Juvenile Delinquency—Social Bonds and Family Dynamics

Dear Colleagues,

Juvenile delinquency is a persistent social problem in the United States and abroad.  In 2020, there were an estimated 424,300 arrests involving juveniles with 1 in 14 juveniles accounting for violent crimes arrests just in the United States alone. As such, juvenile delinquency has sustained public, political, and academic interest over several decades. The consequences of juvenile delinquency manifest into social victimization and its impacts are felt not only by adolescents but by the entirety of society. Extant empirical research has advanced our understanding of the causes, context, and responses to juvenile delinquency, however, there remain significant gaps in the literature. Family dynamics and social bonds have been identified as some of the most crucial factors in inculcating norms and values that constitute the basic social environment in which juvenile  behavior is manifested, learned, encouraged, or suppressed. Current research has demonstrated that social bonds and family dynamics affect manifestation of juvenile delinquency from a developmental perspective with a focus on cognitive, neurological and psychosocial/socio-emotional development. 

This special issue of the Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760) focuses on the current state of knowledge and advances in research on Juvenile Delinquency—Social Bonds and Family Dynamics. New empirical research papers, reviews, and case reports are welcome to be submitted to this issue. Other manuscript types accepted include methodological papers, qualitative research with juveniles, families, key stakeholders, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries.

We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines, including, but not limited to, criminology and criminal justice, medicine, public health, sociology, social work, epidemiology, and psychology. Below are some examples of topics that could be addressed in this Special Issue:

1. Developmental stages of juvenile delinquency
2. Social bonds as risk and protective factors of juvenile delinquency
3. Intergenerational transmission of juvenile delinquency
4. Consequences of juvenile delinquency for adolescents and society 
5. Costs (physical, emotional, and financial) of juvenile delinquency to the society as a whole.
6. Intervention and treatment programs.
7. Novel cognitive, neurological and psychosocial/socio-emotional approaches to address juvenile delinquency.
8. The intersection of race, ethnicity, immigration and juvenile delinquency.

Prof. Dr. Suman Kakar
Guest Editor

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