The relationship between types of child abuse and juvenile deliquency among adolescents: a case study of Luveve girls and Percy Ibboston

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency are some misconducts in behavior that are done by children below the legal age of majority. Child abuse it is the maltreatment of a child in any manner, it is dived into four being sexual, emotional, physical and neglect. Child abuse affects the cognitive development of the child and how he relates with the environment around him. The study focused on the relationship between types of abuse and juvenile delinquency among adolescents at Luveve girls and Percy Ibboston. The research was based upon the quantitative research design with respondents having been chosen using systematic random sampling from a target population of 92 respondents. The researcher focused on juveniles between the ages of 11-18 years that were housed at the two institutions. The researcher used closed ended questionnaires as an instrument of gathering data with the questions having been adopted from the Conduct disorder questionnaire and the ACE IQ questionnaire. The researcher employed Pearson correlation coefficient in the analysis of data, with the presentation having been done in the form of graphs and tables. Results from this research revealed that there is a positive correlation between types of abuse and juvenile delinquency. Moreover the research results revealed some negative correlation on neglect and sexual abuse. The after effects of abuse as articulated by this research among the abused adolescents it is juvenile delinquency. It was then recommended that there is need to look at the causes of juvenile delinquency and focus less on the effectiveness of the juvenile legal system in the country in order to reduce the escalating rates of juvenile crimes among adolescents.