Assignment 5: Senior Seminar Project
Running head: CHALLENGES OF INTERVENTION IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 1
CHALLENGES OF INTERVENTION IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 2
Challenges of Intervention in Juvenile Delinquency
Christopher James Russell II
Strayer University
CHALLENGES OF INTERVENTION IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
Juvenile criminal activities are the fastest growing concern in the United States as they account for a high number of violent crimes that includes murder, rape, homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault (Sickmund, Sladky, & Kang, 2018). The rising number of juvenile delinquencies, threatens social order while the suggestion to apply punitive sanctions has failed to deter young offenders from participating in crime (Arora, 2017, p. 1). The public is concerned about the intervention mechanism used to reduce juvenile delinquents and that includes rehabilitation in juvenile prisons or transferring the wrongdoers to the adult criminal justice system.
People are concerned about reducing juvenile crime and minimizing recidivism trends through appropriate intervention strategies. The juvenile justice system deals with underage individuals who engage in crime due to emotional, psychological and intellectual immaturity that affects children between the age of 6 and 17 years (Arora, 2017). The age of criminal majority (ACM) is 18 years or sometimes 25 years in some states, which refers to the upper limit when a person is subjected to adult criminal charges and penalties (Abrahams, Jordan, & Montero, 2018, p. 111). Increase of juvenile delinquency in the 1990s compelled states to pass tougher laws that increased the severity of juveniles into the adult system that includes instituted mandatory minimum sentences for serious offenses and reduce juvenile crime.
The juvenile criminal system has increased social costs of combating crime to around $430,000, which requires policymakers to evaluate the cost of incarceration (Arora, 2017, p. 4). Legislators, correctional facility management, and Judiciary system have to decide whether to consider diverting 17-years olds from the adult sanctions to save about $80,000 in benefits associated with the absence of criminal records, lower recidivism, and higher chances employment (Arora, 2017, p. 4). The data in Table 1 shows that juvenile courts handle over 1 million cases annually, which increases social costs. Table 2 highlights the rate of the disposition by age at referral, which shows the increasing number of juvenile delinquency with age. The information indicates the persistent problem of transferring children to the adult criminal justice system that increases social costs associated with increased recidivism, criminal records that reduce the chance of getting employment, and costs of rehabilitating them in adult facilities.
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Characteristics of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts |
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Percent of cases handled by juvenile courts |
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Year |
Number of Cases |
Female |
Under 16 |
White |
Black |
American Indian |
Asian/NHPI |
Hispanic |
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2016 |
850,500 |
28% |
52% |
44% |
36% |
2% |
1% |
18% |
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2015 |
888,900 |
28% |
52% |
44% |
35% |
2% |
1% |
18% |
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2014 |
948,300 |
28% |
53% |
43% |
36% |
2% |
1% |
18% |
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2013 |
1,019,900 |
28% |
53% |
44% |
35% |
2% |
1% |
18% |
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2012 |
1,120,400 |
28% |
53% |
45% |
34% |
2% |
1% |
18% |
Table 1: Percent of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts (Sickmund, Sladky, & Kang, 2018)
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Table: Year of Disposition by Age at Referral |
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Age at Referral = 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,>17 |
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Count |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
>17 |
Total |
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2012 |
50,293 |
100,794 |
167,895 |
237,401 |
280,032 |
212,896 |
29,660 |
1,078,971 |
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2013 |
45,808 |
91,877 |
151,925 |
215,952 |
251,323 |
198,081 |
27,770 |
982,736 |
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2014 |
41,418 |
84,346 |
140,577 |
198,099 |
232,283 |
190,402 |
26,997 |
914,121 |
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2015 |
38,439 |
77,670 |
131,178 |
185,890 |
218,462 |
178,961 |
25,702 |
856,301 |
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2016 |
36,882 |
74,527 |
123,335 |
176,314 |
208,629 |
174,007 |
26,522 |
820,216 |
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Total |
212,839 |
429,213 |
714,911 |
1,013,656 |
1,190,728 |
954,347 |
136,652 |
4,652,345 |
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Table 2: Year of Disposition by Age at Referral (Sickmund, Sladky, & Kang, 2018).
References
Abrahams, L. S., Jordan, S. P., & Montero, L. A. (2018). What is a juvenile? A cross-national comparison of youth justice system. Youth Justice, 18(2), 111-130.
Arora, A. (2017). Juvenile crime and anticipated punishment. Columbia University. Retrieved from http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/WoLabConf_2018/arora_a26260.pdf.
Sickmund, M., Sladky, A., & Kang, W. (2018). Easy access to juvenile court statistics: 1985-2016. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezajcs/.