Juvenile Delinquency as a Social Problem

This paper attempts to examine juvenile delinquency from a viewpoint of social meanings. The reason is that in sociological analysis the social meaning of delinquency has sometimes been taken for granted, so that the problematic nature behind that has seldom been made explicit. The conclusions of this paper are followings; first, the social meaning of delinquency basically consists of retributive feelings; second, the existence of delinquency as a social problem has a base on that meaning; third, those feelings are deeply rooted in human nature