- Motivation 1:
The physical and social characteristics of a neighborhood affect the lives of its members in remarkable ways. The neighborhood conditions partly shape the cognition, education, social status, and emotional wellbeing of an individual, and these effects are more pronounced among the minors (Erdmann, 2020). The primary motivation for studying this topic is to explain the association between neighborhood conditions and juvenile victimization and delinquency.
Motivation 2:
Different neighborhoods have different conditions that influence the physical and emotional wellbeing of people who live in them. Some are characterized by high levels of insecurity, violence, and drug and substance abuse. In contrast, others are characterized by heightened security levels, a sense of law and order, and reduced crime rates. Thus, this study’s second motivation is to explain specific neighborhood conditions that can predict juvenile delinquency and victimization.
Motivation 3:
The socio-economic conditions of a neighborhood influence crime rates and delinquency in considerable ways. It is expected that impoverished neighborhoods record varying juvenile criminal activity levels than the more prosperous communities (Newbury et al., 2018). The third motivation for this topic is to explore and compare juvenile delinquency between the impoverished and affluent neighborhoods. Findings will help uncover the effects of the risk of victimization in the poor communities and bring to the surface implications for crime prevention measures in these neighborhoods.
Motivation 4:
Currently, little is known about the potential effects of macro-level social structures like crime, social fragmentation, and urbanicity on the emergence of juvenile experiences and predisposition to crime. Exposure to these environmental conditions can potentially predict crime and influence the prevalence of behavioral risk factors like drug abuse and psychotic disorders. A burgeoning literature suggests that adverse neighborhood conditions affect early childhood development negatively and could cause low levels of social cohesion and low-income family relations (Newbury et al., 2018). Compared to rural settings, cities, and mostly the poor urban neighborhoods, are more threatening to children’s survival. In this regard, the fourth motivation for choosing this topic is to explain the association between low urban areas and juvenile victimization.
Motivation 5:
Understanding how neighborhood characteristics shape children’s health, cognition, social, and emotional wellbeing is key to understanding juvenile victimization and delinquency. Some neighborhoods threaten children’s wellbeing and create conditions that encourage deviant behavior like drug and substance abuse, violence, and crime. The fifth motivation for choosing this topic is to explore social structures that influence juvenile delinquency and discover actionable insights and alternatives that can be used to create a safer environment for children.
- Research Questions:
i. Research question 1 (research motive)
Can the prevailing neighborhood conditions (measured using factors like crime rate, pollution, drugs and substance abuse, family patterns and relations, economic status, among others) be used to describe juvenile victimization and delinquency?
ii. Research question 2 (research motive):
What can specific neighborhood conditions be used to explain the prevalence of juvenile victimization and delinquency?
iii. Research question 3 (research motive):
How does juvenile victimization and delinquency compare and contrast between the poor and impoverished neighborhoods and the wealthier neighborhoods?