Essay On The History Of Juvenile Crime

History of Juvenile Crime in the United States

There is very little information about the history of juvenile crime. So, in order to provide insight into juvenile crime I will first discuss be the history of America’s juvenile justice system. One of the main debates in modern time is who has the responsibility of directing the juvenile justice system so that it can become an avenue for helping prevent juvenile crimes.

Juvenile crime is defined as the participation in illegal behavior by individuals younger than the statutory age of majority. Most justice systems have specific facilities for housing juveniles. These facilities include juvenile detention centers, and juvenile courts. In recent years, the average age for first arrest has dropped greatly, and younger boys and girls are committing crimes. Between

These things include but certainly are not limited to substance abuse among teenagers, peer pressure and gang activity, broken families and economic status.

In order to lower the juvenile crime rate the legal system needs to focus on helping offenders once they have entered into the system while under incarceration and beyond. This is the turn the juvenile justice system started to make in the 1970s. It is also important that school systems become more proactive in helping prevent juvenile crimes by offering programs for students to report bullying as well as offering programs about why one student shouldn’t bully other students. Reports show that a lot of juvenile offenders start out as bullies.

Juvenile crime rates have fluctuated for both black and white juveniles, the biggest problem is for those in minority groups, particularly black males. Black males aged 15-24 make up only 15% of the United States population, in the make up for 14% of homicide victims and 19% percent of perpetrators. This is only taking into account the homicide rates not to mention other juvenile crime