Balancing Justice and Rehabilitation

547 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Juvenile crime theory

Ideally, everyone is safe from harm because people care for one another with compassion. However, most only care for themselves, and worse, some individuals actually jeopardize and disrupt the well-being of the public. It is easy to label them all as immoral, but circumstances differ when they are young offenders. While it cannot keep everyone on track, the multistep juvenile justice system determines adolescent offenders’ consequences to provide them a chance for change and rehabilitation, making it overall effective and fair to juveniles and the community.

Although most juveniles who enter the system are not real criminals, some are, so by understanding their crimes and reasoning, law enforcement can better identify and stop repeat offenders. For instance, most crime rates have gone down recently, but juvenile robbery arrests have increased more than forty-six percent, which may be attributed to the economic struggle of many families (Puzzanchera 4). Although that is not an excuse, it can help law enforcement better understand whether offenders are real delinquents or just desperate. Unlike most misguided adolescents, six percent of crimes committed by minors are violent. And one-third of all homicides by juveniles occur in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and New York (Juvenile Justice: Facts and Figures 1). These are all larger cities with more exposure to felonious influences, which can cause crime to rapidly diffuse through a city. This knowledge aids pinpointing where assistance is needed and focusing on violent misdemeanors can change a community by preventing repeat offenders while serving righteousness to victims and the public.

Inside the system, many cases are dismissed, but punishment is imperative for wrongdoings...

... middle of paper ...

...t the United States’ system is advanced and continually being improved in favor for everyone.

Works Cited

“Juvenile Justice: Facts and Figures.” American Bar Association. Web. 31 January 2011.

.

“Juvenile Justice System Structure & Process.” Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention. U.S. Department of Justice. Web. 1 February 2011.

Puzzanchera, Charles. “Juvenile Arrests 2008.” Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention .December 2009. U.S. Department of Justice. Web. 31 January 2011..

“8% Solution, The.” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. November

2001.U.S. Department of Justice. Web. 31 January 2011.

Show More
Related

  • No Matter How Loud I Shout Summary

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the last five years, violent offenses by children have increased 68 percent, crimes such as: murder, rape, assault, and robbery. Honestly, with these figures, it is not surprising at all that the Juveniles Courts focus less on the children in danger, and focus more on dangerous children. This in fact is most likely the underlying reasoning behind juveniles being tried as adults by imposing harsher and stiffer sentences. However, these policies fail to recognize the developmental differences between young people and

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Adult Criminal Justice System

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    The adult system’s shifts leaked into the juvenile system, causing an increase in incarcerations even when delinquency rates were declining at the time. Juvenile reform legislations prompted more compulsory sentencing and more determinate sentences for juveniles, lowering of the upper age of juvenile jurisdiction, considerable ease in obtaining waivers to adult court for juvenile prosecution, and made it easier to gain access to juvenile records as well. Furthermore, it led to greater preoccupation with chronic, violent offenders, which in turn led to a redirection of resources for their confinement. Thereby, the absence of reliable criteria for identifying such offenders tends to stereotype all delinquents and is more likely to raise the level of precautionary confinements. These three major shifts in juvenile justice policy demonstrate the power and depth of traditional beliefs about the causes and cures of crimes in U.S. society. It also shows how the system can bend for a time in the direction of new approaches to prevention and control. Today, we are presently in a time of conservative responses where the prevailing views about crime express beliefs about prevention, retribution, and incapacitation that are profoundly rooted in our

    Read More

  • The City of Columbus to Save Its Youth

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently, there has been a rise in criminal activity amongst the youth in Columbus Georgia. The percentage of juvenile criminals increased by almost 9.5% in the year 2012-2013(Chattahoochee Valley Struggles with Black on Black Crime). Many of the crimes committed involved adolescents as young as fifteen, and have become increasingly more violent. In 2012 a sixteen year old woman was shot and killed by her eighteen year old boyfriend, a few months later a nineteen year old boy was shot while walking to his home. (Chattahoochee Valley Struggles with Black on Black Crime). Due to the overwhelmin...

    Read More

  • Gun Control is NOT the Answer to Juvenile Crime

    2300 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jenson, Jeffrey and Howard, Matthew. "Youth Crime, Public Policy, and Practice in the Juvenile Justice System: Recent Trends and Needed Reforms." Social Work 43 (1998): 324-32

    Read More

  • Juvenile Justice

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today's society juveniles are being tried in adult courts, given the death penalty, and sent to prison. Should fourteen-year olds accused of murder or rape automatically be tried as adults? Should six-teen year olds and seven-teen year olds tried in adult courts be forced to serve time in adult prisons, where they are more likely to be sexually assaulted and to become repeat offenders. How much discretion should a judge have in deciding the fate of a juvenile accused of a crime - serious, violent, or otherwise? The juvenile crime rate that was so alarming a few years ago has begun to fall - juvenile felony arrest rates in California have declined by more than forty percent in the last twenty years. While California's juvenile population rose by a half a million since the middle and late 1970's, juveniles made up less than fifth-teen percent of California's felony arrests in 1998, compared to thirty percent in 1978; according to the Justice Policy Institute. The juvenile arrests have dropped back, even as the population of kids between ages of ten and eight-teen has continued to grow, and the number of kids confined in the California Youth Authority (CYA) has fallen. With all the progress our society has made in cutting back in juvenile crimes there is still a very serious problem. But if locking kids up is the best way to address it, how do we explain a drop in crime when there are more teens in California and fewer in custody? First we must look at the economy around us. With so many job opportunities available more and more teenagers find honest ways to keep busy and make money. Our generation has a brighter future than the generation a decade ago. Next we look at successful crime prevention efforts: after-school programs, mentoring, teen outreach programs, truancy abatement, anti-gang programs, family resource centers. There is evidence that these programs are beginning to pay off. Sending more, and younger teens through the adult court system has been a trend across the country in reaction to crimes, such as school shootings and violent rapes. Yet evidence shows that treating youth as adults does not reduce crime. In Florida, where probability wise more kids are tried as adults then in any other state, studies found that youth sent through the adult court system are twice as likely to commit more crimes when they're release...

    Read More

  • Life Without Parole for Juveniles

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ing beckoned in with the 21st century. While U.S.’s JLWOP laws are inconsistent with many human rights treatises and with international law, it is more important for our policies to be based on a thorough understanding of the issue- the most essential being a separation of the processes for juvenile and adult criminal offenders. With an emphasis on rehabilitation for juvenile offenders, and the goal of encouraging maturity and personal development after wayward actions, the futures of many teens in the criminal justice system can become much more hopeful.

    Read More

  • Juvenile Crime In Chicago

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crime rates across the U.S. for juveniles is at all time high. Juveniles across all demographic have been punished more severely than those of the past. Contributing factors including lower socioeconomic areas such as the Detroit Metropolitan Areas & Chicago. This paper will discuss the apparent issue within the system focusing on juveniles in urban areas.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Reduce Delinquency

    2470 Words  | 5 Pages

    Juvenile Delinquency is a complicated subject because researchers and scholars have tried different methods to reduce it. Research shows that the methods which have had better results are those that are implemented in a way where the family of the juveniles gets involved in the process (Laub, 2014). A policy that will be advocated is the policy in the city of Santa Ana, CA: The Santa Ana Police Athletic and Academic League (SAPAAL). If we want to reduce delinquency and crime then we should focus on prevention rather than intervention. There is not one theory that explains why people commit crime, on the contrary, there are multiple well-known theories that argue for different explanations of delinquency. As learned through lectures

    Read More

  • The Juvenile Justice System

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    Harassment, reckless endangerment, and burglary are all juvenile offenses. These juvenile offenses almost always stay on the juvenile’s criminal record, and the offenses displayed on a juvenile’s criminal record may cause employers, educators, and other authority figures to think less of the juvenile offender. As a viewer can see, this one mistake or lapse in judgment can ruin the juvenile offenders chance to further their success in life. For example, juvenile offenders may not obtain the dream job that they have always wanted, get into the college that they have always wanted to, or be eligible for a scholarship whether athletic or academic. However, there is a loophole in the juvenile justice system called teen courts. Teen courts give first-time offenders and some re-offenders a second chance because the offense (s) do not go on their criminal record, and their peers get to decide what sanctions the juvenile offender receives or performs. The big question that I am going to discuss throughout this essay is do juvenile offenders who appear before teen courts recidivate?

    Read More

  • The Most Prevalent Causes of Juvenile Delinquency

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Juvenile delinquency is a problem these days, despite a recent drop in arrests. Roughly 2.5 million juveniles are arrested every year for different crimes in America. About 100,000 of those are violent crimes, however those statistics are slightly inaccurate since only half of juvenile crimes are reported (Juvenile Justice Basic Statistics, 2011). Creating interventions to assist at-risk youth means preventing them from starting on a path to crime is a priority. Juvenile justice system researchers and professionals must gain a better understanding of the contributing elements that cause delinquent behavior.

    Read More

  • Minors Being Tried As Adults

    2489 Words  | 5 Pages

    As minors commit violent crimes without being held accountable, they can grow up to be real criminals and they can be very dangerous. Without a solid foundation of what is right and wrong, these minors will grow up believing that their actions are the norm. For this reason, minors need to be held accountable. They need to be taught that they cannot get away with their crimes. In 2007, courts with juvenile jurisdiction handled an estimated 1.7 million delinquency cases. Delinquency cases include vandalism, shoplifting, robbery, and murder. These are just some of the crimes minors can commit. This was up by forty-four percent from 1985. If a minor grows up believing that crime is acceptable, they will repeat the pattern. Without interrupting the pattern and making them accountable, these minors will always have a twisted sense of right and wrong. A sense of what is right and wrong is important and can be learned at any age. Minors learn very young, what...

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues Of Juvenile Incarceration

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    The dilemma of juvenile incarceration is a problem that thankfully has been declining, but still continues to be an ethical issue. The de-incarceration trend has coincided with a decrease in crime. It is hopeful that our nation is changing the approach to the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system. It means we know what to do and what is working, now just to follow through and continue the change to creating a juvenile justice system that is truly rehabilitative and gives youth tools to be able to be positive members of

    Read More

  • Juvenile Crime

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every year, millions of juveniles are involved in criminal activities. According to statistics, as of 1999, the arrest rate for juvenile crime has dropped from its peak in the mid-1990’s. Statistics about juvenile crime have shown a steady increase of juvenile arrests from 1987 to 1994. Although overall crime rates have decreased since 1994, they are still above what they were in 1980. The following paragraphs and charts show the crime rates of specific crimes committed by juveniles.

    Read More

  • Juvenile Crime

    1973 Words  | 4 Pages

    There has always been alarm and despair over escalating juvenile crime. In the 1950s there were reports about the mushrooming problems with youthful gangs in the big cities. In the 1960s we began to hear about a surge of juvenile crime in areas that had been regarded as virtually crime free. In the suburbs as well as the inner cities, youngsters were dropping out of school, using drugs and committing crimes. In the 1970s and 1980s, juvenile court dockets became increasingly jammed with criminal cases. According to the Department of Justice, the percentage increases in arrests from 1985 to 1994 have been greater for juveniles than for adults. During 1994 alone, 2.7 million juveniles were arrested. During the latter part of this century, juvenile courts that customarily provided social services in order to rehabilitate rather than punish lawbreakers were faced with an onslaught of children who were not simply wayward youths, but hardened repeat offenders. The 1980s witnessed an increasingly desperate outcry for courts to take more extreme measures to contain juvenile crime, which is assuming ever more serious forms.

    Read More

  • Solutions to Gang Violence in Society

    2296 Words  | 5 Pages

    Loeber R., and D.P. Farrington. “Serious and violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions.” Thousand Oaks. 1998. First Search. Feb 2007

    Read More

More about Balancing Justice and Rehabilitation

Open Document