Patterns and Causes of Juvenile Delinquency as Expressed by Secondary School Students in Ibarapa Local Government Area, Oyo State

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Content                                                                                         Page

Title page                                                                                            i

Certification                                                                                        ii

Dedication                                                                                          iii

Acknowledgements                                                                             iv

Table of Contents                                                                                 v

List of Tables                                                                                      vii

Abstract                                                                                              viii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study                                                                      1

Statement of the Problem                                                                      8

Research Questions                                                                             10

Research Hypotheses                                                                          11

Purpose of the Study                                                                           12

Significance of the Study                                                                    12

Operational Definition of Terms                                                           14

Scope of the Study                                                                              15

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

Concept of Adolescence                                                                      17

Concept of Juvenile Delinquency                                               30

Theories of Juvenile Delinquency                                                        36

Age and Juvenile Delinquency                                                             40

Patterns of Juvenile Delinquency among Students                                 43

Causes of Juvenile delinquency among Students                                   45

Summary of Review of the Related Literature                                       54

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

Preamble                                                                                             57

Research Design                                                                                  57

Population, Sample and Sampling Procedure                                           58

Instrumentation                                                                                   59

Procedure for Data Collection                                                                 61

Procedure for Scoring the Instrument                                                    62

Method of Data Analysis                                                                       62

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS

Preamble                                                                                             63

Demographic Data                                                                                63

Hypotheses Testing                                                                              66

Summary of Findings                                                                            70

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Preamble                                                                                             72

Discussion of Findings                                                                         72

Conclusion                                                                                          77

Recommendations                                                                               78

Suggestions for Further Studies                                                             79

References                                                                                          80

Appendix                                                                                            90

 

 

 

LIST OF TABLES

Title                                                                                              Page

1.     Demographic characteristics of respondents                                     63

 

2.     Mean and rank order of patterns of juvenile delinquency

among students                                                                             64

 

3.     Mean and rank order of causes of juvenile delinquency                     65

 

4.     Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression

on patterns of juvenile delinquency based on gender                         66

 

5.     Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression

on causes of juvenile delinquency based on gender                           67

 

6.     ANOVA result comparing respondents’ expression on patterns

of juvenile delinquency based on age                                               67

 

7.     ANOVA result comparing respondents’ expression on causes of

juvenile delinquency based on age                                                   68

 

8.     Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression

on patterns of juvenile delinquency based on residential area             68

 

9.     Mean, SD and t-test results comparing respondents’ expression

on causes of juvenile delinquency based on residential area               7

 

ABSTRACT

The challenges of adolescents are enormous simply because of the diverse growth and development that characterized this stage, this lead many adolescents into delinquent behaviours. This study thus investigated the patterns and causes of delinquent behaviours as expressed by secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area, Oyo State. The study also examined the influence of variables such as gender, age and residential area on respondents’ expressions. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The using proportional, simple and stratified random sampling techniques were used to draw a sample of 200 secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area, Oyo State. A self-designed instrument entitled “Patterns and Causes of Juvenile Delinquency Questionnaire (PCJDQ)” was used to amass data for the study. The instrument has reliability co-efficient of 0.72 through use of test re-test reliability method. The hypotheses were analyzed with t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics at 0.05 level of significance.

The findings of this study revealed that the major patterns of juvenile delinquency among secondary schools in Ibarapa Local Government Area, are school violence, examination malpractice, bullying of other students, sexual immorality, involvement in graffiti behaviours and using abusive languages in school and public places. The findings also revealed that juvenile delinquency is caused by negative influence of mass media, unmet needs of adolescents, broken home, single parenting and peer pressure. The hypotheses tested revealed no significant difference in the patterns and causes of juvenile delinquency as expressed by secondary school students in Ibarapa Local Government Area on the bases of gender and age, while significant difference was found based on residential area. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that parents and the society should provide for the needs of adolescents, the school authorities should monitor students’ activities and encourage them on the needs to associate with good peers, teachers should be role models for the students by demonstrating good behaviour to the students, government should regulate the activities of the media making appropriate laws to prevent adolescents’ exposure to delinquent acts, the school counsellors should organise seminars, workshops and symposia on regular basis in order to sensitise adolescents against delinquent behaviours and equip them with necessary social skills.