All You Need to Know About Family Patterns

In hypothesizing about the relationship between one's family and one's propensity toward delinquency, researchers have devoted much attention to the type of home setup involved as a contributing factor. The results are fairly illuminating. Significant increases in delinquency have been observed in families of individuals who have committed at least one juvenile offense where parental supervision is lacking, or where marital strife and domestic abuse are present.

Another key predictor of juvenile offenses and delinquency may not come as a surprise. It has been well documented that children are more likely to be charged with a juvenile offense if one or more parents has a criminal record. Worst of all, the cycle of juvenile offenses is often perpetuated by these offending minors once they reach adulthood and have families of their own.

Noting how juvenile offenders have statistically been linked to poor employment records, low income and fractured households, the same conditions that enabled their lives of crime may pave the road to delinquency for their own children. Oftentimes, it takes a strong network of support and outside professional help for families to finally break this cycle.