The scientists engaged in the research into human learning and development have long emphasized the importance of the environment and community surrounding a young individual since these factors impact the behaviors and values that a person adopts. Juvenile delinquency is defined as “the habitual committing of criminal acts or offenses by a young person, especially one below the age at which ordinary criminal prosecution is possible” (Jardine Law Offices P. C., n. d., para. 1), suggesting that some crimes are committed by minors who cannot be charged for their actions under the existing legislation. Juvenile delinquency often leads to the continuation of criminal behaviors in the future, as young people go through adulting. Moreover, the SLTs suggest that the environment the juveniles reside in has a substantial impact on the probability of a juvenile engaging in these adverse behaviors. The proposed study will focus on the investigation of the dependence of teenagers’ drug abuse as juvenile delinquency on SLTs. It is important to investigate this specific topic in order to find effective theoretical means to mitigate the problem of drug abuse in adolescents to avoid its destructive effects in their adulthood.

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Research Question

The problem of youths’ criminal behavior and its causes found in sociological theories are of significant importance to the contemporary research of the problem of juvenile delinquency. There exist numerous theoretical approaches to the explanation and solving of this issue. However, it is important to investigate which of them are most applicable to the demographics of young individuals, teenagers in particular, given their specific developmental stage of socialization (Bartollas, Schmalleger, and Turner, 2018; Nicholson and Higgins, 2017). Therefore, the general research question of the present study is as follows:

RQ: How effective is SLT in explaining teenage drug abuse and providing tools for its prevention?

Purpose of the Study

Despite many research studies, the problem of juvenile delinquency in general and adolescent drug abuse in particular, persists and requires academic attention. Bartollas, Schmalleger, and Turner (2018) state that numerous studies in neuroscience and developmental psychology have proven that “the typical teenage brain is not mature, and that young people are routinely characterized by poor judgment and impulsivity” (p. 2). Such a piece of evidence urges the researcher to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency approaching it from a theoretical perspective to find the most effective tools for preventing and controlling the issue. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to review the most common theories explaining teenagers’ likelihood to abuse drugs and assess the effectiveness of SLTs to solve this problem.

Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is validated by its multifaceted nature due to the incorporation of the discussion of several theories to validate the applicability of SLT. The study is anticipated to contribute to the body of scholarly literature on the topic of juvenile delinquency by advancing the evaluation of the theoretical approaches. In particular, the research results are aimed at clarifying and reinforcing the effectiveness of the SLT as a prospective theoretical approach to explaining and preventive such a tentative social issue as juvenile delinquency.

Study Objectives

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Given the complexity of the issue at hand and the purpose and research question having an evaluating and exploring nature, the objectives of the present research study are as follows:

• Study Objective 1: to investigate the body of literature on the topic of theoretical approaches to juvenile delinquency with specific attention to drug use in teenagers;

• Study Objective 2: to identify major theories of crime committed by youth;

• Study Objective 3: to investigate and evaluate the premises of SLT;

• Study Objective 4: to collect and analyze statistics on juvenile crime associated with illegal drug intake;

• Study Objective 5: to evaluate the effectiveness of SLT as applied to juvenile criminal behavior.

Scope of the Study

To investigate the problem of teenagers’ abuse of illegal dr