‘Discuss How Far Sociologists Would Agree That Teenage...

‘Discuss how far sociologists would agree that teenage criminal and deviant behaviour results from parents failing to socialise their children correctly’ In this essay I will be discussing how far sociologists would agree that teenage criminal and deviant behaviour results from parents failing to socialise their children correctly. Teenage criminal and deviant behaviour is when teenagers (13-19 yr olds) participate in activities which breach the law and are involved in activities which are seen as abnormal, for example underage drinking is illegal. Firstly functionalists would say family is to blame for teenage criminal and deviant behaviour because more youths from working class, single parent households are likely to participate in†¦show more content†¦Due to the media portraying a negative image of the teenage black community, the black youths may feel they have to conform to what the media says and become criminals- this is known as self- fulfilling prophecy. Adding to this the media showcases their stereotypical view of Asians being criminals which could explain why 9% of the criminals in prison are Asians. Ironically white, middle class men are likely to commit fraud which is known as white- collar crime yet the media never mentions these crimes even though it affects society more than petty teenage crimes as a lot of wealth could be stolen by bankers. This is because the middle/upper class are the bourgeoisie and have power over the media but teenagers don’t have any control over the media. Finally both Marxists and the label theory would state that teachers label students, especially ethnic minority, working class, males as failures due to their stereotypical view of students who succeed in the education system as being middle class, females. This could explain why females tend to achieve more than males in every stage of the education system. This means that if teachers continue to label some students as failures and others as gifted and talented there will be a continuity between the amount of pupils who do not attain anything in school and the amount of pupils who succeed in school. To conclude, most sociologists would agree that working class males are most likely to commit