SOC 309 Juvenile Delinquency

3 hours 

This course focuses on the illegal conduct of youth whose cases are handled by the juvenile justice system. It examines the ways that adults have reacted to transgressive behavior by youth over the centuries, and how treatment approaches and prevention efforts by social welfare and social control agencies have changed. The course explores how the teenage offenders' race, class, and gender might influence the social and legal response to their delinquent activities. This course also evaluates the many sociological, psychological and even biological theories that attempt to identify the root causes of gang fighting, drug-taking, stealing, vandalism (graffiti), status offenses (such as truancy), and other varieties of adolescent misbehavior.