The Juvenile Justice system has been going through changes for many years. We have to
understand that the juveniles of this generation are the future leaders for the next generation to
come. In today society we see so much involvement that our youth has become a part of like
gang involvement, shootings, murder, drugs and etc. Let it be known that a lot of crimes that
juveniles do commit are because of things that they have went through from their past but still
does not give the reason to commit the crime. We have to go in deeper to find the cause and pain
that these individuals go through as a lot of them do cry out for help but some never gets the help
that they need in the long run. This paper will show the beginning of the juvenile justice system
to the current state of the system and future for the juvenile justice system.
The Juvenile Justice system has been going through changes for many years. We have to
understand that the juveniles of this generation are the future leaders for the next generation to
come. In today society we see so much involvement that our youth has become a part of like
gang involvement, shootings, murder, drugs and etc. Let it be known that a lot of crimes that
juveniles do commit are because of things that they have went through from their past but still
does not give the reason to commit the crime. We have to go in deeper to find the cause and pain
that these individuals go through as a lot of them do cry out for help but some never gets the help
that they need in the long run. This paper will show the beginning of the juvenile justice system
to the current state of the system and future for the juvenile justice system.
We first have to ask ourselves why individuals commit crimes in the first place. Is it
because they might been physical or sexual abuse? Or, do they like to see other individuals suffer
because of what they might be going through or etc. Any of these could be the answer but if these
individuals are supposed to be the next leaders for the new generation coming aboard how can
we expect the system to turn around if there is not one to take charge. Yes we have probation,
community service, halfway houses and etc. for juveniles, but if they are not taking advantage of
the opportunity then what are here for?
We have to understand that every juvenile will not be help and that’s the reality of it but if
we could just help some juveniles get on the right track then we have did our job. Our care for
children over the past 2,000 years is a history of neglect, abandonment and desertion. Until the
1800’s, children were generally treated as though they did not exist at all, this lack of care is
attributed to a “combination of high fertility and high infant mortality” and that “people did not
become attached to their children until they have passed the point at which death was a likely
event. America justice system was imported from Europe and the English Poor laws set the
groundwork for future social legislative and regulation of the poor in Colonial America
(Ruddell&Thomas, 2009).
We have seen this common trend with today’s juvenile as some individuals do not have
the family support or guidance to guide them in the right direction. A lot of parents are trying to
be their children “friends “other than trying to be their “parent” which are causing problems
when juveniles are acting so grown that they think that they know everything and which has
cause many crimes within the juvenile justice system. It’s the cultural thing that causes this to
happen and without the leadership and guidance from the parents this will continue to happen. A
child is a sponge. It will soak up everything that it sees and hears and will used it to its
advantage which sometimes cause the juvenile to take it pass the limit and cause themselves to
get into trouble.
As working with youth as a mentor and also a high school football coach, I see this a lot
with juveniles all around as they try to act like something that are not. Some individuals become
this way because they want to fit in this is especially with children who had grown up knowing
right from wrong but still putting themselves in positions to get themselves in trouble. When I
first started my Law Enforcement career with the South Carolina Department of Corrections I
talked to a lot of young inmates and asked them what made them come to prison and about 85-
95% of them said because of hanging out with the wrong crowd.
The generations has turn for the worst because there are no positive role models anymore
out there to help mold these individuals into productive citizens for the generations of tomorrow.
The officer of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a primary source of
information on juvenile justice in the United States. A sweeping OJJDP overview of juvenile
crime and the juvenile justice system in America reveals the following:
About 1.6 juveniles (under 18) are arrested annually in America.
Violent crime by juveniles is decreasing.
Younger juveniles account for a substantial proportion of juvenile arrests and the
juvenile court caseload.
Female delinquency has grown substantially increasing 76% in the last ten years.
The number of juveniles held in public facilities has increased sharply.
Minority juveniles are greatly overrepresented in the custody population.
Crowding is a serious problem in juvenile facilities
The facts show that the juvenile justice system is bigger by the minute and overcrowding
is a big issue as the more juveniles are going to jail but nowhere to put them. Females crime has
went up throughout the years and it shows how the world has changed. One time we didn’t have
to worry about females committing violent crimes but in today society they are more dangerous
than the males in some cases when it comes to violent crimes and etc. But when we look at these
individuals, they are place in different categories based on their situation in the juvenile justice
system:
Delinquent children-Are these who violate the criminal law. If they were adults,
they word criminal would be applied to them.
Undisciplined children-Are said to be beyond parental control, as evidenced by
their refusal to obey legitimate authorities, such as school officials and teachers.
They need state protection.
Dependent children-Typically have no parents or guardians to care for them.
Their parents are deceased they were placed for adoption, or they were
abandoned in violation of the law.
Neglected children-are those who do not receive proper care from their parents or
guardians. They may suffer from malnutrition or may not be provided with
adequate shelter.
Abused children-are those who suffer physical abused at the hands of their
custodians. This category was later expanded to include emotional and sexual
abused.
Status offender-Is a special category that embraces children who violate laws
written only or them. In some states, status offenders are referred to as persons in
need of supervision (PINS).
These categories put it in prospective of how these juveniles are categorized
depending on what their situation is. In life a lot of juveniles are put in these situations
and because of that situation that they are put in, it makes them reacts to do things that
they shouldn’t be doing which makes them commit crimes in that manner. But let’s go
deeper to find out why juveniles commit crimes. Being a juvenile in any one life’s is part
of the stage of development. The behavior patterns of juveniles are influenced in part by
what does on in the environment in which they live. Every stage of development has
transitions. Family members, friends, and peers all influence these times of transition for
the juvenile. It is sometimes accomplished by a desire for materials things, fashion, peer
pressure, cash, and more. At times, the demand of what’s and needs are intensified by a
society that consists of high mobility, social change, and is materialistic.
When a juvenile does something wrong, contrary to the laws or norms of the society,
such as acts of vandalism, thefts, drug related activity, arson or other anti-social
behavior, he/she is then considered a juvenile delinquent. Many other factors need to be
considered before a juvenile acts becomes a delinquent act. The norms of some society
may differ significantly from another society. All juvenile delinquent behaviors are
influenced not only by what goes on in the environment in which juveniles live, but also
by what they observe in adults, what they listen to, learn from peer groups, parents
relatives, and society at large. Juvenile delinquency is not an inherent human condition,
but rather is learn through association, imitation, observation, pressure, needs, wants,
influence and desires.
Individuals around juveniles have to understand that they have these juveniles future
in their hands. Like stated earlier in this presentation juveniles are like a sponge which
they soak up everything that they hear and see from the people that are around them.
When an individual see someone acting or talking some type of way and they are around
these individual’s for a long period of time, they start to act on the things that they do and
see. It’s amazing what these juveniles learn and see from other individuals that they are
around. Now, I do want to make the point that not everyone that juveniles associated with
are bad, but in today society juveniles are lending towards negative individuals other
than positive ones.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1970 there were 1970 there were 7.6 million
minors (under 18 years old) growing up without one or both parents. In 1960, one of
every four black families was headed by a woman who was divorced, separated from her
husband, or abandoned. In 1972, almost one out of every three black families, separated
from her husband, or abandoned. In 1972, almost one of every three black families was
without a father, compared to one in ten for whites. In this new millennium, the syndrome
is no longer is no longer confined to low income families or black families.
The result of being a juvenile delinquent is the increasing incidence of runaways,
teenage suicides, teenage parenthood, and a series of unhappy marriages and divorces.
They are getting less nurturing and support from within their family. Instead children are
spending more and more time in front of televisions, computers, and surfing the Internet
in order to ascertain where to buy guns and homemade bomb all of which contribute to
the delinquency problem(Wickliffe,2014). This causes a big rift between the child and the
home as it is divided. Children want love and feel that they are understood.
The reason why children do not tell their parents problems that they might be
having in school, work, or etc. is because they feel that they cannot come and talk to
them as some parents do not know how to communicate with their children which pushes
them away. We see this around the United States as children and parents relationships
are failing each and every day. Some children feel more comfortable telling their friends
about their problems than their parents because they feel like their friends will not
“judge” them. As this happens this makes the relationship between the child and their
parents crumble as the trust begins to fail.
We cannot always place the blame on parents. But the structure within the family
household could determine the extent of delinquency manifested by a juvenile. Family
relationships, duties, responsibilities and privileges, and the amount of control exercised
over children all play roles in forming character and influencing behavior. The attitudes
and actions of parents can create an important influence in the lives of children. Families
in crisis will likely affect the behavior of juveniles. If one member of a family becomes
sick, schizophrenic, or alcoholic, a child may react based on the family structural
problems.
The family influence on roles and norms which juvenile comes through the
socialization process that the individuals experiences as part of the family culture. We
could assume that children or juveniles would conform strictly to the rules taught in the
family setting. However, that does not always work out. Adolescents and even adults
deviate from rules. The single parent family could still prepare the child for family roles,
but it was less effective in preparing children for their adult roles in society and the
community. In most cases, a one parent family, whether the result of divorce, desertion or
death, consists of a mother and children living together.
The mother often finds it difficult to provide sustenance and guidance, and the
absence of a father leaves the male children without an adult male role model. Absence
of family as a unit could affect childhood and how children socialize. When the family
fails, other socializing agencies will take on an increasing role in a child’s life (Wickliffe,
2014). There has to be two individuals to raise a household. When dealing with children
the mother was made unique, and the father was also made unique because they both
have something different to bring to the table.
God created a mother and father to guide their children in a household that is pure
and righteous. Everyone is unique and each individual that has brought a child in the
world are equipped to make sure each children has the tools to know right from wrong
and to do the right things. A family to sticks and prays together, will always be together.
In today society the juvenile justice system is created to better the juvenile. There are so
many alternatives out there.
Measuring the effects of delinquency prevention programs are challenging because
the behavior the programs attempt to change is often covert and full benefits extend over
long periods of time. For more than a century, efforts to prevent delinquency have been
guided more by the prevailing theories about the causes of delinquent behavior than by
whether the efforts achieved the desired effects. At various times over the years, the
primary causes of delinquency were thought to be the juvenile’s home, or neighborhood,
or lack of experiences, or lack of job opportunities, or the labeling effects of the juvenile
justice system.
The preventive strategies promoted by these theories included: removal of urban
children to more rural settings, residential training school, industrial schools, summer
camps, job programs, and diversion from the juvenile justice system. The first problem
limiting progress in identifying successful program strategies is the weak designs found
in more program evaluations. Only rarely do juvenile intervention programs themselves
measure their outcomes, and the few evaluations that are carried out do not usually
produce reliable findings.
The “gold standard” for evaluations in the social sciences experiments that compare
the effects on youths who have been assigned randomly to alternative interventions are
seldom used in the criminal justice settings. Prevention programs target the genral
population of youth and include efforts to prevent smoking, drug use, and teen
pregnancy. Secondary prevention programs target youth at elevated risk for a particular
outcome, such as delinquency or violence, a group that might include those in
disadvantaged neighborhoods, those struggling in school, or those exposed to violence at
home.
Delinquency prevention programs in community setting can be crated for various
purposes such as diverting youth out of the juvenile justice system, serving youth placed
on informal or formal probation, or serving youth on parole who are returning to the
community after a residential placement. Settings can range from individual homes, to
schools, to teen centers, to parks, to the special facilities of private providers. They can
involve anything from a one hour monthly meeting to intensive family therapy and
services.
The most successful programs are those that emphasize family interactions, probably
because they focus on providing skills to the adults who are in the best position to
supervise and train the child. More traditional interventions that punish or attempt to
frighten the youths are the least successful. Community based programs that focus on the
individual offender rather than on the family are much less successful. Intensive
supervision, surveillance, extra services, and early release programs, for example, have
not been found effective.
Ineffective probation programs and strategies include intensive supervision, early
release, vocational training, and bringing younger offenders together for programming
and deterrence approaches such as Scared Straight. Juvenile courts, like criminal courts,
function as a screening agent for the purpose of sanctions and services. Juvenile
offenders needs for treatment and must be balanced against the demands for
accountability (punishment) and community safety. Only a fraction of the cases reaching
any one stage of the system are passed on the next stage.
The pattern of case dispositions reflects the juvenile court’s preference for informal
rather than formal dispositions and the understanding that most programs work better in
the community, rather than institutional settings. Nevertheless juvenile courts will place
youth in the more secure custodial placement if the home setting is inappropriate and a
more suitable community placement is unavailable or it the youth poses a public safety
risk. In these two instance placement in a group setting is more likely.
Youth who are placed out of their homes are referred to a wide variety of group
homes, camps, and other residential or correctional institutions. Three generalized
program effectiveness. One is focusing on dynamic or changeable risk factors-low skills,
substance abuse, defiant behavior, relationships with delinquent peers. The second is
individual tailoring programs to clients’ needs using evidence based methods. The third
is focusing interventions on higher risk youth, where the opportunity for improvement
and consequences of failure are both the largest.
Generally, programs that focus on specific skills issues such as behavior
management, interpersonal skills training, family counseling, group counseling, or
individual counseling have all demonstrated positive effects in institutional settings
(Greenwood, 2014). These alteratives shows the where the juvenile justice system is at in
today society. There are alteratives for the juveniles to take advantage. It’s not like in the
old days where you threw the child in jail and try to give them that “tough approach”,
but now try to help the juvenile by finding out the key problem that gotten them in prison
and try to help them before they go back into society.
Now the question is does this alteratives work or no? They only way we can anwer
that question is to look at how many juveniles are repeat offenders. Now, we know that
every juvenile will not come back to the juvenile justice system but the reality of it is that
there will be some repeated offenders and we cannot control that. Some juveniles like
aduilts will do good for a couple of months and end up getting back into trouble. In order
for this work and keep juveniles out of trouble the community and system has to come
together as a whole to help keep the juvenile out of the system.
You cannot expect a juvenile to do good if there is no one the help them. Let’s be
honest not every juvenile has good role models (parents or friends) to look to as positive
guidance, so if that’s the case the community has to be the backbone of the juvenile to
guide them in the right direction. The reason why they have community alternatives is
because they want to juvenile and community to reconnect and make the juvenile feel
welcome back into the community. But when some juveniles do get out of jail and go back
into their community individuals of that community do not want to be bother with the
juvenile.
When this happens we see juveniles get their self-back into trouble because they feel
like no one wants them or be bother with them. The community do not want to be bother
with the juvenile because of what happen in the past. We have to understand that these
juveniles just like adults all make mistakes but you cannot hold that against an
individual. When I worked with Corrections I saw this a lot with staff holding stuff that
inmates did against them not realizing that they could been in the same position also. No
one wants to end up in prison but some people have to learn the hard way.
There are a lot of juveniles in prison but do not know the character tics.
Institutionalized juveniles are a small but special category of young people with serious
problems. A recent report on institutionalized youth by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
found five striking characteristics:
85.5% were male.
38.9% were black, 39.4% were white, and 17.3% were Hispanic.
6.5% were institutionalized for having committed a status offense, such as
being truant, running away, or violating curfew.
42.4% were in residential facilities for a serious personal or property offense.
1% were charged with homicide(Schmalleger,2011).
As we look at the character tics there was 0.5 while individuals who were lock up in
prison than black individuals. The most interesting character tic that I saw was that 42.4% was
in residential facilities for a serious personal or property offense which means they are lock up
for damaging property or committed a serious offense against a person. As growing up I always
wanted to know what was up with children and damaging property. We see this a lot as young
children go with friends and damage property for no reason and that’s how a lot of juveniles
start to get in trouble because of the little things.
We also see a lot of juveniles get in trouble the personal which could be serious injuring
another individual. I see even in my nephews today that these children has a lot of angry and
will take it out on another individual in a heartbeat. I do not know why but this is dangerous as
we can see especially so many children getting in trouble for serious injuring other children or
adults or even going beyond that and killing them by shooting or stabbing that individual. As I
study these individuals I really want to think what their mindsets are at. In reality we do not
know what these juveniles to thinking but it is scary to think.
The biological approach to delinquent behavior has focused more on brain dysfunction
and impairment in learning capabilities. Other research has shown abnormal
electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of the brain activity in criminal and delinquents,
relating this to violent and aggressive behavior, destructiveness, limited impulse control, and
poor social adaption. Dyfuncitons of the brain have also been linked to such learning disabilities
as dyslexia, aphasia, and hyperactivity, which researchers contend turn persons toward deviant
behavior, rejection and ppor educational achievement.
Futher study has established a relationship between violent criminal behavior and brain
tumors, although there is little evidence of a direct causal relationship to know what role, if any,
brain disorders play in adolescent delinquency. How canwe then understand who adolescents
behave the way they do. Biologically, teenagers go through different development stages.
Knowing that to be true, can we assume that the teenage is also in a working progress while the
rest of the body is developing? And just as a teenager is all legs one day and nose and ears the
next, different areas of the brain are still undergoing development of different schedules.
This imbalance could tell us why a smart 15 of 16 year old, who does not think twice
before stealing a car or vandalizing a house with a friend, can be hugging others one minute and
then flying off the handle the next. The assessment is right, the brain inside a teenage skull in
some ways, closer to a child brains than to an adults. It is, perhaps, being connected between
neurons that affect not only emotional skills but also physical and mental abilities that process.
These changes are not all for the worse. The brain capacity for growth in adolescence may
indicate that trouble teenagers can still learn restraint, judgment, and empathy.
Adolescence is a time of tumultuous change in the brain. An adolescent tendency to leap
before looking is added to the fact that teenage is a time for seeking out new experiences,
including situations are dangerous. There are differing opinions on psychological and biological
theories on delinquency explain delinquent behavior of individual abnormalities. The
sociological perspective of delinquency generally regards it as a normal response and holds that
al person have the potential and the opportunity to commit delinquent or criminal acts. This
social bond consists of four components:
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
Travis Hirschi, states that when individuals do not believe that they should conform to
social convention, they are more likely to break the law, and the teenagers are not exceptions to
social conventions. He believes that attachment to others can help prevent delinquent behaviors.
Some theorist lave lower class delinquency, particularly in black adolescents, to thinking that
they lack educational opportunities and motivation for learning and therefore they can turn to
delinquency formation should not be placed in the context of other determinant factors such as
opportunity and learning behavior. The probability of an adolescent being arrested is much
greater when we consider other factors such as lack of parental affection, broken homes, child
abuse, sexual abuse and gangs.
We can see delinquent acts are committed with companions. It is possible that juvenile
delinquents have delinquent’s friends. The evidence regarding the extent to which delinquency
and delinquent friends go together could provide proof that relationships between a delinquent
child and those with whom he/she associates are significant factors in juvenile delinquency. In
some of association theory, a child may not have propensities to delinquency prior to his
association with delinquents.
One can argue that relationships with peers, especially among delinquents, are
sufficiently strong to produce change in attitude and behavioral changes. In today society,
teenagers strive to fulfill their parent’s desires, they also look very often to their peers for
approval as well. Our society still has in its midst a set of teenage societies which focus on
teenagers interests and attitudes on things far removed from adult responsibilities, societies
which may develop standards that lead teens away from those goals established by the larger
society(Wickliffe,2014).
We see that juveniles do have problems that cause them to commit crimes. But the real
question is that will the courts and system used this as a defense so juveniles will not get trial
like they should. We see this in the adult courts also trying to answer the question can
individuals with mental problems be trial because of their mental state. If individuals get away
with that then others will commit crimes and state that they have a mental problem that cause
them to commit the crime. I saw in news a couple of days ago that this woman had killed her
baby and she had plead insane. She knew what she was doing but trying to get out of the
situation she was trying to plead insane.
We will really never know why a child commits a crime but we can understand how to
stop a juvenile from committing a crime before it happens. It scares a parent when they find out
that their child has committed a crime it makes them think why? When my brother had
committed the crime of kidnapping and burglary the first question that came to mind was why?
We never saw the signs of him doing it because he acted like a normal child but he was a very
private person. But these are the things make it questioned the children mindset of today society.
Raising a child is not easy. It is a full time job requiring a great deal of attention, and
offering no guarantee that they child will become a productive member of society as a mature
adult. Children do have the ability to understand that lying, stealing, cheating, and hurting
others are wrongs behaviors, but how old would a child have to be to know that these actions are
morally wrong? The age of which a child reaches the stage of reasoning varies according to how
the body develops, how he/she is raised, and how those around the child act. Child sometimes
learn to reason by observing the behavior of the people most important to them. However, there
is no guarantee, At times, children follow their own dictates.
Society, the community, the family, the government and the parents needs to work
together to understand what children are all about. That is wy it takes a whole village to raise a
child. In order for children to beomce conscientious adults, it is essential that:
Communites strive to incorporate into community functons,
More positive role models come forward,
The police play a more active role in communities, speaking at schools and
participating in local functions
Schools and parents discuss the elements of delinquency and crime,
Authorities and community groups acquire a broader knowledge and
understanding of juvenile gangs,
More resources be allocated to the prevention of youthful drug and alcohol abuse,
The criminal justice system concentrate more resources on discerning the causes
of juvenile crime,
Juveniles and the criminal justice system make a joint effort to address the issues
of concern to them (Wickliffe,2014).
We have to guide these young individuals to Jesus and guide them in the right
direction. If we do not lead these individuals in the right direction then we are failing as
a community to make sure our kids are being raise in the productive citizens. Life is what
you want it to be. If you want to live a productive life then it can happen, or if you want
to live in the fast lane you can do so too. The choice is yours, everyone has their own life
to live the only thing that matters is which road will you choose for long term the straight
or narrow?
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not
love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have
not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful”.
