Essay On Juvenile Delinquency

The Criminal Law state at the age of 7, any young child that are engaged in a criminal behavior can be prosecuted in the Family Court of Law. Additionally, juveniles can also be arrested for curfews violations, refusal to obey parents, running away, skipping school, and underage alcohol consumption. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that roughly half of all youth arrested are charged with theft, simple assaults, drug abuse, disorderly conduct, and curfew violations. OJJDP statistics confirms that theft is the greatest cause of youth arrests. (Martin, 2011) When they are prosecute and after the judge made there verdict, they become Juvenile Delinquent. A Juvenile Delinquent is a youth between the age of 7 and 18 who commits the act of a crime. The law also follows a specific term placement, which is:

a) Misdemeanor- stay in for 12 months

b) Felony- stay in for 18 months

c) Designated felony- 5 years.

More or less then 70,000 children are incarcerated in US juvenile jail. Researchers have determined and proven that child abuse, one of the main cause, can reflect the delinquent behavior which can also lead them to be involved in the juvenile justice system (Maxfield, 1996). Childhood experiences of abuse and neglect have been linked to numerous poor developmental outcomes, including serious and violent juvenile delinquency (Reid, 1998). Mistreatment of the children experiences can be defined as a physical, emotional, sexual, pattern of failure to provide for the child's physical needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care; a pattern of failure to provide for the child's emotional needs, such as affection, attention, and supervision. While an amount of risk factors have been identi...

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...mated that a large percentage of them, juveniles, have drug and/or mental health problems. Another study done by the Department of Justice also showed that about 82% of these juvenile offenders were arrested again within 3 years. The criminal justice system should rehabilitate juvenile offenders instead of treating them like the adult offenders and locking them away in cells until their release date when they are just thrown back into society. The second thing is the juvenile detention center. This is a place where young offenders are taken seriously, they are secure facilities. This facilities meet the requirement of attending schools, there must be a medical treatment center, Hospitals for medical needs, and health service (like a guidance counselor). Some facility even have Chapel to make them do religion services.