A Profile of Delinquents in an Approved School

Adolescence is a difficult period of development. During their transition from childhood to adulthood, adolescents have to cope with various stressors. Deviant behaviour could be the result of ineffective coping with these stressors. However, not all adolescents from low socio-economic status and living under criminogenic conditions resort to deviant behaviour. Resilience among these adolescents is examined to help formulate preventive measures against delinquency. A sample consisting of 63 students in an Approved School is examined in terms of types of offences committed, their motive for doing so and the coping behaviours frequently employed by them in order to understand delinquency. Their deviant behaviour are classified under crimes against properties, crimes against persons, status offences, drug and liquor law violations and offences against the public order. Among the delinquent subjects, 63.6 percent are referred for property crimes while 23.7 percent are for drug charges. Only nine percent are for violent crimes and 3.6 percent for status offences. Rank order of their self-reported offences shows that smoking is the most frequent offence while only one of them reported attempted murder. Motivation for delinquency includes lack of finances and wanting to have fun. The coping behaviours frequently employed by delinquent subjects are those described as avoidance-focused such as ‘joke and try to be funny’, ‘sleep a lot’, ‘tell myself that the problem is not important’ and ‘do strenuous physical activity’. However, talking to parents about their problems is the least common among them.