Personality Disposition Of Juvenile Delinquents

Juvenile Delinquency-‘An Alarming Crisis’ does not have a constant or definite meaning. Some say that delinquents are those who violate the law, habitually disobedient and truant. But delinquents shouldn’t be treated as criminals but as maturing persons who need utmost guidance, love and support while they find their way towards life. They shouldn’t be treated as criminals, but being a delinquent is not an excuse to manifest distress and confusion. It is very true that two major components of delinquency is the society and the family. But since each and every one of us has, what we call “logical” mind, we get to choose what is right and what is not. Exploring new stuffs is precisely what you call ‘part of growing up’. Delinquency is when you break a certain rule or law that is accepted by the society or the environment you are into. Criminal’s behavior is influenced by various personal traits. The current research focused to investigate the relationship between personality traits of juvenile delinquency among delinquents and non-delinquent juveniles taking Tripura as a model state. This study was mainly carried out at Agartala city, Tripura and its sub-urban areas covering 10 male juvenile delinquents and 10 male non-delinquent juveniles/adolescents (matched in terms of age and gender). The sample was collected from juvenile home following purposive sampling techniques. Background information schedule and multidimensional personality inventory (MPI) were administered to them. Findings revealed that the juvenile delinquents differed with their normal counterparts in regard to all the dimensions of personality. It is observed that juvenile delinquents were more extroverts, possesses high self-concept, more dependent in nature, short tempered, have poor adjustment capacity and are less anxious than those of their normal counterparts. Key words: Juvenile Delinquency, personality disposition, extrovert, self-concept