Chapter one: Preliminary
Despite, individual capabilities and personal circumstances that distinguish street Children in Kenya, for all of them the social status of the street child, albeit the presence of delinquency as social labeling happens as such: thief, glue addict, prostitute and other connotations and for the pressing reality, research may emphasize that being street child is product of delinquency as one with beginning and for most an end that culminates in transition into some adult status. Aside, Salzman (1998) wrote, "of great interest for us is the impact an event has on people's lives, the way it redirects lives, shapes them, terminates them, liberates them. People do not live in static, stable environments" (p. 3). Such events as, for example, droughts, floods, famines, wars, depressions, and the like are all made up of constituent micro events involving people, places, and special circumstance. One hopes that one day this ongoing event will become only a historical event, but one whose lessons will remain as with other tragic, great events mentioned, childhood among Kenyan indigenous cultures offers striking contrast to present profile of the delinquent child. While street child is but event in Kenya, and the status of street children is temporary label endured by specific children, it is clear that social lives are far complex than the simple public label "street child" implies. The need to follow narrative method to set out experienced lives of some street boys and girls as termed as delinquent ones and when one consider narratives, one is pressed to recognize the factors of variability among children in backgrounds, aspirations as well as personal dispositions.
Chapter two: Literature review
The literature on street children and points out why there are street children in certain cultures and not in others. The reasons for their existence are related to poverty, abuse and modernizing factors. Street children are defined and distinguished from working and refugee children. Details about the family structure of street children are given. How the children cope and their level of psychological functioning are discussed. There gives reason for why the children are treated with such violence and gives attention to methodological research problems that include the children's ability to distort information. Children who experience maltreatment are at increased risk of engaging in delinquent behavior, the use of substitute care placement and placement instability are often identified as correlates. It is not clear from prior studies, whether delinquency precedes or follows placement instability. There adds significantly to the literature by identifying selected factors related to child maltreatment and delinquency and disentangling the timing of delinquency petitions relative to movements within the child welfare system. The results indicate that substantiated victims of maltreatment average 47 percent higher delinquency rates relative to children not indicated for abuse or neglect. In addition, approximately 16 percent of children placed into substitute care experience at least one delinquency petition compared to 7 percent of maltreatment victims who are not removed from their family.
Sparked by high profile cases involving children who commit violent crimes, public concerns regarding child delinquents have escalated. Compared with juveniles who first become involved in delinquency in their teens, child delinquents face much greater risk of becoming serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders (Burns et al., 2003 p. 1). Further, the "Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) formed the Study Group on Very Young Offenders to explore what is known about the prevalence and frequency of very young offending, investigate how very young offenders are handled by various systems and determine effective methods for preventing very young offending. The Study Group identified particular risk and protective factors that are crucial to developing early intervention and protection programs for very young offenders. OJJDP's Child Delinquency Series, offers valuable information on the nature of child delinquency and describes early intervention and prevention programs that effectively reduce delinquent behavior" (Burns et al., 2003 p. 1).
Chapter three: Methodology
For the research methodology, one that seeks to integrate surveys, focus group interviews, and ethnography in such way that significant play is given to the voices of street and at the same time delinquent children themselves. The use of comparative approach with certain analytical categories derived, where appropriate. The emphasis that plight of Kenyan street children is global and national in scale. Kenyans rarely venture into the streets after dark for fear of thieves or personal attack. Such scrap notes (Sanjek, 1990, pp. 95-99) are useful mnemonic devices for reference when writing up or recording one's field notes. Surveys and interviews set up in street children to explore special topics or learn directly about their life stories. Such interviews will be conducted in places familiar to the children in useful occasions in order to get social interpretations and experiences meaningful to the participants. The ethnographic interview method imply useful compliments of data to be collected in such questions to be described in the focus group and survey research. Interviews will have to be tape recorded. The techniques served as an informative way to understand street children from perspective of participant observation and interviews that emphasize voices and shared experiences arising from social life in the streets. The methodology will provide variety of opportunities for street and delinquent children, to those involved with their lives to speak about understanding of observed behavior and express own views on matters related to their lives. Concerning the lives of street children as communicated in studying oppressive cultures anywhere researchers address sweat and tears of real people suffering real oppressions in communities (Bourgois, 1996, p. 254).
References
Bourgois P. (1996). Confronting anthropology, education, and inner city apartheid. American Anthropologist, 98, 2, 249-265
Burns, B. et al (2003). Treatment, Services, and Intervention Programs for Child Delinquents. Child Delinquency Bulletin Series. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Salzman P. ( 1998). The anthropology of real life: Events in human experience. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press
Sanjek R. (Ed.). ( 1990). Field notes: The makings of anthropology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
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