Treatment of Juveniles in Justice Systems
Tamara Golson
CRJ 301: Juvenile Justice
Instructor Brian Robison
June 17, 2019
Treatment of Juveniles in Justice Systems
A juvenile justice system is an old form of delivering justice to minors. In the united states of America, Juvenile justice system is recorded to be inexistent for more than one hundred years. Development of this justice system has been on a go slow for many years with few developments and improvements experienced in this field until lately. A rejuvenation of development has been experienced since the early 2000s (Cicourel, 2017). The main motivation behind these reforms in the juvenile justice system was that several stakeholders felt there were not sufficient structures to protect the youth from destructive punishment. The other main idea of juvenile courts was to encourage the rehabilitation of minors. Since then, juvenile drug courts, teen courts as well as juvenile mental health courts have since been established and given a full mandate. This paper seeks to dwell into issues dealing with the treatment of minors in the larger category of juvenile rehabilitation.
Topic Description
Treatment of juveniles solely lies on the actions taken by police, courts and a variety of organizations providing human services and their combined efforts towards juvenile delinquency. Wide explanations have been brought forward on the root cause of juvenile delinquency with a majority arguing that it is a result of the bad behaviour of young people in the society. Treatment of juveniles is a key factor in dealing with juvenile delinquency (Kerr, DeGarmo, Leve, & Chamberlain,2014). The topic of discussion in this aspect is too broad and sensitive as issues of balancing fair treatment and providing justice are serial and require key policy implementations. A minor in this case by the law is anyone below the age of 18 years. The legal status of young people is primarily determined by their age. A minor is said to have engaged in juvenile delinquency if they meet several criteria. Minor committing criminal offenses as an adult can is said to involve themselves in juvenile delinquency as well as if they commit the crime below traditional courts jurisdiction to perform. Juvenile delinquency leads to the need for special care of juveniles.
Impact of Treatment on Juveniles, Community and the Juvenile Justice System
Since the inception of a system that is more dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of juveniles, the positive impact has been observed to cure the problem to do with juvenile delinquency. On juveniles, it has been observed that the system has enabled a large number of juveniles to reconstruct their ways. According to figures, over seventy per cent of juvenile delinquents have been observed to reform and desist from criminal behaviour as a result of the treatment program( Taxman, Henderson, Young, & Farrell, 2014). The treatment program has also served in changing the attitude of minors towards justice systems.
Treatment of juvenile patients has also gone a long way in the reduction of crime. It has been proven that over 50% of juvenile crimes have been reduced. This is mainly attributed to a few numbers of juveniles who go back to commit crimes after they are released from the close watch. There has been a bigger impact on juveniles as they are easily accepted back to society after serving their terms of soft imprisonment (Donnelly,2017).
The justice system has also benefited from treatment as fewer cases of juvenile cases are experienced. This has led to the freeing of workload on the justice system with a 15% decrease in the number of clients as a result (Brogan, Haney-Caron, NeMoyer, & DeMatteo, 2015). A treatment approach of juveniles has also sanitized the justice system by ensuring it does not subject minors to excessive punishment.
Cultural Diversity Issues in Juvenile Justice Systems
Treatment of juveniles is mainly a community-based issue. The community is responsible for making sure that juveniles get treatment according to societal norms in place. Standardization of procedures used for treatment is one key issue. Some communities would favour a punishment approach while some would favour a treatment approach to juveniles. For this reason, communities in favour of punishment approach may rebel against the treatment approach. Establishment and management of juvenile treatment centres is another key issue. The American geographical size is huge. To cater to the big number of juveniles, there needs an establishment of numerous treatment centres. The establishment is expensive and it may not be feasible to create enough treatment centres as per the demand. Running treatment centre is also expensive and could be a burden to the respective communities as well as the nation (Lahlah, Van der Knaap, Bogaerts, & Lens, 2014).
Treatment Contribution to Justice in The Society
Treatment in a big way contributes to a just society in a big way. Juveniles are considered as people whose ability to make decisions is not fully developed. For this reason, it would be unfair to subject minor to a justice system that is that of fully developed people. Treatment and overall juvenile justice system come in to help fill the void as well as making sure minors are not subjected to excessive power from authority. From this point of view, we can observe that treatment acts as a way to deliver justice in the society.
Empirical Research on Treatment in Juvenile Justice Systems
Feld, B. (1990). Just Deserts for Juveniles: Punishment v. Treatment and the Difference It Makes. Int'l Rev. Crim. Pol'y.
From this article, various inferences are made on how the change of policies has affected how justice is delivered to minors in the modern day. The article assesses two approaches, that is, the punishment approach of justice as well as the treatment approach of juvenile justice. The article makes inferences that despite juveniles being culpable and should be responsible for their actions, justice to them should be delivered with considerations.
Narkvichetr, K., (2016). Juvenile Crime and Treatment of Serious and Violent Juvenile Delinquent in Thailand.
This article focuses on methods of offering treatment as a way in justice administration. The article assesses issues related to globalization and how they have caused a rise in juvenile crimes. Factors such as violent gaming are explored in depth. In addition, the article considers complex needs that are fundamental and that are ought to be used in juvenile treatment,
References
Brogan, L., Haney-Caron, E., NeMoyer, A., & DeMatteo, D. (2015). Applying the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model to juvenile justice. Criminal Justice Review, 40(3), 277-302.
Cicourel, A. (2017). The social organization of juvenile justice. Routledge.
Donnelly, E. A. (2017). The disproportionate minority contact mandate: An examination of its impacts on juvenile justice processing outcomes (1997-2011). Criminal justice policy review, 28(4), 347-369.
Feld, B. (1990). Just Deserts for Juveniles: Punishment v. Treatment and the Difference It Makes. Int'l Rev. Crim. Pol'y.
Kerr, D. C., DeGarmo, D. S., Leve, L. D., & Chamberlain, P. (2014). Juvenile justice girls’ depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation 9 years after multidimensional treatment foster care. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 82(4), 684.
Lahlah, E., Van der Knaap, L. M., Bogaerts, S., & Lens, K. M. (2014). Ethnic differences in the effect of perceived parenting on juvenile violent delinquency of Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch boys. Journal of child and family studies, 23(2), 333-346.
Narkvichetr, K., (2016). Juvenile Crime and Treatment of Serious and Violent Juvenile Delinquent in Thailand.
Taxman, F. S., Henderson, C., Young, D., & Farrell, J. (2014). The impact of training interventions on organizational readiness to support innovations in juvenile justice offices. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 41(2), 177-188.
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