Integrated Ecological Systems Theory: A New Approach to Explaining Juvenile Delinquency in China

• In Event: Beyond Theory Testing: New Applications of Strain, Learning, and Control Mechanisms

Abstract

According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, an individual’s development is influenced by five interconnected environmental systems: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. However, most criminological theories focus on only one or two specific systems and lack an ecological systems perspective, which impairs their explanatory power for the causes of crime. Based on a qualitative study of 53 juvenile delinquents in China, this study proposes the integrated ecological systems theory to explain the causes of juvenile delinquency affected by China’s rural-urban migration. The theory contents that unfair social structures in the macrosystem lead to macrostructural strains that cause significant strains on families and schools within the mesosystem; these strains weaken the informal social control exercised by families and schools; as a result, children experiencing weakened family and school control have more opportunities for crime learning during their adolescence; such opportunities include associating with deviant peers, accessing deviant online information, engaging in the illegal labor market, and experiencing victimization; the differential crime learning opportunities determine an adolescent’s access to learn criminological knowledge, techniques, and definitions of crime, thus affecting their delinquent behavior. This theory adequately explains the mechanisms behind the delinquencies committed by adolescents affected by China’s rural-urban migration.

Author

• Yunjiao Gao, Wuhan University of Technology