Parental guidance and discipline play significant role in shaping the behavior of young adolescents. Where such parental guidance is missing, such a child becomes vulnerable to influence from peer groups and recruitment into criminal gang. The objective of this study is to determine whether there exist a relationship between parental neglect and violent crime. The study is situated on three theoretical frameworks: strain, differential association and routine activity. The study (2018} relies on primary and secondary sources of data, while the Krejcie and Morgan formula was used to derive the sample size. Our study (2018} found a significant relationship between parental neglect and violent crime in Rivers State