Reflection exercises are
designed to enhance your critical thinking and understanding of specific
issues, encouraging you to apply your knowledge and organize supporting
evidence to form coherent arguments.
For Reflection Paper #1, you
will need to write an essay responding to one of the provided prompts. Your
essay should be 2-3 pages in length, double-spaced, with standard margins and
font size. Please include a list of references used and cite using APA format
within the text.
Review “Theories of Delinquency”
Vignette #2 on page 18 of the textbook.
See below the copied and pasted section needed.
Identify in the vignette what the main
problems are in this scenario, how they contribute to juvenile delinquency, and
which theoretical perspectives help explain this scenario best (normative,
social constructionist, or critical — it may be more than one!). You should
dedicate at least one paragraph to the theoretical conception. Lastly, conclude
with how viewing this through the theoretical lens you chose was useful or
important.
Vignette
2: Theories of Delinquency—Normative, Social Constructionist, and Critical
Jessica and Alicia are 13-year-old twins starting the 8th
grade at Parkside Elementary. They live with their mother, Andrea, in a house
several blocks from the school. They moved into the house about a year ago, and
Andrea works extra shifts and overtime whenever she gets the chance so that
they can make the house payments. Prior to moving into the house, they had
lived across town in a school district that was underfunded and dangerous. The
street they lived on had experienced repeated violence. Even though Andrea must
work extra shifts, she is less worried about her kids in this neighborhood than
the one they were in previously.
But because of the increased house payment, Jessica and
Alicia often come home to an empty house. Recently, they have met a young girl,
Laurie. Laurie shoplifts candy from the convenience store near their house,
sticks sugar in the gas tanks of cars she doesn’t like (she particularly does
not like Acuras because her mother drives one), and has been known to torture
small animals.
Recently, Jessica and Alicia were caught stealing
Butterfingers from the convenience store (Laurie had left the store about 5
minutes earlier and was not caught taking anything). The police were called,
and they called Andrea. She came and picked the girls up and took them home.
The next afternoon, Jessica, Alicia, and Laurie went back to the store. They
were told that they were not allowed back in because they had been caught
stealing the day before. Jessica and Alicia were very embarrassed, and Laurie
was very mad about being denied entry. Laurie suggested they put sugar in the
convenience store clerk’s gas tank. Neither Jessica nor Alicia wanted to and
had started to walk away, but Laurie pulled sugar out of her backpack and was
prying open the gas tank when the same police officer pulled up to the back of
the convenience store. She stopped Laurie and detained all three girls for
attempted vandalizing.
