SCRIPT (BUSINESS ENGLISH)
understanding juvenile delinquency. It can be in a
Roles:
ROLE NAME
Moderator Dewi
Students (2) Vann (and Allen)
Teachers (2) Taziana and KC
Lawyer Dan
Guidance counsellor Kariza
Parent (Housewife) Dannah
Neurologist Emil
Journalist Francine
Child Psychologist Justine
Historian Judienne
Dialogues:
Dewi: Good _______. Nowadays, not only are
adults in conflict with the law, but kids aged 10 to
18 are. In the Philippines, frequent news reports of
adolescents and teenagers committing serious
violations fill our tv networks and newsprints. The
panel discussion today focuses on juvenile
delinquency so we have invited 10/11 random
persons to be our panelists. May I call on Atty. Dan
Cojpag, Chief Inspector Vann Aquino, Dr. Justine
Tupasi, a child psychologist, Dr. Emil Ramos, a
neurologist, Judienne Pilpil, a historian, Francine
Dumangeng, a journalist, Kariza Lumase, a
guidance counselor, Taziana Regis and Kristine
Nunez who are both teachers Dannah Itchon, a
housewife, and Vann Aquino, a Grade 9 student.
Welcome everyone. I am Dewi Messakaraeng, your
moderator and panelist for today.
Everyone greets Dewi, one by one.
Dewi: First, I would like to show these pictures to
start springboard our topic of discussion for today.
(Show pictures)
Dewi: We now officially start the discussion. So,
what exactly is juvenile delinquency?
Dan: In my expertise, juvenile delinquency or
juvenile offending is a participation of illegal
behaviors among minors. Minors are defined as
people younger than the statute age of authority.
Justine: Juvenile delinquency, psychologically
defined, is a complex phenomenon in minors, which
is difficult to define, measure, explain and prevent.
Dewi: Could you elaborate further, Dr. Tupasi and
Atty. Cojpag?
Dan: Crimes committed by minors are called
delinquent acts. Instead of a trial, the juvenile has
an adjudication, after which he/she receives a
disposition and a sentence.
Justine: There are a number of approaches to
religious or ethical point of view, a sociological
point of view or a psychological pint of view. There
is also a criteria to be considered in deining juvenile
delinquency.
Dewi: Who are the ones you call juvenile
delinquents or juveniles?
Francine: Juvenile delinquents are teenagers who
committed a violation.
Dewi: Is there any pattern between the behaviors of
juveniles all around the world?
Francine: I made a research on crimes committed
by minors. These are the examples: In Okayama,
Japan, a teenager was arrested for pushing a 28-
year-old man off a platform at a railway station,
causing him to be killed by a train. In Darwin,
Australia, two teenage boys murdered two female
Thai prostitutes. The boys tied the women up &
tossed them alive into a crocodile-infested river. In
London, England, police arrested four teenagers for
the killing of a 10-year-old immigrant from Nigeria.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, a group of 10 to 12
drunken teenagers beat and stabbed a 9-year-old
Tajik girl to death and severely wounded her father
and 11-year-old cousin.
Justine: Based on Ms. Dumangengs research, one
can infer that there is no pattern between a
juveniles behavior.
Dewi: The research you made, Ms. Francine is
just morbid. What I mean to say is, it is very
detailed. Are there any types of delinquents?
Dan: Yes, in fact we 4 types in the juvenile justice
system. The first is the mandatory sentence
offender, who has been adjudicated twice or once.
The second is repeat juvenile offender , who has
been adjudicated for a juvenile act that constitutes a
felony. A violent juvenile offender is at least 13-
years-old who has been adjudicated for a juvenile
act that constitutes a crime of violence. Lastly, an
aggravated juvenile offender is at least 12 years-
old and has been adjudicated for a juvenile act that
constitutes a class 1 or 2 felony.
Dewi: And so, there is no denying the fact that
children have been viewed as inferior to adults
throughout history. In the process, societies have
built vetoes to addressing these juvenile behaviors.
So, Ms. Pilpil, what are these prohibitions? And
what is the history of juvenile delinquency?
Judienne: One way of preventing this matter is the
Code of Hammurabi, the oldest known set of laws,
which has the famous saying, An eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth. The Greek empire, however,
created laws that held parents responsible for their
childrens juvenile behavior because juvenile
delinquency was very rampant at this time. Some
historians would blame this on the Greek myths
about war and violent gods such as Medea killing
her children in vengeance of her husband leaving
her for another woman, etc. During the Middle
ages, there was very little documentation describing
juvenile behaviors, but the writings that do exist
suggest that children were treated cruelly. But, these
children were viewed as mini-adults who are
liberated. One of the best accounts of juvenile
delinquency was during the 16-17th centuries. The
youth of Seville, Spain would commit unlawful acts
such as gambling, drinking, prostitution and
homosexual solicitation. In the 18th century, one of
the most often used sentence in England was exile
from the country. In the American civilization,
children were both treated badly by law and by
adults.
Dewi: What stood out to me was the matter on the
Greek empire. You said that they made laws
holding parents responsible for childrens crimes.
This is a quote by Edgar Hoover. He said, There is
but one way to eliminate delinquency - that is by
providing each child in America with competent
parents. What are your thought s about this, Mrs.
Itchon?
Dannah: I do believe that parents play a part in
preventing juvenile delinquency. It is common
knowledge that the more warmth and love a parent
gives to a child; the less he/she is prone to juvenile
behavior.
Judienne: This is true because Erikson (1984)
stated that a securely attached child is one that
approaches a life of trust.
Kariza: Actually, as a guidance counsellor, we
must always first contact the parents of child
committing questionable act because children under
the age of 17 are still their obligations.
Justine: Also, Hirschis Social Bonding Theory in
1969, delinquency increases when the social bond
between the child and society is broken.
Emil: People should always remember that a
teenagers mind is not fully developed, especially in
the frontal lobe where it contains the synapses of
decision-making and impulsiveness. It matures in
spurts and takes years to develop. When teenagers
make rash decisions, its because the nerve cells
connecting a teenagers frontal lobes with the rest of
their brains are somewhat, sluggish. Also,
teenagers brain chemistry is turned to be
responsive towards their environment, which is why
most delinquents are addicted to illegal and harmful
drugs.
Dewi: What the lot of you want to point out is that
there are different factors contributing to juvenile
delinquency. Can you please enumerate at least ten
factors?
Justine: From my point of view, a minor is driven
to delinquency by the negative aspects of social and
economic developments such as the weakening of
major institutions such as the government, systems
of public education, the community, etc.
Kariza: In my opinion, delinquent acts occur in
social settings where the norms have been broken
down. These drastic changes in social reality is
countered by rebellious, deviant or criminal acts.
An example of this is the modernization of
communities and the spread of technology. These
lead to a change in lifestyles and living
arrangements, etc.
K.C. : As a teacher or a second parent, I believe
that the family contributes a lot to juvenile
delinquency. Most of my students who are rebels,
are teenagers who have family problems which they
cannot express to others due to fear of rejection.
They would keep their problems to themselves, thus
when provoked, will unleash a series of anger-
driven words and actions that may or may not hurt
the person who talked to him/her. Children from
dysfunctional families have fewer opportunities for
legitimate employment and face a higher risk of
social exclusion.
Taziana: I am teacher, too and I believe that
immigration is one of the factors. Because
immigrants have little success to adjusting to an
existing legal order, they turn to their environment.
Natives of a country would perceive immigrants as
deviants because they show a significant difference
against the norms. Many of my past students have
often complained that it is quite difficult for them to
adjust to a new culture and be talking to people who
are unfamiliar to them. This may be related to the
term, culture shock.
Dan: Media also influences the youth. In the court,
children who are adjudicated would claim that they
only followed the things they watched in television
or saw in the Internet. A research showed that if the
youth watches violent scenes, they would be more
prone to aggressive behavior.
Justine: Not only does media influence the youth
today, but also television. What the youth see and
perceive is what theyre going to follow. They are
also very sensitive so theres no real cure to these.
With the rapid changes of our world in technology
and science, its impossible to stop this.
Dewi: Atty, Cojpag, how exactly do a juvenile court observe the dos and donts in an environment.
works? Are there any special cases for these Frankly, I just do not get it why delinquents blame
teenagers? it all on adults when they should be partly blamed,
too.
Dan: Each state has special courts -- usually called
juvenile courts -- to deal with minors who have Dewi: How about you, Mr. Dizon? What are your
been accused of violating a criminal statute. The thoughts?
proceedings are civil as opposed to criminal. So, Allen: I do agree with Vann. The delinquents, I
instead of being formally charged with a crime,
dont know, should be given more special care and
juvenile offenders are accused of committing a
be isolated from the mainstream to be treated
delinquent act.
specifically with the problems theyre encountering
Dewi: How can a juvenile case be carried out? in their minds and with their emotions. I also hope
that there would be a school built for these kids but
Dan: A juvenile case gets started when a prosecutor theyll be separated to avoid communication of
or probation officer files a civil petition, charging plans and other forms of escape they might have
the juvenile with violating a criminal statute and with their fellow delinquents.
asking that the court determine that the juvenile is
delinquent. If the charges are proved and a Dewi: Thank you very much. But before we end
delinquency determination is made, the juvenile todays panel discussion. I would like to have a
offender comes under the courts broad powers. At panel games. This will be very quick and its called,
that point, the juvenile court has the authority to do Fast Talk, which was incorporated from a television
what it considers to be in the best interest of the show in the Philippines. It is still related to our topic
juvenile. Often, the juvenile court retains legal of today but instead, we are going to assess if you
authority over the minor for a set period of time -- have been a bit of a rebel before and now.
until the juvenile becomes an adult, or sometimes
even longer. Now, who would like to volunteer?
ANYONE!
Judienne: Based from an article I read, it states:
Roughly half of all juvenile arrests are made for http://infomory.com/famous/famous-juvenile-
theft, simple assault, drug abuse, disorderly killers/
conduct, and curfew violations, according to the
federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. In an average year, only about 3% of
cases heard in juvenile court involved violent
offenses like robbery, rape, murder, and aggravated
assault. Historically, the vast majority of juvenile
court cases have involved male offenders. But the
number of girls entering the juvenile justice system
has been on the rise in recent years -- in an average
year, girls accounted for 27% of all juveniles facing
proceedings in juvenile courts in the U.S.

Dewi: That was a very great discussion on the

juvenile court, Atty Cojpag and Ms. Pilpil. Thank
you for that. I have a question both for Mr. Aquino
and Mr. Dizon. Both of you are Grade 9 students
but took different paths. Mr. Dizon, you are a
known swimmer in your school and congratulations
on your most recent triumph during the CAVRAA
Meet at Ilagan City. Moreover, Mr. Aquino is a
well-known studious student who is quite skilled in
video editing and the likes. What are your opinions
or insights regarding the shared information from
our dear panelists? Well start with Mr. Aquino.

Vann Aquino: I believe that not only are the

parents and authorities responsible for delinquents.
The delinquents themselves must be responsible
enough. Yes, their frontal lobes arent fully
developed but they have the capability to ask and