Crime is committed for several reasons and can be different for each situation and each offender. Adolescents are in a phase of life that is very much influenced by others as they search for their identity. While continuing to learn about societal norms and rules, adolescents are somewhat capable of reasoning as an adult, able to make decisions logically and recognize consequences. However, it is seen that youth offenders often have a very egocentric and sensation-seeking motive for committing a crime (Currie & Covell, 998). According to Currie and Covell (998), sensation-seeking behaviors exhibit a need for new and exciting or complex situations, like an adrenaline rush, which gives adolescents a willingness to take risks in order to experience a new sensation. This is more relevant with violent crimes than a property crime that is of lower risk of being caught or charged. Currie and Covell (998) evaluate cognitive egocentrism in adolescence in two manners, personal fables, and imaginary audiences. A personal fable is when the adolescent has an inclination to underestimate their personal vulnerability. This could appear as an adolescent feeling unstoppable or that they will never be the one to get caught committing an act of deviant nature. While it is good for children to develop self-confidence, this sense of Ill never get caught does not serve well when dealing with violent crime. Concerning awareness, the imaginary audience concept is described as when adolescents overestimate the extent to which others are attending to or are aware of him/herself (Currie & Covell, 998). By doing this, an adolescent may feel a need to impress their peers, gaining a false sense of confidence which may dare them to commit a crime or act in a deviant or more violent way. Together, the two phenomena form cognitive egocentrism which predisposes the individual to a faulty decision-making process and criminal behaviors that push the limits and turn to violent crime (Currie & Covell, 998).
Adolescents need to be well-socialized to understand the consequences that accompany behaviors, which is most often done by parents or guardians. These authority figures and the environment in which a child is raised have a great impact on the future b
ehavior of the child and in this case criminality. If parents place restrictions on their children, it limits the egocentrism and sensation-seeking tendencies that they may develop when left to care for themselves (Currie & Covell, 998). Evidence shows that the family history of a young offender, especially a young and violent offender, often exhibits inadequacy and prior criminal history, leaving them to fight their way out of a cycle (Currie & Covell, 998). If this family history shows signs of abuse or neglect of the child, the likelihood of committing a later crime increases. Maltreatment in itself is a significant predictor of youth criminality, though physical neglect has the most significant effect on both each type of delinquency and total delinquency (Evans & Burton, 203). The study by Evans and Burton (203) shows that physical abuse is not a strong predictor of future violent crime while taking into account physical neglect, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Interestingly that abuse did not lead to more violent behavior than any of the other categories. Evans and Burton (203) refer to the betrayal trauma theory to explain that a victim may be conflicted if dependent on their caretaker who doubles as the abuser. This connects the low violence rate of crime of individuals victim to physical abuse. In fact, only physical neglect proved to be a significant predictor of the frequency of violent crime, and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth and Families 200 report, neglect was shown as the most prevalent form of maltreatment (Evans & Burton, 203). The more often maltreatment experienced by a child correlates to more frequent delinquent offenses seen in the behavior of the child. An explanation for this increase in violent crime among youth is the Relative Deprivation Theory. This theory suggests that when denied basic needs, people tend to devise their means of living, often turning to crime (Ordu & Nnam, 207). This speaks to both nonviolent and violent crimes. For example, theft of food is rather nonviolent, yet robbery is violent and could also be for food or necessities, depending on the situation it could be taken either way.