Programs and their effect on recidivism for juvenile delinquents With incarceration rates at their highest there needs to be a thoughtful solution into how the criminal justice system can keep juveniles from re-offending. Numerous programs have been tested, many failed, but there are few that showed a significant decrease in recidivism. In the article by Brittany Bostic, "Reducing Recidivism for Juvenile Criminal Offenders" it states throughout seven different types of programs and practices that were tested and deemed which ones were more successful. Although there are no official statistics to measure juvenile delinquents regarding recidivism; re-incarceration, re-conviction, re-arraignment and re-arrest are still a major figure in our criminal justice system. It is important to start addressing the situation at its early stage, in this circumstance;juveniles.
Family Dynamics and how it affects Juvenile Delinquency Family Dynamics and how it affects Juvenile Delinquency There have been several papers that have been written that examined and picked through the reasoning’s of why different things affect juvenile delinquency. That said Family dynamics plays a key role in many factors regarding youth but the ultimate reasoning’s in why youth becomes juvenile delinquents and act out comes from the historical background of the family dynamics, how the family dynamics affects the juveniles, and what can be done to help and correct the issue. This paper will give a brief historical background on juveniles and family dynamics, discuss how family dynamics affect juveniles, and discuss different ways to help and correct the juveniles from being delinquent. Historical Background Juveniles and Family Dynamics Before exploring the reasoning’s of what, why, and how family dynamics affect juveniles; the first thing that can be examined is the history of what juveniles’ means and where it came from. During the 19th and 20th centuries that a new conceptualization of childhood and how children ought to behave emerged in both popular culture and the medical world.
Studies have shown that children who have come from urban, low-income and minority parents are investigated far more than the “average” family for child abuse and neglect (Child Welfare League of America, 2005). In 2008 a survey was conducted to gather just how many children were in the welfare system versus the percentage of the total child population and the results were alarming. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey, the African American child population was only 14% while 31% were in foster care versus the White; non-Hispanic child population was 56% to 40% in foster care (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011). Knowing the external factors that exist that include poverty, instability of homes, and a lack of resources are part that affect the child welfare system and the ethnic
Outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalisation (12 marks) Olivia Gibson Hodges and Tizard conducted a natural experiment that was longitudinal. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of institutional upbringing on later attachments. They studied 65 children who were all 16 years old and were brought up in a care home for the first four years of their lives. During their stay in the children’s home they had little opportunity to form an attachment because the children's home had a policy forbidding the staff to form attachments with the children, and so the care given was functional and lacked warmth, also staff turnover rate was high; by the age of two the children had approximately 24 carers each. At the age of four 25 of them were returned to their biological families, 33 of them were adopted and 7 of them were kept in the institution and occasionally adopted.
This supports bowlby’s theory that failure to form attachments has an irreversible effect on emotional development. This research however can be criticised because it lacks external validity. This is due to the fact that it was a longitudinal study, and during the 16 years there would have been participant drop off. This means that there would be less participants and therefore a smaller sample size, so it cannot be generalised. There is also the chance of social desirability as some people are likely to pretend they have a better relationship with their parents/children so they seem like better parents than they think they are.
Long standing factors are in course that children of color are in the foster care system and some being able to reunite with their families. There was a 22 percent of permanency plan for adoption in 2003 and more than half of those children were of color. “For instance, Afreican American children were initially excluded from the child welfare system, but arev now the most overrepresented of all raical groups.”(89) There are many causes of racism within the child welfare system. For example, there is “ a racial bias in reffering families vfor family preservation programs rather than out-of-home placement.” Only special population, which includes African Americans, are not always targeted for family preservation programs. A reason for this is based on a case worker biased belief that the African American community may be too great vto be handled by this
JWB Douglas did a longitudinal study of 5’362 children in 1964 which continued until they were 16. It was a large study so it was a good generalization but there were some faults within his study. The analysis was measured by IQ tests which aren’t perceived as accurate or reliable and people drop out due to death, illness and other matters. Nevertheless the study showed that working class children are less likely to stay at school and go onto higher
The risk factors that may cause a child’s behavior to deter are “family functioning, peer behavior, school performance, and neighborhood characteristics that precede and potentially lead to delinquency” (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2004). Researchers’ studies have also noticed that child maltreatment such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, or even neglect is a risk factor of delinquency in juveniles. “While prior studies have made important contributions to the literature, they do not explicitly take adolescent maltreatment into account” (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2004).
The survey’s findings showed that 60 percent of children that entered into stepfamilies claimed that they developed a closer and more settled marriage than their biological parents. In contrast, only 45 percent of individuals raised without a step-parent claimed that their marriage was closer than their parents’. The findings propose that children from stepfamilies actually learn from being part of a family unit and witnessing their parent in a content marriage. Apart from that, it is crucial to note that children and adolescents in divorced families differ widely in their adjustment. For example, the adjustment can be a cause of factors such as the degree of conflict that existed between parents prior to divorce.
Prevalence and Theory of Juvenile Delinquency among Adolescence Garratt Cyle Briggs American Military University CMRJ206 Jan 21, 2015 “Analyze how prevalent delinency is among adolescents” Until recently delinquent behavior among U.S. adolescent has received a great deal of public attention. Most of the popular adolescent delinquency accounts emphasize serious violent actions such as offenses against individual. Such types of violent actions prompted the U.S. Surgeon General in 1985 to mark violence as a key health problem in the United States (Siegel & Welsh, 2014). Violent behaviors among adolescents are dangerous and can ultimately lead to injury or even death.