Juvenile Justice
● Tend to be overrepresented in their crime involvement compared to other age groups
● Most offenses are minor property or public order offenses, such as vandalism or
disorderly conduct
● Legislators in every state have advocated for increased sanction for youthful offenders
● Juvenile arrests for violence dropped in the mid-90s and have decreased or remained
stable ever since
Youth Crime Trends
● Juvenile arrests reflect involvement in a broad range of offenses
● Mostly relatively minor crimes, such as larceny and public order offenses
● Only one quarter are violent crimes
● Often associated with risky behavior yet not overly threatening
● Some believe that we have overreacted to minor delinquency , and they contend there is
a school to prison pipeline, which criminalizes minor offenses that take place at school
● Used to be handled informally by school authorities but are now criminalized and the
students are referred to juvenile courts
● Zero tolerance policies increase the likelihood that behaviors such as theft
Explaining the Youth Crime Drop
● Peaked in 1993 and then decreased
○ Improved economic conditions
○ Constraints on antisocial behaviors
○ A greater use of policing and incarceration
○ Increased security and changes in drug markets
Gender Difference and Youth Crime
● Increasing involvement of girls in crime
● Zero-tolerance practices and formal processing makes African-American girls more
vulnerable
Cycles of Juvenile Justice
1) Juveniles commit more crime per capita than other age groups
a) There is a biological basis to risky, destructive, delinquent behavior
b) Supreme court ruled they are different because their brains aren't developed
2) There are laws that only juveniles must obey, such as status offenses
3) Juveniles are punished less severely than adults who commit the same crimes
4) The public believe that the “current group of juveniles commit more frequent and serious
crime than juveniles in the past.”
5) The public believes that juvenile justice practices are responsible for juvenile crime
increases.
a) Treating them harshly causes an increase in crime
Models for Reducing Youth Crime
● Two endpoints of a continuum that extends from nonintervention to life imprisonment
Non Interventionist Model
● Assumes that labeling youths as offenders reinforces their perception of themselves
● Labeling may influence their future behavior
● Juvenile diversion keeps youths from entering formal justice systems
Rehabilitation Model
● There is still optimism that troubled youths can be reformed because they are
considered more amenable to change than adults
Crime Control Model
● Public safety became a primary goal
● Laws result in tougher sanctions for juvenile offenders
Evidence Based Interventions
● Should be validated by research to determine effectiveness
● Most fall within a system of graduated sanctions
● Most effective is family-based therapy
