for centuries”

Ideally, theory should:

  focus attention on a particular phenomenon
 fit the known facts about a particular phenomenon
 contribute to scientific paradigms
 provide a way it can be tested or falsified
 establish boundaries and domains by which laws and truth statements can be generalized; and
 Enable propositions which can be added or compared to those of other theories. 

Theory is the foundation of criminology and of criminal justice, and we study theory to know
why we are doing what we do (Bohm, 1985). 

Theory without research is not science.  All research must be based on theory.  People who are
uninterested in theory choose to move blindly through life, or in the case of criminal justice, intervene in
people's lives with only vague notions about why they are doing what they are doing.

   The most important task of theory is explanation, which is also called prediction.  An explanation is a
sensible way of relating the facts about some particular phenomenon to the intellectual atmosphere of a
people at a particular time or place. 

Any group of like-minded, receptive people at a particular time and place is called a school of
thought.  Explanations are always tied to context (inter-subjective reliability) and concepts (the
intellectual words and phrases in use at any given time). 

What makes a person a "theorist" is their creative ability or making wordsmith, the ability to
describe something that everyone knows is there, but no one has come along before to say it exactly like
that.  The theorist's creativity is based on what are called constructs (images, ideas, or new words in the
theorist's head), and the art of theory construction is the translation of constructs into concepts.

THEORIES OF CRIME

The formal development of criminology as a field of discipline is recent, but the ideas of people who
might be called criminologists can be traced historically. Most of those people were lawyers, doctors,
philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists whose primary interest was reforming the criminal law, not in
creating a science of criminal behavior. Nevertheless, their contributions to criminology are immense, and
for an adequate understanding of current criminological theories, some familiarity with these earlier
approaches is essential.
 EARLY BEGINNINGS

The Demonological Theory

Before the development of more scientific theories of criminal behavior, one of the most popular
explanations was Demonology (Hagan, 1990).

According to this explanation individuals were thought to be possessed by good or evil spirits, which
caused good or evil behavior. The theory maintains that criminal behavior was believed to be the result of evil
spirits and demons something of natural force that controls his/her behavior. Centuries ago, Guilt and
innocence were established by a variety of procedures that presumably called forth the supernatural allies of
the accused. The accused were innocent if they could survive an ordeal, or if miraculous signs appeared. They
were guilty if they died at stake, or if omens were associated with them (Bartol, 1995). Harsh punishments
were also given.

PRE-TWENTIETH CENTURY
(18th C – 1738 - 1798)

In the eighteenth century, criminological literature, whether psychological, sociological, or

psychiatric in bent, has traditionally been divided into three broad schools of thought about the causes of
crime: the classical, neo-classical and the positivist schools of criminology.

THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

The Classical "School" of Criminology is a broad label for a group of thinkers of crime and
punishment in the 18th and early 19th centuries. 
 Its most prominent members, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, shared the idea that criminal
behavior could be understood and controlled as an outcome of a "human nature" shared by all of us. 
Human beings were believed to be hedonistic, acting in terms of their own self-interest, but rational,
capable of considering which course of action was really in their self-interest. 

A well-ordered state, therefore, would construct laws and punishments in such a way that people
would understand peaceful and non-criminal actions to be in their self-interest--through strategies of
punishment based on deterrence.

Cesare Beccaria (Cesare Bonesara Marchese de Beccaria) with Jeremy Bentham (1823) who
proposed “Utilitarian Hedonism”, the theory, which explains that a person always acts in such a way as to
seek pleasure and avoid pain, became the main advocates of the Classical School of Criminology

In his “ESSAY on Crimes and Punishment”, Beccaria presented his key ideas on the abolition of
torture as a legitimate means of extracting confessions. This book founded the Classical theory of
Criminology which maintains that man is essentially a moral creature with absolute free will to choose
between good and evil therefore tress is placed upon the criminal himself; that every man is responsible
for his act.

Freewill (Beccaria) – a philosophy advocating punishment severe enough for people to choose,
to avoid criminal acts. It includes the belief that a certain criminal act warrants a certain punishment
without any punishment without any variation.

Hedonism (Bentham) – the belief that people choose pleasure and avoid pain.

According to Beccarria, the crime problem could be trace not to bad people but to bad laws based
on the assumption of freewill. He proposed the following principles (Adler, 1995):

 Laws should be used to maintain the social contract – “ laws are the conditions under which men
united themselves in society”.

 Only legislators should create laws – “ the authority of making penal laws can only reside with
the legislator, who represent the whole society united by the social compact”.

 Judges should impose punishment only in accordance with law.

  Punishment should be based on the pleasure-pain principle – “pleasure and pain are the only
springs of actions in being endowed with sensibility. If an equal punishment be ordained in two
crimes that injure society in different degrees, there is nothing to deter men from committing the
greater as often as it is intended with greater advantage”.

 The punishment should be determined by the crime – “if mathematical calculations could be
applied to the obscure and infinite combinations of human actions, there might be a
corresponding scale of punishments descending from the greatest to the least”.

 Punishment should be based on the act, not on the actor – “crimes are only to be measured by the
injuries done to the society”.

 Punishment should be prompt and effective – “the more immediate after the commission of a
crime a punishment is inflicted, the more just and useful it will be”.

 All people should be treated equally – “the punishment of a nobleman is no differ from that of the
lowest member of society”.

 Capital punishment should be applied only to serious crimes against the state (Schmalleger, 1997)

 The use of torture to gain confession should be abolished.

 It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them

Although the classical doctrine had an immediate and profound impact on jurisprudence and
legislation, several other thinkers-theorists gave certain negative arguments like the following below.

Arguments against the Classical Theory

(Tradio, 1999)

1. Unfair – it treats all men as if they were robot without regard to the individual differences and the
surrounding circumstances when the crime is committed.

2. Unjust – having the same punishment for first and recidivists.

3. The nature and definition of punishment is not individualized

4. It considers only the injury caused not the mental condition of the offender.
THE NEO-CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

The above criticisms against the classical school led to the foundation of the Neo-classical school
of criminology. Under the neo-classical doctrine, there are situations or circumstances that made it
impossible to exercise freewill are reasons to exempt the accused from conviction.

The Classicist maintained that human are totally responsible for their actions. The Neoclassicist
said “not always”. They argue that freewill can be mitigated by pathology, incompetence, mental
disorder. The Neoclassical school does not represent any break with the classical view of human nature. It
merely challenges the classical position of absolute freewill. Because of this, it led also to the proposition
that while the classical doctrine is correct in general, it should be modified in certain details:

a. That children and lunatics should not be regarded as criminals and free from punishment.

b. It must take into account certain mitigating circumstances.

The Positivist/Italian School (1838 – 1909)

The school that composed of Italians who agreed that in the study of crime the emphasis should
be on scientific treatment of the criminal, not on the penalties to be imposed after conviction.

It maintained that crime as any other act is a natural phenomenon and is comparable to disaster or
calamity. That crime as a social and moral phenomenon which cannot be treated and checked by the
imposition of punishment but rather rehabilitation or the enforcement of individual measures.

The Positivist School of Criminology rejected the Classical School's idea that all crime
resulted from a choice that could potentially be made anyone.  Though they did not disagree with the
Classical School that most crime could be explained through "human nature," they argued that the most
serious crimes were committed by individuals who were "primitive" or "atavistic"--that is, who failed to
evolve to a fully human and civilized state.  Crime therefore resulted not from what criminals had in
common with others in society, but from their distinctive physical or mental defects. 
 The positivists understood themselves as scientists: while the classical thinkers were
concerned with legal reform, constructing an environment in which crime was seen to be not in an
individual's self-interest, the positivists were concerned with scientifically isolating and identifying the
determining causes of criminal behavior in individual offenders.
 
Cesare Lombroso and his two students, Enrico Ferri and Rafaele Garofalo were the primary
personalities in this school of thought..

Cesare Lombroso (1836 – 1909) – The Italian leader of the positivist school of criminology, was
criticized for his methodology and his attention to the biological characteristics of offenders, but his
emphasis on the need to study offenders scientifically earned him the “father of modern criminology.” His
major contribution is the development of a scientific approach to the study of criminal behavior and to
reform the criminal law. He wrote the essay entitled “CRIME: Its Causes and Remedies” that contains his
key ideas and the classifications of criminals.

Classifications of Criminals by Lombroso

1. Born Criminals – there are born criminals according to Lombroso, the belief that being criminal
behavior is inherited.

2. Criminal by Passion – are individuals who are easily influenced by great emotions like fit of
anger.

3. Insane Criminals – are those who commit crime due to abnormalities or psychological disorders.
They should be exempted from criminal liability.

4. Criminoloid – a person who commits crime due to less physical stamina/self self control.

5. Occasional Criminal – are those who commit crime due to insignificant reasons that pushed
them to do at a given occasion.

6. Pseudo-criminals – are those who kill in self-defense.

Enrico Ferri (1856 – 1929) – He was the best-known Lombroso’s associate, parliamentarian,
accomplished public lecturer, brilliant lawyer, editor, and scholar. Although he agreed with Lombroso on
the biological bases of criminal behavior, his interest in socialism led him to recognize the importance of
social, economic, and political determinants.
 His greatest contribution was his attack on the classical doctrine of free will, which argued that
criminals should be held morally responsible for their crimes because they must have made a rational
decision to commit the crime.

He believed that criminals could not be held morally responsible for their crimes because they did
not choose to commit crimes but, rather, were driven to commit them by conditions in their lives. He also
claimed that strict adherence to preventive measures based on scientific methods would eventually reduce
crime and allow people to live together in society with less dependent on penal system (Adler, 1995).

Raffaele Garofalo (1852 – 1934) – Another follower of Lombroso, an Italian nobleman,

magistrate, senator, and professor of law. Like Lombroso and Ferri, he rejected the doctrine of free will
and supported the position that the only way to understand crime was to study it by scientific methods.
Influenced on Lombroso’s theory of atavistic stigmata (man’s inferior/ animalistic behavior), he traced
the roots of criminal behavior not to physical features but to their psychological equivalents, which he
called “moral anomalies”.

According to his theory, natural crimes are found in all human societies, regardless of the views
of the lawmakers, and no civilized society can afford to disregard them.

Natural crimes, according to Garofalo, are those that offend the basic moral sentiments of probity
(respect for property of others) and piety (revulsion against the infliction of suffering on others) (Adler,
1995).

Types of Criminals by Garofalo

1. Murderers – those who are satisfied from vengeance/revenge.

2. Violent Criminals – those who commit very serious crimes.
3. Deficient Criminals – those who commit crime against property.
4. Lascivious Criminals – those who commit crime against chastity.

The Classical and Positivist School Compared

Classical School Positivist School

*Legal definition of crime
*No to legal definition
 *Punishment fit the crime
*Punishment fit the
*Doctrine of free will criminal
*Doctrine of determinism
*Death penalty allowed
*Abolition of death
*No empirical research penalty
*Definite sentence *Inductive method

*Indeterminate sentence

EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

This became the Rise of the Sociological Perspectives on crimes, criminals and their behavior.
The shift of the blame to the social and environmental circumstances

This also includes the theories which promotes that people’s behavior bears some relationship to
their biological and psychological constitution

David Emile Durkheim

(French, 1858 - 1917)

He advocated the “Anomie Theory”, the theory that focused on the sociological point of the
positivist school which explains that the absence of norms in a society provides a setting conductive to
crimes and other anti-social acts. According to him, the explanation of human conduct lies not in the
individual but in the group and the social organization.

Durkheim proposed the following principles:

 Crime is a natural thing in the society,

 The concept of wrong is necessary to give meaning to right,

  Crime help society for changes – it means that a society to be flexible to permit positive
deviation must permit negative deviations as well.

He also framed the early development of the “Consensus Theory” in sociology. He argued that
mainly order, integration and smooth functioning characterize social life. According to him, the order of
social life does not derive from individuals but from society because the individual is not sufficient unto
him, it is the society that he receives everything necessary to him.

He also maintained that crime is an “important ingredient of all healthy societies because crime
make people more aware of their common interest and help to define appropriate, moral, or lawful
behavior.”
Sigmund Freud
(1856 - 1969)

Psychologists have considered a variety of possibilities to account for individual differences –

defective conscience, emotional immaturity, inadequate childhood socialization, maternal deprivation,
and poor moral development.

The Freudian view on criminal behavior was based on the use of Psychology in explaining an
approach in understanding criminal behavior.

Sigmund Freud in his Psychoanalytical Theory maintains that:

 Criminal behavior is a form neurosis, that criminality may result from an over active
conscience.

 Crime is the result of the compulsive need for punishment to alleviate guilt and anxiety

 Criminal behavior is a means of obtaining gratification of need

 Criminal conducts represent a displaced hostility. Criminality is essentially a representation

of psychological conflict.

Robert Ezra Park

(1864 - 1944)
 Park is a strong advocate of the scientific method in explaining criminality but he is a sociologist.
He advocated the “Human Ecology Theory”. Human Ecology is the study of the interrelationship of
people and their environment. This theory maintains that crime is a function of social change that occurs
along with environmental change. It also maintains that the isolation, segregation, competition, conflict,
social contract, interaction and social hierarchy of people are the major influences of criminal behavior
and crimes.

MIDDLE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Ernest Kretschmer
(1888 – 1964)

The idea of somatotyping was originated from the work of a German Psychiatrist, Ernest
Kretschmer, who distinguished three principal types of physique as:

1. Asthenic – lean, slightly built, narrow shoulders

2. Athletic – medium to tall, strong, muscular, course bones

3. Pyknic – medium height, rounded figure, massive neck, broad face

Kretschmer related these body physiques to various psychotic behavioral patterns: Pyknic to
manic depression, asthenics and athletics to schizophrenia.

William H. Sheldon
(1898 – 1977)

Sheldon is an influenced of the Somatotype School of Criminology, which related body built to
behavior. He became popular of his own Somatotyping Theory. His key ideas are concentrated on the
principle of “Survival of the Fittest” as a behavioral science. He combines the biological and
psychological explanation to understand deviant behavior.

Sheldon’s “Somatotyping Theory” maintains the belief of inheritance as the primary determinants
of behavior and the physique is a reliable indicator of personality.
Classification of Body Physique by Sheldon

a. Endomorphy – a type with relatively predominance of soft, roundness through out the regions of
the body. They have low specific gravity. Persons with typically relaxed and comfortable
disposition.

b. Mesomorphy – athletic type, predominance of muscle, bone and connective tissue, normally
heavy, hard and firm, sting and tough. They are the people who are routinely active and
aggressive, and they are the most likely to commit crimes.

c. Ectomorphy – thin physique, flat chest, delicacy through the body, slender, poorly muscled.
They tend to look more fatigue and withdrawn.

Edwin Sutherland
(1883 - 1950)

Sutherland has been referred to as “the most important criminologist of the twentieth century”
because his explanation about crime and criminal behavior can be seen as a corrected extension of social
perspective. For this reason, he was considered as the “Dean of Modern Criminology.”

He advocated the DAT – Differential Association Theory, which maintain that the society is
composed of different group organization, the societies consist of a group of people having criminalistic
tradition and anti-criminalistic tradition. And that criminal behavior is learned and not inherited. It is
learned through the process of communication, and learning process includes technique of committing the
crime, motive and attitude.

Sutherland’s Nine Propositions

(Adler, 1995)

1. Criminal behavior is learned.

2. Crime is learned by participation with others in verbal and non- verbal communications.

3. Families and friends have the most influence on the learning process.

4. The learning process includes the techniques of committing the crime and the specific direction
of motives, drive and attitude.
 5. Not everyone in the society agrees that the laws should be obeyed; some people define it
unimportant.

6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess definition favorable to the violation of laws
over to the definitions unfavorable to the violation of laws.

7. Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity. The extent to which
associations and definitions will result in criminality is related to the frequency of contacts and
their meaning to the individual.

8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns
involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.

9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and value, it is not explained by those
general needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and
values.

Walter Reckless
(1899 - 1988)

A broad analysis of the relationship between personal and social controls is found in Walter
Reckless Containment Theory. This theory is a form of control, which suggests that a series of both
internal and external factors contributes to criminal behavior (Schmalleger, 1998).

The Containment Theory assumes that for every individual there exists a containing external
structure and a protective internal structure, both of which provide defense, protection or insulation
against crime or delinquency.

According to Reckless, the outer structure of an individual are the external pressures such as
poverty, unemployment and blocked opportunities while the inner containment refers to the person’s self
control ensured by strong ego, good self image, well developed conscience, high frustration tolerance and
high sense of responsibility. (Adler, 1995)

Karl Marx, Frederick Engel, Willem Bonger

(1818 -1940)

They are the proponents of the Social Class Conflict and Capitalism Theory.
 Marx and Engel claim that the ruling class in a capitalist society is responsible for the creation of
criminal law and their ideological bases in the interpretation and enforcement of the laws. All are
reflected in the ruling class, thus crime and delinquency are reflected on the demoralized surplus of
population, which is made up of the underprivileged usually the unemployed and underemployed.

Willem Bonger, a Marxist-Socialist, on the other hand, placed more emphasis on working bout
crimes of economic gain. He believes that profit -motive of capitalism generates an egoistic personality.
Hence, crime is an inevitable outcome.

LATE 20TH CENTURY:

THE CONTEMPORARY PIONEERS

Robert King Merton

(1910)

Robert Merton is the premier sociologist of the modern days who, after Durkheim, also related
the crime problem to anomie. He advocated the Strain Theory, which maintains that the failure of man to
achieve a higher status of life caused them to commit crimes in order for that status/goal to be attained.
He argued that crime is a means to achieve goals and the social structure is the root of the crime problem.
Merton’s explanation to criminal behavior assumes that people are law abiding but when under great
pressure will result to crime.

Albert Cohen
(1918)

He advocated the Sub-Culture Theory of Delinquency. Cohen claims that the lower class cannot
socialize effectively as the middle class in what is considered appropriate middle class behavior. Thus, the
lower class gathered together share their common problems, forming a subculture that rejects middle class
values. Cohen called this process as reaction formation. Much of this behavior comes to be called
delinquent behavior; the subculture is called a gang and the kids are called delinquents. He put emphasis
on the explanation of prevalence, origins, process and purposes as factors to crime.
Gresham Sykes
(1922)

He advocated the Neutralization Theory. It maintains that an individual will obey or disobey
societal rules depending upon his or her ability to rationalize whether he is protected from hurt or
destruction. People become law abiding if they feel they are benefited by it and they violate it if these
laws are not favorable to them.

Lloyd Ohlin
(1928)

He advocated the DOT – Differential Opportunity Theory. This theory explained that society
leads the lower class to want things and society does things to people.

Ohlin claimed that there is differential opportunity, or access, to success goals by both legitimate
and illegitimate means depending on the specific location of the individual with in the social structure.
Thus, lower class groups are provided with greater opportunities for the acquisition of deviant acts.

Frank Tennenbaum, Edwin Lemert, Howard Becker (1822 - 1982)

They are the advocates of the Labeling Theory – the theory that explains about social reaction to
behavior. The theory maintains that the original cause of crime cannot be known, no behavior is
intrinsically criminal, and behavior becomes criminal if it is labeled as such.

Earl Richard Quinney

(1934)

Quinney is a Marxist criminologist who advocated the Instrumentalist Theory if capitalist rule.
He argued that the state exist as a device for controlling the exploited class – the class that labors for the
benefit of the ruling class. He claims that upper classes create laws that protect their interest and t the
same time the unwanted behavior of all other members of society.
 Quinney major contribution is that he proposed the shift in focus from looking for the causes of
crime from the individual to the examination of the Criminal Justice System for clues.

OTHER THEORISTS

Charles Darwin’s Theory

(1809 - 1882)

In the theory of evolution, he claimed that humans, like other animals, are parasite. Man is an
organism having an animalistic behavior that is dependent on other animals for survival. Thus, man kills
and steals to live.

Charles Goring’s Theory

(1870 - 1919)

The medical officer in prison in England who accepted the Lombroso’s challenge that body
physique is a determinant to behavior. Goring concluded that there is no such thing a physical chemical
type. He contradicted the Lombroso’s idea that criminality can be seen through features alone.
Nevertheless, Goring accepted that criminals are physically inferior to normal individuals in the sense that
criminals tend to be shorter and have less weight than non-criminals.

Earnest Hooton’s Theory

(1887 - 1954)

An Anthropologist who reexamined the work of Goring and found out that “Tall thin men tend to
commit forgery and fraud, undersized men are thieves and burglars, short heavy person commit assault,
rape and other sex crimes; where as mediocre (average) physique flounder around among other crimes.”
He also contended that criminals are originally inferior; and that crime is the result of the impact of
environment.

Adolphe Quetelet
(1796 - 1874)

Quetelet was a Belgian Statistician who pioneered Cartography and the Carthographical School
of Criminology that placed emphasis on social statistics. He discovered, basing on his research, that
crimes against persons increased during summer and crimes against property tends to increase during
winter.

A Century of Change

Until the 20th century, criminality was primarily thought about in terms of human nature. 
However, despite the persistence of the term in criminological research, sociological research shifted the
discussion from human nature to human normality.  That is, theories of criminality were no longer based
on abstract discussions of traits that were present or absent in human beings, but were based on empirical
research about patterns of the behavior of particular individuals in particular contexts. 

The "social ecology" of the late Chicago School can be read as a sociological response to theories
of crime based on constitutional theories, but Sutherland's Differential Association Theory and Merton's
Strain Theory also stress the importance of examining the cultural and structural environments which
individuals not only respond to, but which shape their particular ways of looking at the world.

      Since 1950, criminological theorists have traveled down two different paths.  Many continue with
the positivist orientation of the early sociologists, concerned with developing these early theories in order
to determine the etiology of criminal behavior.  Their opportunity theories and control theories all carry
on these themes.  Others have revived the legal perspective that criminologists associate with the classical
school, questioning how the state identifies and responds to criminal behavior.  "Conflict" theories, date
back to Karl Marx, while more recent labeling theories and feminist theories raise questions about the
relationship between social power and the role that the state and even the criminologist plays in defining
and/or creating criminal behavior in society.

From these changes and shifts of focuses came other ideas - theories like the Mental Deficiency
Theory - group of theories which are primarily focused on the Psychiatric make-up of the individual
criminal, stating among others that human intelligence is the big factor in criminality.

The question on whether or not intelligence and criminality are significantly related has also been
the focus of several researchers and a subject of debates.

Finding of researches vary resulting to the different opinions about the matter. Early researches
however found out a good majority of criminals tested for intelligence were shown to have low IQ.
(Adler, 1998)

Resent investigations on the matter have revealed the following findings:

  The effect of low IQ on criminal behavior is more significant than those educated and with high
IQs
 A strong relationship exists between low IQ and crime independent of social class
 IQ is more closely related to crime than that of social class

PERCEIVED CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY

Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society
as the major contributing influence. Theories focusing on the individual suggest that children engage in
criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous delinquent acts or that they
have learned criminal behavior through interaction with others. A person who becomes socially alienated
may be more inclined to commit a criminal act. Theories focusing on the role of society in juvenile
delinquency suggest that children commit crimes in response to their failure to rise above their socio-
economic status, or as a repudiation of middle-class values.
Most theories of juvenile delinquency have focused on children from disadvantaged families,
ignoring the fact that children from affluent homes also commit crimes. The latter may commit crimes
because of the lack of adequate parental control, delays in achieving adult status, or simply because
they get enjoyment from it. All theories, however, are tentative and are subject to criticism.
The family unit has also experienced changes within the past two or three decades. More
families consist of one-parent households or two working parents; consequently, children are likely to
have less supervision at home than was common in the traditional family structure. This lack of parental
supervision is thought to have an influence on juvenile crime rates. Other identifiable causes of
delinquent acts include frustration or failure in school, the increased availability of drugs and alcohol,
and the growing incidence of child abuse and child neglect. All these conditions tend to increase the
probability of a child committing a criminal act, although a direct causal relationship has not been
established.

What causal factors contribute to juvenile problem behavior?

Over the years, criminologists have put forth a wide variety of motives for what causes crime.
People who deal with young people cite the following root conditions: poverty, family factors, the
environment, media influence, and declining social morality. These will be taken up in order:

CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

SCHOOL
- considered the second home of a child, with teachers as the second parents
- institution responsible for the training of young person’s intellectual, moral, as well as social
skills which they need for them to grow up as productive, law-abiding and responsible citizens

Instances of deviant conduct attributed to school inadequacy:

a) failure of teachers to detect and address problems of children and report such
problems to the parents
b) poor academic atmosphere
c) membership in school gangs or development of friendships with the wrong crowd
d) lack of facilities for curricular and extra-curricular activities
e) failure of teachers in character development of the students
f) failure to actually finish school, resulting to being out-of-school youths with a lot of
time to waste and do unproductive activities
g) failure to get gainful employment due to lack of sufficient education

3. Poverty

Although it is considered passé to say poverty causes crime, the fact is that nearly 22 percent of
children under the age of eighteen live in poverty. Poverty, in absolute terms, is more common for
children than for any other group in society. Ageism, they say, is the last frontier in the quest for
economic equality. Adolescents from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families regularly commit more
violence than youth from higher SES levels. Social isolation and economic stress are two main products
of poverty, which has long been associated with a number of D-words like disorganization, dilapidation,
deterioration, and despair. Pervasive poverty undermines the relevance of school and traditional routes of
upward mobility. The way police patrol poverty areas like an occupying army only reinforces the idea
that society is the enemy whom they should hate. Poverty breeds conditions that are conducive to crime.

Family Factors

One of the most reliable indicators of juvenile crime is the proportion of fatherless children. The
primary role of fathers in our society is to provide economic stability, act as role models, and alleviate the
stress of mothers. Marriage has historically been the great civilizer of male populations, channeling
predatory instincts into provider/protector impulses. Economically, marriage has always been the best
way to multiply capital, with the assumption being that girls from poorer families better themselves by
marrying upward. Then, of course, there are all those values of love, honor, cherish, and obey
encapsulated in the marriage tradition. Probably the most important thing that families impart to children
is the emphasis upon individual accountability and responsibility in the forms of honesty, commitment,
loyalty, respect and work ethic.
    Most of the broken home literature, for example, shows only weak or trivial effects, like skipping
school or home delinquency. Another area, the desistance literature, shows only that children from two-
parent families age-out of crime earlier. In fact, there is more evidence supportive of the hypothesis that a
stepparent in the home increases delinquency, or that abuse and neglect in fully-intact families lead to a
cycle of violence. To complicate matters, there are significant gender, race, and SES interaction effects.
Females from broken homes commit certain offenses while males from broken homes commit other kinds
of offenses. Few conclusions can be reached about African American males, but tentative evidence
suggests stepparenting can be of benefit to them. SES differences actually show that the broken home is
less important in producing delinquency among lower-class youth than youth from higher social classes.
Most research results are mixed, and no clear causal family factors have emerged to explain the
correlation between fatherlessness and crime, but it is certainly unfair to blame single mothers, their
parenting skills, or their economic condition for what are obviously more complex social problems.

TYPES OF FAMILY STRUCTURE:

1) NUCLEAR FAMILY
- consists of father, mother and children
2) EXTENDED FAMILY
- consists of father, mother, children, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins,
nephews and niences, and in-laws

Ideally, a home must have the following:

a) structural completeness
- presence of both father and mother
b) economic security
- capability to provide for the basic needs and wants
c) cultural conformity
- typical family beliefs and practices
d) moral conformity
- moral uprightness, Christian way of living
e) physical and psychological normalcy
f) emotional adequacy
- affection, support, love and care between faulty members

Factors in the home life that may cause delinquency:

a) faulty development of the child
b) lack of parental guidance
c) parental rejection
d) broken homes
e) lack of love
f) unfair treatment
g) too harsh discipline by either or both parents
h) too much leniency by either or both parents
i) unfavorable parental example
The Environment

Unless we are willing to believe that testosterone (a male stimulation-seeking hormone) causes
crime, the only feasible explanations left are environmental ones. The heredity-environment debate in
explaining juvenile crime is shaped by divided opinions about what factors are really important: genetic
tendencies, birth complications, and brain chemicals, on one side; and being a victim of abuse, witnessing
domestic battering, and learned behaviors, on the other side. The idea that all behavior is learned behavior
is associated with environmental explanations. Sure, everyone has a potential for violence, but we learn
how to do it (in all its different forms) from observing others do it. In fact, most of us are suckers for
observing violence, glamorizing it to the point where we like more and different forms of it everyday, in
the news, on TV shows, in action movies. So when you're talking about reducing the need to see violence
on TV, you're really talking biology or psychology. The study of environmental factors, on the other
hand, is concerned primarily with social considerations. While violence may be part of everyone's
behavioral repertoire, the temptations (triggers, cues) to do it are embedded (lodged, locked, firmly put in
place) with social networks (relationships and situations) that more or less make this kind of behavior
seem acceptable at the moment.

The unfortunate truth is that, in many places, there are a growing number of irresistible
temptations and opportunities for juveniles to use violence. Brute, coercive force has become an
acceptable substitute, even a preferred substitute, for ways to resolve conflicts and satisfy needs. Think of
it as the schoolyard bully who says "Meet me in the parking lot at 4:30". Under circumstances like these,
the peer pressure and reward systems are so arranged that fighting seems like the only way out.

Now think for a moment about the crucial importance of peer groups: whether there are people
who would respect you for standing up to fight, or whether there are people important to you that would
definitely not approve of your fighting. What environmental learning theorists are saying is that there are
fewer and fewer friends available to help you see the error of your ways in deciding to fight.

Most of the recent research in this area revolves around "neighborhood" factors, such as the
presence of gangs, illicit drug networks, high levels of transiency, lack of informal supports, etc. Gang-
infested neighborhoods, in particular, have no effective means of providing informal supports that would
help in resisting the temptations to commit crime. Such neighborhoods would more likely have an
informal encouragement policy, with five or more places where you could buy a gun and drugs available
to give you the courage to use the gun. Firearms- and drug-related homicides have increased over 150%
in recent years, and the clearest drug-violence connection is for selling drugs because illicit drug
distribution networks are extremely violent.
 In such neighborhoods, families, school authorities, and even community organizations are often
incapable of providing any protection for children. There are no peer-level social supports to reinforce the
conventional lifestyles that these agencies want their children to emulate. The reality of street life, its
illicit economy, and quick and easy pathways to success and prestige through violence and crime all offer
rewards that offset the risks associated with these activities. And, even if a child experiences the risks of
street life firsthand, like by getting shot or stabbed, this only reinforces the child's desire for more
exposure to the learning of street life, to do better next time by listening more closely to delinquent peers
and not to the advice of legitimate authorities. Victimization and perpetration go hand in hand. This is
what is meant when criminologists say that the best predictor of future delinquency is past behavior, or
age of onset. The strongest (primacy) effect is when violence is modeled, encouraged, and rewarded for
the first time. It determines the type of friends one chooses, which in turn, determines what behaviors will
be subsequently modeled, established, and reinforced.

Media Influence

Popular explanations of juvenile crime often rest on ideas about the corrupting influence of
television, movies, music videos, video games, rap/hip hop music, or the latest scapegoat du jour,
computer games like Doom or Quake. The fact is that TV is much more pervasive, and has become the de
facto babysitter in many homes, with little or no parental monitoring. Where there is strong parental
supervision in other areas, including the teaching of moral values and norms, the effect of prolonged
exposure to violence on TV is probably quite minimal. When TV becomes the sole source of moral norms
and values, this causes problems. Our nation's children watch an astonishing 19,000 hours of TV by the
time they finish high school, much more time than all their classroom hours put together since first grade.
By eighteen, they will have seen 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders. Every hour of prime
time television carries 6-8 acts of violence. Most surveys show that around 80% of American parents
think there is too much violence on television.

Most of the scientific research in this area revolves around tests of two hypotheses: the catharsis
effect, and the brutalization effect; but I am giving this area of research more credit than it deserves
because it is not that neatly organized into two hypotheses. Catharsis means that society gets it out of their
system by watching violence on TV, and brutalization means we become so desensitized it doesn't bother
us anymore, but there are also "imitation" hypotheses, "sleeper" effects, and lagged-time correlations. The
results of research in this area are too mixed to give any adequate guidance, and it may well be that social
science is incapable of providing us with any good causal analysis in this area. Only anecdotal evidence
of a few cases of direct influence exist.

Since the early 1990s, a number of films, music videos, and rap music lyrics have come out
depicting gang life, drugs, sex, and violence. Watching or listening to these items gives you the feeling
that the filmmakers or musicians really know what they're talking about and tell it like it is, but there have
been unfortunate criminogenic effects. In 1992, for example, 144 law enforcement officers were killed in
the line of duty. That year, four juveniles wounded Las Vegas police officers and the rap song, Cop
Killer, was implicated. At trial, the killers admitted that listening to the song gave them a sense of duty
and purpose. During apprehension, the killers sung the lyrics at the police station. Another case involved
a Texas trooper killed in cold blood while approaching the driver of a vehicle with a defective headlight.
The driver attempted a temporary insanity defense based on the claim he felt hypnotized by songs on a 2
Pac album, that the anti-police lyrics "took control, devouring [him] like an animal, compelling his
subconscious mind to kill the approaching trooper". Two of the nation's leading psychiatrists were called
as expert witnesses in support of this failed defense.

Social Morality

It has become prevalent, especially among the slacker generations, GenX and Gen13, to join the
old WWII generation in self-righteous, totally gratuitous Sixties-bashing, as if all our social problems,
especially our declining social morality, started with the free-for-all, "any thing goes" hippie movement of
the 1960s. This time period is often blamed for giving birth to rising hedonism, the questioning of
authority, unbridled pursuit of pleasure, the abandonment of family responsibility, demand for illicit
drugs, and a number of other social ills. Sometimes, even the AIDS epidemic is blamed on the 1960s,
although such accusers are off by about two decades.

To sixties-bashers, today's juvenile "super predators" are nothing but a long line of troubled
youngsters who have grown up in more extreme conditions of declining social morality than the
generation before them. Their thinking is that each generation since the sixties has tried hard to outdo one
another in expressing the attitude that "nothing really matters", culminating in the present teenage regard
for angst and irony so common in contemporary culture.

PEERS AND DELINQUENCY

Adolescent Peer Relations

Although parents are the primary source of influence and attention in children’s early years,
adolescent seek out a stable peer group and both the number and the variety friendships increase.

Cliques

Small groups of friends who share intimate knowledge and confidences

Crowds

Loosely organized groups who share interests and activities

Controversial status youth

Aggressive kids who either liked or intensely disliked by their peers and who are the ones most
likely to become engaged in anti-social behavior

Youth Gangs

GANG

 Groups of youths who collectively engage in delinquent behaviors.

 Groups of young people whose members meet together with some regularity, on the basis of
group-defined criteria of membership and group defined organizational characteristics ( James
Short)

 Groups containing law-violating juveniles and adults that are completely organized with
established leadership & membership rules. (David Curry & Irving Spergel)

 Any denotable adolescent group of youngster who (a) are generally perceived as a distinct
aggregation by others in their neighborhood, (b) recognized themselves as a denotable group, (c)
have been involved in a sufficient number of delinquent incidents –( Malcolm Klein)

 An interstitial group originally formed spontaneously and then integrated through conflict.
(Frederick Thrasher)

Graffiti

Inscriptions or drawings made on a wall or structure & used by delinquents for gang messages
and turf definition.

Posting

A system of positions, facial expressions & body language used by gang members to convey a
message

Representing

Tossing or flashing gang signs in the presence of rivals, often escalating into a verbal or physical
confrontation.

Drug Use and Delinquency

Frequently abused drugs

Substance Abuse

- using drugs or alcohol in such a way as to cause physical, emotional and/or psychological harm
to yourself.

Hashish

A concentrated form of cannabis made from unadulterated resin from the female cannabis plant.

Marijuana

The dried leaves of the cannabis plant. It is the drug most commonly used by teenagers.

Cocaine

Is an alkaloid derivative of the coca plant, a powerful natural stimulant derived from the coca
plant.

Crack

- is processed street cocaine. A highly addictive crystalline form of cocaine containing remnants
of hydrochloride and sodium bicarbonate, which emits a crackling sound when smoked.

Heroin

- a narcotic made from opium and then cut with sugar or some other neutral substance until it is
only 1-4 percent pure

Anesthetic drugs

- Central nervous system depressants.

Inhalants

- volatile liquids that give off a vapor, which is inhaled, producing short-term excitement and
euphoria followed by a period of disorientation.

- some youths inhale vapors from lighter fluid, paint thinner, to reach a drowsy dizzy state
sometimes accompanied by hallucinations
Sedatives

- Drugs of the barbiturate family that depress the central nervous system into a sleeplike condition.
Tranquilizers

- drugs that reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.

Hallucinogens

- Natural or synthetic substances that produce vivid distortions of the senses without greatly
disturbing consciousness. Some produce hallucinations and other cause psychotic behavior.
Stimulants

- Synthetic substances that produce an intense physical reaction by stimulating the central nervous
system.

Anabolic steroids

- Drugs used by athletes and bodybuilders to gain muscle bulk and strength.

Designer drugs

- Lab-made drugs designed to avoid existing drug laws. Example: “ecstasy.”

Alcohol

- fermented or distilled liquids containing ethanol, an intoxicating substance. The drug of choice
for most teenagers.

Who is an Addict?

- a person with an overpowering physical or psychological need to continue taking a particular

substance or drug.

Addiction-Prone Personality

- a personality that has a compulsion for mood-altering drugs believed by some to be the cause of
substance abuse.

Gateway drug
 - a substance that leads to use of more serious drugs, alcohol use has long been thought to lead to
more serious drug abuse.

Drug Control Strategies

Source Control

- deter the sale of drugs through apprehension of large-volume drug dealers, coupled with
enforcement of drug laws that carry heavy penalties.

Border Control

- law enforcement efforts in interdicting drug supplies as they enter the country.

Targeting Dealers

- law enforcement agencies effort focus on drug trafficking to bust large-scale drug rings.

Community Strategies

drug-control relies on local community group. Representatives of local government agencies,

churches, civic organization and similar institutions being brought together to create drug prevention
programs

Harm Reduction

efforts to minimize the harmful effects caused by drug use.

Multi Systemic Therapy (MST)

- addresses a variety of family, peer and psychological problems by focusing on problem-solving

and communication skills training.

Balanced and Restorative Justice Model

 - this model integrates the traditional rehabilitative philosophy of the juvenile court with
increasing societal concern about victim’s rights and community safety.

DEVELOPMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE IN THE PHILIPPINES

1) PD 603 – Child and Youth Welfare Code
2) Ra 7610 – Anti-Child Abuse Law
3) RA 6809 – law amending the age of majority
4) RA 8552 AND RA 8043 – laws on adoption
5) RA 9208 – Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act
6) RA 9231 – law amending RA 7610 on working children
7) RA 9255 – law on the use of father’s surname of
illegitimate children
8) RA 9262 – Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children
9) RA 9523 – law amending the laws on adoption
10) RA 9344 - Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act
11) RA 9775 – Anti-Child Pornography Act

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF PD 603

PD 603 – THE CHILD AND YOUTH WELFARE CODE

- approved on 10 December 1974
- effectivity date is 10 June 1975 (six months after approval)
- shall apply to persons under eighteen (18) years of age

PARENTAL AUTHORITY (PATRIA POTESTAS)

- the sum total of the rights of the parents over the person and property of their child
- the exercise of which has no distinction between a legitimate and an illegitimate child
- the father and the mother shall exercise jointly just and reasonable parental authority and
responsibility over their legitimate or adopted children
- in case of death of either parent, the surviving parent shall exercise sole parental authority
- in case of disagreement, the father’s decision shall prevail unless there is a judicial order to
the contrary

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
- the sum total of the duties and obligations of parents over their minor children

LIABILITIES OF PARENTS
- parents and guardians are responsible for the damage or injury caused by the child under their
parental authority

LEGAL CUSTODY
- in case of separation of parents, no child under SEVEN (7) YEARS OF AGE shall be
separated from his mother unless the court decides otherwise

GUARDIANSHIP
 - a trust relation of the most sacred character, in which one person, called a guardian, acts for
another, called a ward, regarded as incapable of managing his own affairs

SUBSTITUTE PARENTAL AUTHORITY

- in case of absence or death of both parents, substitute parental authority shall be given to the
following, in order of priority:
1) grandparents
2) oldest brother or sister at least 21 years of age
3) relative who has actual custody of the child/guardian duly appointed by the court

COMMENCEMENT OF CIVIL PERSONALITY

- the CIVIL PERSONALITY of the child shall commence from the MOMENT OF
CONCEPTION

CONCEPTION
- the start of life
- the union of the sperm cell and the egg cell
- also called the process of fertilization

CIVIL PERSONALITY
- pertains to the identity and recognition of an individual as person having rights
- shall commence from the moment of conception, thus all children shall have the right to be
born and the right to live

ABORTION
- the expulsion of the fetus from the mother’s womb

KINDS OF ABORTION

1) CRIMINAL ABORTION
- classified as intentional or unintentional as provided by the Revised Penal Code
- punishable by law

2) THERAPEUTIC ABORTION
- recommended and performed by a certified physician when there are health risks and
complications
- not punishable by law

CATEGORIES OF CHILDREN
1) DEPENDENT
- one who is without a parent, guardian or custodian, or whose parents, guardian or other
custodian for good cause desire to be relieved of his care and custody and is dependent upon
the public for support

2) ABANDONED
- one who had no proper parental care or guardianship or whose parents or guardians have
deserted him for a period of at least six consecutive months (PD 603)
 - refers to a child who has no proper parental care or guardianship, or whose parents have
deserted him or her for a period of at least three (3) continuous months (RA 9523

3) NEGLECTED
- one whose basic needs have been deliberately unattended or inadequately attended
- a child is unattended when left by himself without provision for his needs and without proper
supervision
- neglect may occur in two ways:
a) physical neglect
o Malnourishment, untidy and damaged clothing, no shelter
b) emotional neglect
o maltreated, raped, seduced, abused, exploited, made to work under conditions not
conducive to good health or placed in moral and physical danger

4) MENTALLY-RETARDED
- socially incompetent, socially inadequate, occupationally incompetent and unable to manage
their own affairs
- mentally sub-normal
- retarded intellectually from birth or early age
- retarded at maturity
- mentally deficient as a result of constitutional origin through heredity or disease
- essentially incurable

5) PHYSICALLY-HANDICAPPED
- crippled, deaf-mute, blind and other conditions which restrict their means of action or
communication with others

6) EMOTIONALLY-DISTURBED
- those who, although not afflicted with insanity or mental defect, are unable to maintain
normal social relations with others and the community in general due to emotional problems
or complexes
- may be caused by traumatic experiences

7) MENTALLY-ILL
- those with any behavioral disorder, whether functional or organic, which is of such a degree
of severity as to require professional help or hospitalization

8) DISABLED
- includes mentally-retarded, physically-handicapped, emotionally-disturbed and mentally-ill
children

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF THE LAWS ON ADOPTION

ADOPTION
- an act by which relations of paternity and filiations are recognized as legally existing between
persons not so related by nature
- the taking into one’s family of the child of another, as son or daughter and heir, and
conferring on it a title to the rights and privileges of such
FILIATION
- the acknowledgment of the father of his relationship with the child
- also called paternity

BIOLOGICAL CHILD
- natural-born child of the parents
ADOPTED CHILD
- a child who underwent the judicial process of adoption

FOUNDLING
- refers to a deserted or abandoned infant or child whose parents, guardian or relatives are
unknown

RA 8552 – DOMESTIC ADOPTION ACT OF 1998

- approved on 25 February 1998

ADOPTER
- the person adopting or petitioning for the adoption of a child

ADOPTEE
- the child or person being petitioned for adoption

CHILD LEGALLY AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION

- a child who has been voluntarily or involuntarily committed to the DSWD or to a duly
licensed and accredited child-placing or child-caring agency, freed of the parental authority of
his or her biological parents or guardians or adopter, in case of rescission
- refers to a child in whose favor a certification was issued by the DSWD that he or she is
legally available for adoption after the fact of abandonment or neglect has been proven
through the submission of pertinent documents, or one who was voluntarily committed by his
or her parents or legal guardian (RA 9523)

VOLUNTARILY-COMMITTED CHILD
- one whose parents or legal guardian knowingly and willingfully relinquished parental
authority to the DSWD or any duly accredited child-placement or child caring agency or
institution

CHILD-CARING AGENCY OR INSTITUTION

- refers to a private non-profit or government agency duly accredited by the DSWD that
provides twenty-four (24) hour residential care services for abandoned, neglected, or
voluntarily committed children (RA 9523)

CHILD-PLACING AGENCY OR INSTITUTION

- refers to a private non-profit institution or government agency duly accredited by the DSWD
that receives and processes applicants to become foster or adoptive parents and facilitate
placement of children eligible for foster care or adoption

WHO MAY ADOPT:

1) any Filipino citizen of legal age at least sixteen (16) years older than the adoptee unless the
adopter is the biological parent of the adoptee, or is the spouse of the adoptee’s biological parent
 2) any alien possessing the same qualifications as that of a Filipino citizen, who has been living in
the Philippines for at least three (3) consecutive years, and whose country has diplomatic
relations with the Philippines

WHO MAY ADOPTED:

1) any person below eighteen (18) years of age judicially declared available for adoption
2) the legitimate son or daughter of one spouse by the other spouse
3) an illegitimate son or daughter by a qualified adopter to improve his or her status to that of
legitimacy
4) a person of legal age if prior to the adoption, said person has been consistently considered and
treated by the adopter as his or her own child since minority
5) a child whose adoption has been previously rescinded
6) a child whose biological or adoptive parents has died, but proceedings may only be initiated after
six (6) months from the time of the death of the parents

SUPERVISED TRIAL CUSTODY

- a period of time within which a social worker oversees the adjustment and emotional
readiness of both adopter and adoptee in stabilizing their filial relationship
- the period is at least six (6) months

RESCISSION OF ADOPTION
- the nullification of the adoption
- adoption shall not be subject to rescission by the adopter

GROUNDS FOR RESCISSION OF ADOPTION

1) repeated physical and verbal maltreatment by the adopter despite having undergone counseling
2) attempt on the life of the adoptee
3) sexual assault or violence
4) abandonment and failure to comply with parental obligations

RA 8043 – INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTION ACT OF 1995

- approved on 7 June 1995

INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTION
- the socio-legal process of adopting a Filipino child by a foreigner or a Filipino citizen
permanently residing abroad where the petition is filed, the supervised trial custody is
undertaken and the decree of adoption is issued outside the Philippines

INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTION BOARD

- acts as the central authority in matters relating to inter-country adoption
- shall act as the policy-making body for purposes of carrying out the provisions of RA 8043,
in consultation and coordination with the DSWD
- headed by the Secretary of the DSWD as ex officio chairman and six (6) members to be
appointed by the President, with a term of office of six (6) years

WHO MAY ADOPT:

1) any alien or a Filipino citizen permanently residing abroad
2) at least twenty-seven (27) years of age
 3) at least sixteen (16) years older than the adoptee unless the adopter is the parent by nature of the
adoptee or the spouse of such parent
4) coming from a country with whom the Philippines has diplomatic relations
5) possesses all the qualifications provided in other applicable Philippine laws

WHERE TO FILE APPLICATION

- shall be filed either with:
a) the Philippine Regional Trial Court; or
b) the Inter-Country Adoption Board, through an intermediate agency in the country of the
prospective adoptive parents

SUPERVISED TRIAL CUSTODY

- shall be at least six (6) months

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 9523

RA 9523 – the law giving DSWD the sole authority to issue the certification declaring a child legally
available for adoption
- amended provisions of RA 8552 and RA 8043
- approved on 12 March 2009

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 7610

RA 7610 – SPECIAL PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE,

EXPLOITATION AND DISCRIMINATION ACT
- approved on 17 June 1992
- this law is also commonly referred to as the Anti-Child Abuse Act

RA 7658 – amendatory law to RA 7610

- approved on 9 November 1993
- this law amended the provisions of RA 7610 regarding working children
- this law was further amended by RA 9231

CHILD ABUSE
- refers to maltreatment, whether habitual or not, of the child

FORMS OF CHILD ABUSE

1) CRUELTY – refers to any word or deed which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth
and dignity of the child as human being
2) PHYSICAL INJURY – includes but is not limited to lacerations, fractured bones, burns, internal
injuries, severe injuries, or serious bodily harm suffered by a child
3) PSYCHOLOGICAL INJURY – means harm to a child’ psychological or intellectual
functioning which may be exhibited by severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal or outward
aggressive behavior
4) NEGLECT – means failure to provide, for reasons other than poverty, the basic needs of the
child, such as food, clothing, medical care, shelter and basic education
5) SEXUAL ABUSE – includes the employment, use, inducement or coercion of a child to engage
in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct; the molestation, prostitution and or incest with
children
CHILD PROSTITUTION
- exploitation of children, whether male or female, by coercing them into indulging in sexual
intercourse or lascivious conduct for money, profit or any other consideration

WHO ARE CRIMINALLY LIABLE FOR CHILD PROSTITUTION:

1) those who engage in or promote, facilitate or induce child prostitution, such as:
a) those acting as procurer of a child prostitute
b) parents, guardians, or relatives who knowingly allow or coerce their children or ward into
prostitution
2) those who commit the act of sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct with a child exploited in
child prostitution, such as:
a) clients of child prostitutes
3) those who derive profit or advantage there from, such as:
a) managers or owners of the establishment where the prostitution takes place

OBSCENE PUBLICATIONS AND INDECENT SHOWS

- the use, hiring, employment and coercing of children as performers, actors or models for
obscene exhibitions and indecent shows, whether live or in video, or in printed pornographic
materials

CHILDREN AS ZONES OF PEACE

- children shall not be the object of attack in situations of armed conflict
- they shall be protected from any form of threat, assault, torture or other cruel, inhumane or
degrading treatment
- children shall not be recruited to become members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines of
its civilian units, nor be allowed to take part in the fighting, or used as guides, couriers or
spies
- children shall be given priority during evacuation as a result of armed conflict

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 9208

RA 9208 – ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ACT OF 2003

- approved on 26 May 2003

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
- the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the
victim’s consent or knowledge within or across national borders by means of threat or use of
force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or prostitution,
taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or giving or receiving of payments or
benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose
of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or
other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal
or sale of organs

- the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall also be considered as “trafficking in person” even if it does not involve any
of the means set forth in the preceding paragraph
QUALIFIED TRAFFICKING IN PERSON
 1) When the trafficked person is a child;
2) When the adoption is effected through RA 8043 and said adoption is for the purpose of
prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt
bondage;
3) When the offender is an ascendant, parent, sibling, guardian or a person who exercised authority
over the trafficked person or when the offense is committed by a public officer or employee

FORCED LABOR AND SLAVERY

- refers to the extraction of work or services from any person by means of enticement,
violence, intimidation or threat, use of force or coercion, including deprivation of freedom,
abuse of authority or moral ascendancy, debt-bondage or deception

SEX TOURISM
- refers to a program organized by travel and tourism related establishments and individuals
which consist of tourism packages or activities, utilizing and offering escort and sexual
services as enticement for tourists

PORNOGRAPHY
- refers to any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent
shows, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or
simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for
primarily sexual purposes

DEBT BONDAGE
- refers to pledging by the debtor of his or her personal services or labor or those of a person
under his or her control as security or payment for a debt, when the length and nature of
services are not clearly defined or when the value of the services as reasonably assessed is not
applied toward the liquidation of debt

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 9231

RA 9231 - the law prohibiting the worst forms of child labor

- amendatory law to RA 7160 and RA 7658
- amended the provisions of RA 7160 regarding working children
- approved on 19 December 2003

Children below fifteen (15) years of age shall not be employed, except:

1) When a child works directly under sole responsibility of his parents or legal guardian and where
only members of the employer’s family are employed
2) Where a child’s employment or participation in public entertainment or information through
cinema, theatre, radio or television is essential, with the approval of the Department of Labor and
Employment (DOLE)
- it is the duty of the employer to submit to the DOLE a report of all children employed by him
- if a domestic is under sixteen (16) years of age, the head of the family shall give him or her
an opportunity to complete at least elementary education, the cost of which shall be a part of
the domestic’s compensation

WORK PERMIT OF WORKING CHILDREN

 - it shall be the duty of the employer to secure permit from the DOLE of working children
employed by him

EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT OF WORKING CHILDREN

- the contract shall be signed by the working child’s parent or legal guardian, with the express
agreement of the child

WORKING HOURS

If the child is under 15:

- may work for maximum of four (4) hours a day, twenty (20) hours a week
- may work between six o’clock in the morning to eight o’clock in the evening (6am to 8pm)

If the child is 15 but under 18:

- may work for maximum of eight (8) hours a day, forty (40) hours a week
- may work between six o’clock in the morning to ten o’clock in the evening (6am to 10pm)

PROHIBITION ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN CERTAIN ADVERTISEMENTS

- no child shall be employed as a model in any advertisement directly or indirectly promoting
the following:
a) alcoholic beverages
b) intoxicating drinks
c) tobacco and cigarettes
d) gambling
e) any form of violence or pornography

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 9262

RA 9262 – ANTI-VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN ACT OF 2004

- approved on 8 March 2004

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN

- refers to any act or a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is his wife,
former wife, or against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating
relations, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child, whether legitimate or
illegitimate, within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in
physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of
such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE
- refers to acts that include bodily or physical harm

SEXUAL VIOLENCE
- refers to an act which is sexual in nature, committed against a woman or her child

PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE
- refers to acts or omissions causing or likely to cause mental or emotional suffering of the
victim such as but not limited to intimidation, harassment, stalking, damage to property,
public ridicule or humiliation, and repeated verbal abuse
ECONOMIC ABUSE
- refers to acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent

BATTERY
- refers to an act of inflicting physical harm upon the woman or her child resulting to the
physical and psychological or emotional distress

STALKING
- refers to an intentional act committed by a person who knowingly and without lawful
justification follows the woman or her child or places the woman or her child under
surveillance directly or indirectly

PHILIPPINE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM

How should juveniles-in-trouble be handled?

Approaches to the problem generally fall into two camps: the public health solution, and the law
enforcement solution. Advocates of the public health approach tend to see juveniles today as victims of an
anti-youth culture. The problem is not just parents failing children, but a whole attitude among adult
society that is increasingly hostile, angry, and punishing toward youth. It's also not just poverty, per se,
among children, but the relative deprivation of living in a society of affluence in which self-esteem is tied
to achieving affluence. People are only hosts, not causes, of social problems, according to the public
health model. The real enemies (if there need to be enemies at all) are the environment (broad social
forces that shape their way through culture) and the agent (the means of violence, firearms and access to
weapons). Intervene, and then trace the pathology back to its source. The source often turns out to be low
SES families and neighborhoods where there have been few prevention programs, poor economic and
educational opportunities, and no way to reintegrate released offenders back into the community.

The law enforcement solution looks at the problem in terms of what needs to be done to improve
investigation, arrest, prosecution, and conviction. Advocates of this approach perceive that a nationwide
crackdown, "get tough on juvenile crime" program is what this country needs, but they are also just as
likely to want the delivery of real rehabilitation programs in juvenile prisons, at least when we are better
able to separate the minor offenders from super predators. For the most part, however, the belief is that it
is society's duty to punish, not rehabilitate, and boot camps, life terms, and even executions are in order
for juveniles if they deserve it. They should serve time as adults, and face the ultimate punishment, no
matter what the age.

RA 9344 – the JUVENILE JUSTICE AND WELFARE ACT OF 2006

- approved on 28 April 2006
- became effective on 20 May 2006
 - repealed the provisions of the Revised Penal Code and Presidential Decree No 603 on minor
offenders

IMPORTANT TERMS INTRODUCED BY RA 9344

JUVENILE JUSTICE AND WELFARE SYSTEM

- refers to a system dealing with children at risk and children in conflict with the law, which
provides child-appropriate proceedings, including programs and services for prevention,
diversion, rehabilitation, re-integration and aftercare to ensure their normal growth and
development

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
- refers to a principle which requires a process of resolving conflicts with the maximum
involvement of the victim, the offender and the community; seeks to obtain reparation for the
victim, reconciliation of the offender, the offended and the community and reassurance to the
offender that he or she can be reintegrated into society

CHILD AT RISK
- refers to a child who is vulnerable to and at the risk of committing criminal offenses because
of personal, family and social circumstances

CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW

- refers to a child who is alleged as, accused of, or adjudged as, having committed an offense
under Philippine laws

INITIAL CONTACT WITH THE CHILD

- refers to the apprehension or taking into custody of a child in conflict with the law by law
enforcement officers or private citizens

INTERVENTION
- refers to a series of activities which are designed to address issues that caused the child to
commit an offense
- may take the form of an individualized treatment program which may include counseling,
skills training, education, and other activities that will enhance his or her psychological,
emotional and psycho-social well-being

DIVERSION
- refers to an alternative, child-appropriate process of determining the responsibility and
treatment of a child in conflict with the law on the basis of his or her social, cultural,
economic, psychological or educational background without resorting to formal court
proceedings

DIVERSION PROGRAM
- refers to the program that the child in conflict with the law is required to undergo after he or
she is found responsible for an offense without resorting to formal court proceedings

YOUTH DETENTION HOME

- refers to a 24-hour child-caring institution managed by accredited local government units and
licensed and/or accredited non-governmental organizations providing short-term residential
 care for children in conflict with the law who are awaiting court disposition of their cases
or transfer to other agencies or jurisdiction

YOUTH REHABILITATION CENTER

- refers to a 24-hour residential care facility managed by the DSWD, local government units,
licensed or accredited non-governmental organizations monitored by the DSWD, which
provides care, treatment and rehabilitation services for children in conflict with the law

RIGHTS OF THE CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW

1) the right not to be imposed a sentence of capital punishment or life imprisonment

2) the right to be detained or imprisoned as a disposition of last resort, which shall be for the shortest
appropriate period of time
3) the right to be separated from adult offenders at all times: during detention, while being
transported to and from the court and while waiting for the hearing
4) the right to be detained only with other detainees of the same sex, if detention is necessary
5) the right to be searched only by a law enforcement officer of the same gender
6) the right not to be handcuffed, when such is not necessary
7) the right to have his parents or guardians present
8) the right to diversion if he or she is qualified and voluntarily avails of the same
9) the right to AUTOMATIC SUSPENSION OF SENTENCE
10) the right to probation as an alternative to imprisonment, if qualified under the Probation Law
11) the right to have the records and proceedings involving him be considered PRIVILEGED AND
CONFIDENTIAL

MINIMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

- a child FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OF AGE OR UNDER at the time of the commission of the
offense shall be EXEMPT from CRIMINAL LIABILITY, but he shall undergo
INTERVENTION PROGRAM
- a child ABOVE FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OF AGE BUT BELOW EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS
OF AGE shall likewise be EXEMPT from CRIMINAL LIABILITY, if he or she acted
WITHOUT DISCERNMENT, but he shall undergo INTERVENTION PROGRAM
- however, they are exempted only from criminal liability and not from civil liability
- a child ABOVE FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OF AGE BUT BELOW EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS
OF AGE who acted WITH DISCERNMENT shall be subjected to the DIVERSION
PROCEEDINGS and shall undergo DIVERSION PROGRAM, if qualified
- a child ABOVE FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OF AGE BUT BELOW EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS
OF AGE who acted WITH DISCERNMENT and who is NOT QUALIFIED for
DIVERSION, OR REFUSED to undergo DIVERSION, shall be PROSECUTED

TREATMENT OF CHILD BELOW THE AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

- it shall be the duty of the law enforcement officer to determine the age of the child
apprehended
- if the child apprehended is FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OLD OR BELOW, the law
enforcement officer MUST RELEASE THE CHILD TO THE CUSTODY OF HIS OR
HER PARENTS OR GUARDIANS, OR THE CHILD’S NEAREST RELATIVE
- it shall also be the duty of the law enforcement officer to give notice to the local social
welfare and development officer as to the apprehension of the child in conflict with the law

COMPREHENSIVE JUVENILE INTERVENTION PROGRAM

 - shall be instituted in local government units from the barangay to the provincial levels
- shall include community-based programs on juvenile justice and welfare

COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS ON JUVENILE JUSTICE AND WELFARE

- shall be instituted by the local government units through the school, youth organizations, and
other concerned agencies
- shall respond to the special needs, problems, interests and concerns of children and which
offer appropriate counseling and guidance to them and their families
- these programs shall consist of three (3) levels:

1) PRIMARY INTERVENTION
- includes general measures to promote social justice and equal opportunity, which tackle
perceived root causes of offending

2) SECONDARY INTERVENTION
- includes measures to assist children at risk

3) TERTIARY INTERVENTION
- includes measures to avoid unnecessary contact with the formal justice system and other
measures to prevent re-offending

SYSTEM OF DIVERSION
- children in conflict with the law shall undergo diversion proceedings subject to the following
conditions:

1) the imposable penalty for the crime committed is NOT MORE THAN SIX (6) YEARS
IMPRISONMENT
2) in victimless crimes, the imposable penalty is NOT MORE THAN SIX (6) YEARS
IMPRISONMENT
3) in cases where the imposable penalty exceeds six (6) years, diversion measures may be resorted
to only by the court

- the diversion proceedings shall be completed within FORTY-FIVE (45) DAYS

CONTRACT OF DIVERSION
- shall be prepared if the child:
1) is qualified for diversion; and
2) voluntarily admits the commission of the act and the parents or guardian of the child and
the child himself agrees to the diversion program
- it must be signed by the child’s parents or guardian and the authorities concerned

PROSECUTION
- a child in conflict with the law shall undergo PROSECUTION if:
1) he is not qualified for diversion
2) he is qualified for diversion but he or his parents or guardian does not agree to diversion
3) diversion is not appropriate for the child in conflict with the law, based on the social
worker’s recommendations

CONDUCT OF PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

 - there shall be a specially-trained prosecutor to conduct inquest, preliminary investigation and
prosecution of cases involving children in conflict with the law
- the information against the child shall be filed before the Family Court within FORTY-FIVE
DAYS from the start of the preliminary investigation

COURT PROCEEDINGS
- during trial, the court shall order:
1) the release of the child on recognizance to his or her parents and other suitable persons
2) the release of the child on bail
3) if the child is to be detained, the transfer of the child to a youth detention home
- detention of the child shall be ordered only as a last resort

AUTOMATIC SUSPENSION OF SENTENCE

- if the child in conflict with the law is found guilty of the offense charged, the court shall place
the child under suspended sentence, without need of application
- the automatic suspension of sentence may be extended until the child reaches the maximum
age of TWENTY-ONE (21) YEARS OLD
- the court shall order the detention of the child in a youth rehabilitation center where he
shall undergo the appropriate disposition measures

DISCHARGE OF THE CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW

- upon the recommendation of the social worker who has custody of the child, the court shall
DISMISS THE CASE AGAINST THE CHILD if the court finds that the disposition
measures have been fulfilled

RETURN OF THE CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW TO COURT

- if the court finds that the objective of the disposition measures imposed upon the child have
not been fulfilled, or if the child has willfully failed to comply with the conditions of his
or her rehabilitation program, the child shall be returned to court for the EXECUTION
OF JUDGMENT

PROBATION
- a child in conflict with the law whose sentence was executed by the court upon reaching the
maximum age of TWENTY-ONE (21) shall be entitled to the benefits of probation under
PD 968, the Probation Law of 1976

OFFENSES NOT APPLICABLE TO CHILDREN

- persons below eighteen (18) years old shall be exempt from prosecution for the following
crimes:
1) vagrancy and prostitution under the Revised Penal Code
2) mendicancy under PD No 1563
3) sniffing of rugby under PD 1619

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF RA 9775

REPUBLIC ACT 9775 – the ANTI-CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ACT OF 2009

- approved on
- the law that amended the provisions of RA 7610 on obscene publications and indecent shows
- it aims to protect every child from all forms of exploitation and abuse through the use of a child
in pornographic performances and materials and the inducement or coercion of a child to engage
or to be involved in pornography

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
- refers to any representation, whether visual, audio or written combination thereof, by electronic,
mechanical, digital, optical, magnetic or any other means, of child engaged or involved in real or
simulated explicit sexual activities

SYNDICATED CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

- committed if carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with
one another

EARLY STAGES OF DELINQUENCY PREVENTION

1. Home-Based Programs
Programs which involves the provision of support for families. A supportive & loving home
environment, parents care for their children’s health and general well-being.

1. Parenting Skills Program

Main focus is on parent training programs with the objective of improving parenting skills and to
improve the parent-child bond.

2. Day care Programs

Programs that designed to working parents. This program affords children a number of benefits
which includes social interaction and stimulation of cognitive, sensory and motor control skills.

3. Pre-School Programs
Geared more toward preparing children for school. Usually children ages 3-5 which considers as
the formative years of brain development.

STRATEGIES OF DELINQUENCY PREVENTION

1. General Deterrence
Concept holds that the choice to commit a delinquent act is structured by the threat and
punishment.
 - Kids believe that their illegal behavior will result in apprehension and severe punishment thus
most will be deterred to commit crimes.

1. Specific Deterrence
Holds that if offenders are punished severely, the experience will convince them not to repeat
their illegal acts.

1. Situational Deterrence
Rather than deterring or punishing individuals in order to reduce delinquency rates, situation
prevention strategies aim to reduce the opportunities for people to commit particular crimes.

Effective Delinquency Prevention

1. Educational Model
programs that assists families and children by providing them information and let them be aware
on the effects and consequences of drugs, gangs, sex and weapons.

1. Community Involvement
Involvement in community groups provides youth with an opportunity to interact in a safe social
environment. Ex. girl scout, boy scout, church youth group, etc.

2. Parent-Child interaction
program that places parents and children in interactive situation. It has been shown to reduce
hyperactivity, attention deficit, aggression and anxious behavior in children.

3. Bullying Prevention
Individual bullies and victims receive independent counseling in order to discourage future
commission of an offense.

4. Intervention Assistance
a youth entering the juvenile justice system has the opportunity to receive intervention assistance
from the government.

- a youth may receive drug rehabilitation assistance, counseling and educational opportunities.

5. Youth Institution
 Program which gears toward restoring delinquent youth, designed to assist youthful offenders by
providing them with the help they need to change their behavior.

6. Ending repeat offenses

out of the facility, youths face the challenge of readjusting to “free life”. They must create a
pattern of life separate from criminal activity.

7. Functional Family therapy

Family therapist works with the family and helps individual members see how they can positively
motivate change in their home