Why_Children_in_Foster_Care_Continue_to_Engage_in_Delinquent_Behavior

CRIM 5010 – Theories of Crime Position Paper Why children in foster care continue to engage in delinquent behavior' A Theoretical Approach I. Introduction Incidence and prevalence of the problem Children entering foster care are facing a world of the unknown. Their life is now in the hands of a total stranger and they have no idea of what will become of them. National statistics obtained from the Administration of Children and Families show there were an estimated 510,000 children in foster care on September 30, 2006 and 303,000 of these children entered foster care during the 2006 fiscal year (2008). This figure indicates nationally an alarming number of children are entering foster care instead of remaining with their family and friends. These children are separated from their family members and friends for a variety of reasons. One of the more common reasons for separation is maltreatment. Whether the maltreatment is child abuse, sexual abuse, or simply neglect, the Department of Social Services caseworkers are tasked with ensuring these children are living in a safe and healthy home environment. Unfortunately, this means children may be removed from their homes to ensure their wellbeing. Many of these foster children will enter the criminal justice system as a result of referrals by social service agencies. Statistics retrieved from the National Center for Juvenile Justice (2007) shows that in 2004, 57% of the juvenile delinquency cases involved youths age 15 and under. Although many of these cases were referred to juvenile court by law enforcement agencies, some cases also involved social service agencies. Depending on the nature of delinquency, cases involving children in foster homes are more likely to be referred to law enforcement authorities to have criminal charges brought against the juvenile. These cases are more likely to be the result of damage to personal property, stealing, or assault on the foster parent or other children in the foster home. Children tend to act out their thoughts in a visual and physical manner that attracts attention to them. Unfortunately, this behavior results in them becoming involved in the criminal justice system and being labeled as delinquent. Importance of addressing the problem With the removal of maltreated children from their homes it would be assumed that they are in a better environment and should be able to grow and develop normally. One important issue involved in removing children from their homes and placing them in foster care is their ability to adapt to the change in their daily lifestyle. They are comfortable in their home environment and this is the norm for them. When they are removed from their home it strips them of their sense of security. Some of these children will suffer from mental illness and others will have behavior problems. Their ability to adjust will not be easy. When social workers become involved with these children they conduct a needs assessment and attempt to place these children in foster homes that are best suited for those needs. However, there is no guarantee that a particular type of foster home will be able to handle the specific needs of a particular child. A child with behavior problems might be placed in a therapeutic foster home where the foster parents have undergone intensive training in handling children with behavior problems. Many of these children have been identified as delinquents. They enter foster care as a result of their delinquent behavior and continue to exhibit the behaviors while in foster care. Failing to identify, properly diagnose, or provide treatment for foster children’s social and psychological problems can result in their behavior being uncontrollable in the future. Foster children continue to engage in delinquency because their problems were not addressed before being placed in foster care. Addressing these issues early in the process will increase the chances of foster children adapting more abruptly to the change in their life. Groups impacted by the problem most and societal ramifications Children impacted by the problem most are those in foster care who experience multiple placements. For them it is hard to understand why they have been removed from their primary home in the first place. Now they are being placed in several different foster homes and are unsure of their future stability. Abuse and neglect situations have been a normal part of the child’s everyday life. They have been allowed to behave according to their own standards. Now there is someone involved in their life who wants to change that behavior. When these children undergo multiple foster home placements they are not able to form a strong attachment to their foster parents. This failure to form an attachment to foster parents leads to continued delinquent behavior which result in their being removed and possibly placed in another foster home or group home. At some point in their life, these children will be returned to their families or released into the community as a result of reaching adulthood with the same issues that resulted in them being placed in foster care. Since the delinquent behavior was not addressed during the foster care placement, there are increased odds of foster children being deviant as adults. What would happen if nothing is done Choosing to remove children from their home and placing them with total strangers leaves them fearful. In order to protect them selves from what is happening in their life children will most likely result to deviant behavior. This deviant behavior is an outlet for their frustrations with the instability they are experiencing in their life. Unless these children receive the proper treatment such as, therapy and form an attachment to their foster parents while in foster care these children will leave foster care with the same problems they had when they first entered the foster care system. When released from foster care their problems will continue to grow. As a result of them failing to receive the attention and care they need they will result to a life of crime. This will lead to an increase in the crime rate in the community. II. Literature Review Overview of foster care delinquency Being able to share a close bond with parents is important in a child’s life. When a child is placed in multiple foster homes they have to adjust to new foster parents. There is a period where the child and foster parent are getting to know one another. Many of these children enter the criminal justice system as a result of delinquent behavior they have exhibited in their foster home. Foster parents and social workers are less likely to have a high tolerance for delinquent behavior. The delinquent behavior may be in the form of truancy, running away, being disobedient, stealing, lying, and physical assault. As stated earlier, there were 530,000 children in foster care on September 30, 2006. In 2004, statistics show 57% of juvenile delinquency cases in the criminal justice were for youths under the age of 15. The majority of these referrals were received from law enforcement agencies. It is unknown at this time how many of these cases actually involved youths in foster care. Theoretical Framework Children in foster care are assumed to be in a better situation than they were before being placed in a foster home. They enter foster care with behavior problems that have developed over the years. These problems result from them being in an environment that is conducive to delinquent behavior. Many of them will come from homes where there was substance abuse, child abuse, neglect, and a number of other issues. Many will have delinquent peers and will not be involved in positive extracurricular activities such as basketball, football, or soccer. Some will not be involved in church or other social organizations. Making good grades in school will not be a priority for them. This researcher believes that a strong attachment to foster parents, involvement in conventional activities, school, therapy, and have a commitment to social norms are all associated with a decrease in delinquent behavior in foster care. When either one of these four elements are missing there is a strong possibility that foster children will continue to engage in delinquent behavior while in foster care. Furthermore, when foster children either, experience multiple placements, have no involvement in conventional activities, fail to receive therapy to help them adjust to changes, and are not committed to social norms they will continue to engage in delinquent behavior. Social bond theory comes from the General Theory of Crime and was later developed into the social control theory. The theory indicates that delinquency occurs when individuals failure to form strong social bonds, or individuals have “weak or broken bonds” with others. There is a lack of social attachments among juveniles. The juvenile’s social network, which consist of family, friends, and other members have an influence on the juvenile’s behavior. This influence can either be positive or negative depending on the situation, association of the people involved, or social organizations involved. The social bond theory consists of four elements: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief or value system (Hirschi, 2002). Although each of these elements plays a separate role in the bond, they also intertwine and can have an impact on delinquency. Attachment is the value or norms that an individual has placed on society. According to Hirschi (2002), “to violate a norm is, therefore, to act contrary to the wishes and expectations of other people.” When individuals place a high value on conforming to the norms of society, they will conform to the expected behavior. Those individuals who fail to conform to socially accepted norms are said to have weak bonds. This is based on how well the individual is attached to other individuals in society and if the individual can internalize the desire for conformance. Whether or not a person chooses to internalize norms depends on the relationship that person has with others. Attachment occurs through the process of adaptation. Bowlby (1960) refers to this as “becoming adapted.” He refers to how a structure can be changed so that it will have the same outcome even though it is in a different environment. Although children placed in foster care have a change in their environment, they have not undergone a change in their behavior. Children form an attachment to their parents at and early age (Bowlby, Hirschi). They develop a feeling of security whenever their needs are met. This attachment follows them throughout their early childhood until they enter grade school. When children are in foster care more than likely they have not formed this same bond with their foster parents and lack the sense of respect or commitment they would have for their biological parents. Commitment is based on the wants and desires of the individual. It is assumed that society is structured in such a way that people want to conform to socially accepted norms. If the individual deviates from the norm, the individual risk losing everything that he or she has achieved. It is the fear of losing those things that are valuable to the individual such as respect, personal property, and freedom that keeps individuals committed. Involvement in conventional activities and social organizations keeps individuals preoccupied so there is no time for the individual to think about committing deviant acts. Juveniles with idle time on their hands will find other things to keep them occupied. Belief refers to how much juveniles believe in the “common value system (Hirschi, 2002).” When they share the same values as others in society, they are more likely to conform to the rules. Although each element plays a separate role they are connected in some way. There are three identifiable links in the social bond theory: attachment and commitment, commitment and involvement, and attachment and belief. The link between attachment and commitment occurs when an individual shares the same desires as others to achieve certain things in life through normal means. They are committed to doing what is right and abiding by the law. When individuals are committed to the socially accepted norms and involved in conventional activities they are less likely to get involved in deviant behavior. It is unlikely that there will be an opportunity for the individual to get involved in delinquent behavior. Attachment and belief assumes the individual shares a strong attachment with others and they believe in the same rules. This is based on the premise that the individual has respect for those with whom he has a strong attachment. Operant conditioning theory emphasizes that an individual’s behavior operates upon the environment to generate consequences. Behaviors are learned through the consequences that result from an action. When behavior is operantly conditioned it has been reinforced. Operant conditioning has five basic processes: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction, and cost. Positive reinforcement strengthens behavior. When a stimuli is added to a response the frequency of the response is increased. Negative reinforcement also strengthens behavior. However, when a negative stimuli is added, and the positive stimuli is removed, the subject will try to escape or avoid the negative stimuli. This is known as “response cost”. The negative stimuli is associated with punishment and it cost something unpleasant to occur. Punishment weakens the frequency of response. Extinction occurs when there is nothing being presented to strengthen the response. Extinction weakens the frequency of the response. B. F. Skinner (1953) indicates there are three conditions that increase behavior from a reinforcer: (1) it must follow the response, (2) it must follow immediately, and (3) it must be contingent on the response. Additionally, he indicates that “consequences of behavior may feedback into the organism. When they do so, they may change the probability that the behavior which produced them will occur again.” This is called, “discriminant” behavior by Skinner because the subject is able to discriminate rewards from punishment. In other words, depending on the consequences of an individual’s behavior, the individual may or may not repeat the behavior. This is the same as reward or punishment for exhibiting a certain behavior. If there is a positive reward the behavior will be repeated. Likewise, if the response elicits pain or punishment there is a high probability the individual will not repeat the behavior. Children learn behavior through stages, from the time of birth throughout adolescents. When babies are born their behavior is uncontrollable unless their needs are met (Skinner, Blau). They learn to associate the consequences of their crying with stimuli. If they cry because they are hungry and the mother provides a bottle of milk, the baby will cry every time he or she is hungry. According to Skinner this is a conditioned response that is being operantly reinforced. As the child continues to grow the response is based on the parent’s actions until the child reaches the age of 5 or 6. It is around this age that the child enters school and starts associating with teachers, peers, and other people. The child starts to form his own personality and will continue with some of the learned behavior from the parents but, also start to develop or imitate other observed behaviors. This process or “discriminant” behavior continues throughout life. Integrated theory combines multiple theories to reduce the number of theories being used to explain the same occurrence. Both, social bond theory and operant conditioning theory share some similar information about behavior. III. Policy Implications References Administration for Children and Families (2008). The AFCARS Report: Preliminary Fiscal Year 2006 Estimates as of January 2008. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved on November 25, 2008 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report14.htm. Blau, A. (1959). “Childhood Behavior Disorders and Delinquency.” The Problem of Delinquency. Boston: Houghlin Mifflin. Bowlby, J. (1960). Attachment and Loss. New York: Basic Books, Inc.. Finnegan, T., Livsey, S., Puzzanchera, C., Sladky, A., Snyder, H., Stahl, A., Tierney, N. (2007). Juvenile Court Statistics 2003-2004. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. Hirschi, T (2002). Causes of Delinquency. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Skinner, B. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. New York: The Macmillan Company