The state of Florida has passed a new law pertaining to the Juvenile Justice System which gives the officer that makes first contact with the youth offender. The officer may, if the youth has no prior criminal acts and the offense is a non-violent or non-drug related offense, just file a civil citation. This happens to be a new program designed to address a youth’s behavior at their first encounter with the Juvenile Justice system providing an alternative to being arrested. Vital to the Department of Juvenile Justice’s effort, civil citations will help reform the juvenile justice system by handing first-time misdemeanor offenders the chance to participate in intervention programs at the earliest stage of delinquency. Civil citations saves millions of dollars by curving first-time misdemeanor offenders, that would have otherwise been spent if the youth had been arrested and forced to go through formal delinquency procedures. The civil citation process put into place by the state of Florida starts with the arrest forms being held and then a diversion process begins. Once the assessment completed to determine the youth’s needs a referral to the appropriate Community Diversion Service is given. The diversion service may consist of a Teen Court, First Offender Program, or any other Diversion Programs the community may have set up. If successful the teen will have no juvenile record and be released from the program. With unsuccessful youths, there arrest form will be completed and a record of the offense will go on the books then they will be sent to delinquency intake to spend some time in a facility for juvenile offenders. The mechanics behind this new process set in the Florida Juvenile justice System start with the officer, as sta... ... middle of paper ... ...uvenile Justice." Florida Civil Citation | Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . 4.) "Gov. Scott: Youth Arrests Down to Lowest Rate in 30 Years." Florida Governor Rick Scott. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. . 5.)"Fiscal Responsibility: The Key to a Safer, Smarter, and Stronger Juvenile Justice System." Southern Poverty Law Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. . 6.)"A Look at Youth Civil Citation: Should North Carolina Implement a Program?." www.ncchild.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
The juvenile community corrections population has experienced a tremendous growth over the past two decades. In cities like Miami, Florida in places like Liberty City, called “Pork and Beans,” the volume of adjudicated youths ordered to formal probation increased by 67% according to Adams (2011). Juvenile crime has been on a rise, in Miami, Florida since 2002. The police believe that young people are becoming targets, more than before because they are young and are sending them to juvenile court. This growth has had serious inferences for juvenile probation officers that make frequent choices about the case management of juvenile offenders on a daily basis. Juvenile probation officers have to type dispositions and assignment references,
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
Pyne, Derek. "When is it efficient to treat juveniles more leniently than adult offenders." Economic Government. Springer-Verlag, 20 July 2010.
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
Juvenile Justice Reforms in the United States. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2011, from Juvenile Transfer to Criminal Courts: http://www.ojjdp.gov
Bartollas, Clemens and Miller, Stuart J. (2014). Juvenile justice in america (7 ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, 58-60.
The majority of the juvenile research concludes that serious harm can be done to juveniles simply being referred into the formal juvenile justice process. Police officers should really take into consideration that who they send for the formal process (Kaufman, I. 1979).At times these juveniles are just playing around and doing things that they are not supposed too and when processed they are being mixed with real delinquents and are being influenced by the wrong people which may cause them to tern deviant and later delinquents. A way to stop this police should only take into consideration serious criminal or repeated criminal
Vito, Gennaro F., and Clifford E. Simonsen. Juvenile justice today. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. Print.
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.
Studies and anecdotes have shown that our modern approach, however, is ill-equipped to reduce crime or deal with chronic delinquents while at the same time protecting their due liberties. We now stand on the precipice of decision: How can we strike an appropriate balance in the juvenile justice system? Should we even retain a separate system for children at all? The answers are usually difficult, sometimes subtle, but always possible to attain.
One of the fasting growing juvenile treatment and interventions programs are known as teen courts. Teen courts serve as an alternative juvenile justice, to young offenders. Non-violent, and mostly first time offenders are sentenced by their peers’ in teen courts. Teen courts also serve as juvenile justice diversion programs. Teen courts vary from state to state, and sometimes within the same state. With this program, all parties of the judicial setting are juveniles with the exception of the judge. Each teen court, is designed specifically to meet the needs of the community it serves. Teen courts were created to re-educate offenders throughout the judicial process, create a program with sanctions that will allow the youth not to have a juvenile record, and to also instil a sense of responsibility.
John P. Wright, Kären M. Hess, Christine H. Orthmann. "Juvenile Justice." Cengage Learning; 6 edition, 2012
LU, A. (2011, October 30). Jailing Fewer Would Trim County Costs, Official Says. New York Times. p. 25B.
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
Juvenile delinquency is one of the major social issues in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is when “a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Merriam-webster.com). Although we have one justice system in America, the juvenile system differs from the adult juvenile system. Most juvenile delinquents range from as low as the age of seven to the age of seventeen. Once the delinquent or anyone turns the age of eighteen, they are considered an adult. Therefore, they are tried as an adult, in the justice system. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. In addition, there are a variety of effects that juvenile justice systems can either bad effects or good effects. Finally there are many different solutions that can reduce juvenile delinquency. As a result, juvenile delinquency is a major issue and the likeliness of it can be reduced. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency there has to be an understanding of the causes and the effects.