Chapter 1 - Introduction—The Definition and Extent of Delinquency

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the juvenile justice system. The juvenile court and the juvenile justice system are relatively recent inventions. Youthful offenders who used to be seen as simply young “criminals” have been transformed into “delinquents.” Delinquent represents a variety of different behaviors and means different things at dif­ferent places and points in time. The chapter deals with diversity in definitions of delinquency to examine the workings of the juvenile justice system adequately. The study of delinquency depends heavily on the definition of delinquency and the measurement of the problem. Delinquency is limited to those acts that are violations of the criminal code, signify those actions that are illegal only for juveniles, represent some combination of both criminal and status offenses, or be molded to fit the criminological question of each researcher. The major methods of measuring delinquency—official and self-report—rely on somewhat different conceptions of what constitutes delinquency. There is no clear sign of arriving at a consen­sus on the issues related to definitions and measures of delinquency. The reason behind the great discrepancies in definitions and meas­ures can be found in the history of juvenile justice.