A Qualitative Case Study: The Lived Educational Experiences of Former Juvenile Delinquents

The impact of juvenile delinquency on society is an issue of great concern. The impact of delinquent behaviors goes beyond the victim to include the offender, the offender's family and society as a whole. A review of the existing literature reveals multiple studies, which examine delinquency from a causal perspective. Despite the efforts of researchers a definitive causal link is not readily determined. Ethical concerns centering around a quantitative study on delinquency precludes the discovery of such a causal link. Utilizing a qualitative study approach we may not be able to identify causal relationships; however, this approach provides clear insight into the lived experiences of the individuals being studied and in turn offers us the possibility of understanding what these experiences were and how they possibly impacted the individual. It is through this understanding of the lived experiences that we gain insight. This insight will, hopefully, facilitate the prediction of and the mediation of anti-social juvenile behavior. Keywords: Juvenile Delinquency, Adjudication, Lived Experiences, Education, and Qualitative Case StudyMerrian, (1998) described a form of qualitative research that is focused on the discovery and understanding of a single phenomenon. Merrian labeled this design as a "generic qualitative method" (p. 11). The design of the current generic qualitative case focused on the development of a rich description that presents the collective lived educational experiences of adults, who as juveniles, were adjudicated delinquent and put into placement. Starting with a theoretical perspective that is centered in educational psychology it can be theorized that the lived educational experiences of juveniles may have significant impact on whether the individual succeeds or fails in the academic setting. In the late seventies Albert Bandura (1977b), proposed learning occurs through observational experiences. Assuming Bandura was correct; one would conclude that anti-social or delinquent behavior is acquired through the observation of other individuals engaged in these behaviors.Using a generic qualitative approach it was possible to examine the experiences of adults who, as former adjudicated delinquents, in terms of their lived educational experiences. In addition the experiences of these individuals in an educational setting in terms of social relationships between the juvenile and the various social groups they were exposed to in their day-to-day lives. Social learning theory, (Bandura, 1977b), suggests this study should reveal the existence of negative peer relationships along with negative peers, and negative student-teacher relationships. It is these experiences that Bandura would suggest ultimately led to learned delinquent behavior.Review of Research Literature and Methodological LiteratureHistorical BackgroundThe study of the theoretical root causes of juvenile delinquency has been an ongoing research topic for decades. Gault (1914) studied the connection between mentally defective individuals and their adolescent delinquent behavior. Gault's research suggested delinquency was the result of individuals with low IQ's or mental acuity. Powers and Witmer (1951) took a close look at Cabot's 1935 work with the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Cabot was interested in the impact of an early intervention approach on the development of juvenile delinquent behaviors as the child matured. It was theorized academic tutoring combined with counseling while the individual was still young and pre-delinquent would result in a lower occurrence of anti-social behaviors later on.Early Childhood Experiences and Juvenile DelinquencyFamily structure may lay play a significant role in the development of juvenile delinquency. One aspect of family structure, namely the lack of active communication between parents and children, may be a "significant causal factor" (Yablonski, 2000, p. 301). …