English abstract
This study aimed to investigate the degree and level of employees' attitudes on issues of juvenile delinquents in Muscat and the factors contributing to the delinquency. The study examined the effect of some demographical variables (i.e., gender, age, educational qualification, workplace, job rank, and experience) on the employees' attitudes toward juvenile cases and the factors contributing to the delinquency. The researcher followed a descriptive survey method in her research.
The researcher prepared the measuring tool of the study (scale of Attitudes of Juvenile Delinquent Cases Staff in Muscat towards Factors Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency) and solicited the feedback of 14 academic reviewers to ensure the validity, reliability and feasibility of the measuring tool. Toward this goal, the study used the Cronbach's Alpha which is values in four scales from (0.642) to (0.706) and (0.876) for whole measure, split-half method and the level of Spearman – Brown reliability measure, which was (.903) & Pearson's correlation coefficient was (0.824) showing a high and consistent in their relationship among the items. The researcher distributed (165) questionnaires to the research population (stratified sample) which consisted of those who are working with juvenile cases at the governorate of Muscat (Ministry of Social Development, Oman Royal Police, Public Prosecution & Ministry of Justice). But a total of 101 responded to the survey. The sample included (social councilors, lawyers, teachers, vocational trainers, judges, social workers, secretaries, investigators, officers and security guards).
To analyze the data, the researcher used the statistical package SPSS to compute frequency counts, standard deviations, means, percentages, Pearson's correlation coefficients, Spearman - Brown formula, Kolmogorov - Smirnov Test, Levene's Test, Mann - Whitney Test, Kruskal Wallis Test, Tamhan Test and Chi Square Test.
The legal, social, and economic factors were found to be the main agents of influence as they came first, second, and third respectively with a level trend of "high" in terms of the sample's rating of the factors contributing to juvenile delinquency in Muscat governorate. Personal factors, however, came fourth with a trend level "moderate" in terms of the sample's rating of the factors contributing to juvenile delinquency in Muscat governorate.
The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences at the level (α ≥ 0.05) with regard to employees' attitudes to delinquency issues in Muscat governorate attributed to the demographic characteristics of gender, age, job title variables, and experience (general experience in working with juvenile delinquents). There are no statistically significant differences at the level (α ≤ 0.05) on employees' attitudes toward issues of juvenile delinquents and factors contributing to the delinquency attributed to qualification variable in terms of three point scale (self, economic, and legal legislative). However, there are statistically significant differences at the level (α ≥ 0.05) in the attitude of the sample of respondents toward the social factors in favor of those who have completed university study. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α ≤ 0.05) in the ranks of the respondents attributed to the workplace variable with regard to the social and economic dimension in favor of those who work in the Ministry of Social Development.
