Abstract
In our society, the actions a person undertakes plays a decisive role in the process of turning probability into reality. The individual reacts consciously, after having processed the information according to his needs and chooses the one that meets his expectations. He has the freedom of choice according to the factual conditions. As decision comes within a social life governed by generally accepted values, the responsibility that comes with it underlines the relation between social necessity and liberty of choice, which is the very base of the concept of responsibility. There are people who posses a great deal of inborn common sense, but we can say that, for most of the people, being able to understand and obey the civic rules is a feature that is learnt on the way, by peer or self education. The absence of adequate criteria generates a series of ambiguities in the definition of juvenile crime. It involves a series of social behaviours and social conditions that are not always connected but which have one thing in common – the use of criminal law. From all the forms of out-of-law behaviour, the crime holds the highest degree of dangerousness, because it affects the social values and relations and it breaks the moral rules according to which one’s behaviour can be classified. The word delinquency comes from the Latin word delinquency, which means “to be guilty of something, to make a mistake”. The etiology of delinquency is a result of the failure to integrate into society.
Key words: juvenile delinquency, social control