In her essay, Why Juvenile Detention makes Teens Worse, Maia Szalavitz claims that those adolescent who entered the Juvenile justice system even briefly are more likely to be arrested later on in their adult life than those who have never been in the Juvenile system. Jennifer Gonnerman agrees. In her essay entitled, “The lost Boys of Tyron” she confirms the problem and suggests a solution. They both feel that that the Juvenile system is poor, but Szalavitz further believes that it has to do with the lack of positive direction in peer groups that cause kids to be worst. “By having them together, they form relationships.” When they are among so many different criminal associations with different behaviors this is more likely to increase the problem plus group experience tends to glamorize delinquency and drug use.
By Jamie Makey 9/18/13 Juveniles think, act, and understand life differently than adults. Juveniles respond differently to circumstances in their lives. Juveniles do not have the same rights and responsibilities that adults have. They often are not mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions. The law does recognize these differences, but, a Juvenile, like an adult, makes the choice to commit a crime or not.
What is a suitable sentence for these minors? Some believe that rehabilitation is the answer because they feel that minors are not mature enough and that they do not think rationally about most of their actions. Others feel that by locking them up and throwing away the key is the answer to solving the problem. Crimes are a serious and something indeed has to be done about it. A minor in general is someone under the age of 18.
Youth that hang around people their age that are making bad choices and not abiding the law will involve in crimes with friends who are doing the same. Their environment can cause them to act out in negative ways, the lack of positive adults, abuse and neglect, and too much idle time and not enough planned activities. Children should not be tried as adults. “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that there are limitations on the punishment juveniles can receive even when they are tried in adult court. The law considers youth crimes to be less culpable than adult, therefore juvenile punishment should not be as severe as those available for adults, even for the exact same crime.” The punishment of a 14 year old, Arkansas teenager who wasn’t the triggerman at a video rental store that he and his robbed was fair.
President Mark Soler of the Washington, D.C., Youth Law Center points out that adolescents/children are required by law to be incarcerated separately from adults. However, the overwhelmed juvenile justice system lets the adult criminal justice system handle many youth offenders. This causes numerous negative effects for convicted juveniles. The law recognizes that adolescents/children are less equipped to make important decisions than adults are. Yet the law fails to distinguish between adolescents/children and adults when it comes to spending the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they have committed before their 18th birthday.
The issue of youth justice evolved into the concept conferencing, which can be considered as an option if a young person has committed an offence that is covered by the Young Offenders Act 1997 (cwlth), but is too serious to be dealt with by way of police warning or formal police caution. The point of this is to keep young offenders out of the criminal justice system and rehabilitate them instead of sending them to juvenile detention for periods at a time. (b) Explain the problems in the current criminal justice system with reference to that issue The main problems in the current criminal justice system can be seen as: • the failure to address social and economic dimensions of juvenile crime • inadequate legal frameworks • high level of violence and abuse from police The failure to address the dimensions of juvenile crime arose due to a number of reasons, but common to a few key points. Firstly, in reference to the social issues, the general public and local communities did not feel as though the juvenile offender really understood how the crime they committed impacted on everyone; including the
Values and attitudes) with them, which influence their adaptation to the prison environment. They believe that interpersonal violence that occurs within a prison isn’t because of the institute itself; however, it’s the individuals’ characteristics. For example, younger inmates have a harder time adapting to the prison and have more confrontation with other inmates. They believe that violence is a good way of resolving conflict. As well as this, Black inmates have also been associated with interpersonal violence more than white inmates have.
This happens because many times the children are placed with foster parents that have other kids of their own and do not see the foster care child as part of their family. “[The] familial factors contributed significantly to the likelihood of juvenile criminal activity [are] lack of parental monitoring inept discipline, and low parental affection and warmth†(Quinn, 35). The juvenile set in a foster care home many times has been rejected by his/her own biological parents and is faced with rejection from his foster care parents. “Cold, rejecting parents tend to have delinquent children [because] parental warmth could act as a protective factors against the effects of physical punishment†(Welsh, 63). The foster parent that rejects the juvenile will not care to provide guidance for the child.
Intermediate Sanctions Intermediate Sanctions With overcrowding in the juvenile facilities there was a search for some kind of program that would provide the most serious of the juvenile offenders a community based intensive supervision as a substitute to incarceration. The Office Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) responded to this need by funding Post adjudication Nonresidential Intensive Supervision Programs, a project that is overseen and run by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD). They wanted to identify and assess the intensive supervision program. They wanted to provide a program that kept juveniles out of long term facilities and possible give them a better chance and not committing crimes again. (OJJDP 1994).
Despite the life-altering consequences of incarceration in an adult jail, relatively little attention have been given to these youth (Berlatsky, 2010). On the other hand, the few police departments that have realized the agony youths undergo separate the young offenders from adults. The problem with this mode is, isolation causes the youths to suffer from emotional and physiological problems. On the other hand, another group of people argue that regardless of the offenders age, violent and habitual offenders need to be locked in to protect the public safety and provide appropriate level of punishment(Andrea & Nakaya, 2005.). it is also argued that it right to use the space available in local county jail and state prisons as needed.