The At-risk Youths in the United States

In the United states of America there are some factors that prone to affecting the youths, and this is because of there state in human development, which is provided by nature.The youths normally engage in varied activities at their youth stage in trying to understand the ideologies behind the various concepts of life in them satisfying their curiosity. Some of this actives are likely either to benefit them or certain to make their lives horrible. At the youth stage, the youths can be perceived to be persons whose rationality have not full developed in them identifying what is good of them because of less live experiences and most serious factor is their inability to resist to the peer influences which might be either positive or   negative.The youths in their adventure to satisfy curiosity they normally find themselves in the traps of teen pregnancies, substance abuse, delinquency and criminal activities. It can happen that it was not their wish to have   found themselves in thi s situation but its due to the anxiety in them in trying to venture and discover the real life which they have been hearing the elderly talking about.The traps in which they find themselves in , which can also be perceived as social evils can be solved if these youths find a good guide on what is expected of them, and more especially to make them occupied in constructive activities which are certain to mould their livelihood at the current state and in the future.Lack of proper guidance and influencing facilities is what sways them into such traps of life given that their rationality have not full developed, thus a need for them to be provided with the necessary information in them making informed choices.This paper is addressing   the four main traps in which the United States of America youth fall into, and they include substance abuse, teen pregnancies, delinquency, and   criminal activities. The paper treats these traps as being caused by certain acquired traits, and where t he traits acquired depends the kind of environment in which the youths resides, the ability of their parents to guide them, the kind of peers they spend time with, access to various social facilities and also at some level economic status of the families where this youths belong.Delinquency is a terminology which is used to explain the behavior of the children and the adolescents that is likely to be judged in the criminal law among the adults. The age for the crime to be grouped under delinquency normally vary from one state to other and   the age limit vary from 14 years to 21 years in some states, although the some states the the age group 16-20 years is considered as adults in some states.The age group of 16-21 is perceives to be the age group which the worst delinquency crimes, where theft is the most committed crime. Rape is common in the late adolescent age. The reasons that lead to the youths   into such crimes can be explained by the varied psychological, social and eco nomic factors. A number of researchers have been carried on about the factor where most of them have associated it to issues like the disorganized family situations and also the economic status of the neighbourhood.(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Juvenile+Deliquency   )   The crimes associated with delinquency in the United states are common the inner cities. the decision to treat delinquency crimes separately compared to the adult crimes was implemented in 1899, where is advocated for informal procedures and correction other than handling it like a punishment for the crime committed, and mostly involves handling delinquency crimes in juvenile correction institutions in moulding them to change their behavior to make them potential future responsible citizens of the United states. In this juvenile correction institutions there are established rehabilitation programs that both provided vocational training and also psychiatric treatments.Substance abuse is also another trap in which a large number of the youth fall into, where it is estimated that almost 8.6 million youths ages between 12 to 17   abuse substances, which is one third of the United States age group, as per to the date realised by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration in 2007.More than 650,000 youths normally engage in alcohol use, and a number of at least 9 million also engage in delinquent behavior within this age group (http://alcoholism.about.com/od/teens/a/blsam050404.htm ). The data from the Alcohol use and   delinquency Behaviors among the youths shows that there is a very high correlation between the delinquency participation   and also the participation in substance abuse, as the very youths who engage in substance abuse normally find themselves in delinquent activities and most likely because of the drive that they get from the alcohol influence.The substance abuse is a serious problem that has to be addressed as noted by the Substance Abuse   and men tal health administration Administrator, Charles Curie, in him commenting that heavy alcohol use among the youths is not just illegal but also a cause to fighting, stealing, selling drugs and the carrying of the handgun, where in this case heavy alcohol means taking more than five drinks in a single sitting for more than five time in the past thirty days (http://alcoholism.about.com/od/news/a/nasd2005.htm ).The teen pregnancies has also been an issue among the United States youths that draws attention for its address. The has has been a decline in the teenage pregnancies, abortion and also child birth among the youths since 1991, and this is attributed to the reason that youth have been in the recent past frequent users of contraceptives, and also many have opted to abstain from sex during their middle and early adolescence. This change have been experiences across all the races of the United States.The Teenage have been declining across the years in every state including the Distri cts of Colombia and also the Virgin lands. Despite the good news of declining youth teen pregnancies, the United states still remain to lead in the youth pregnancy cases among the industrialised nations, which implies that it has not got into full control of the situation compared to the industrialized nations.The ages of 18 and 19 years are the ones which are prone to teenage pregnancies other than any other age groups in the United states, which accounts for 66 percent   of the United states teen births, where most teenage mothers normally ail from socially and economically disadvantaged family background, thus being caught within the consequences of this traps (http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/teenpregnancy.htm ).Therefore the youth pregnancy is an issue to be addressed within the national scope at it also has adverse effects in making the youths quite irresponsible citizens given that their abilities are never discovered and exploited due to diverted attentions which destruct them from achieving   future set goals, thus an important issue to address.