First I am going to talk about the supporters. They believe that all youth should be responsible for their actions. Their key arguments are: Stiffer charges will make the youths think twice before they do the crimes; this will lead to lower crime rates in future. Youths who commit crimes are sent to rehabilitation, while sometimes their victims are left to suffer forever. The youth’s age shouldn’t be a bias factor for receiving punishments.
Law enforcement plays an imperative role within the juvenile justice system. Today, there are programs to help direct juveniles in the right path as well as help those who have become a part of the system to hopefully give them a chance to better their lives. There are programs today that help bring law enforcement and juvenile together. Programs such as: D.A.R.E., The Boys and Girls Club of America, Youth Leadership programs, Youth Community Centers, Mentoring programs, After-School programs, and Family Support Services, which all help bring positive changes to dysfunctional juveniles. Without these programs and the help from law enforcement officials, juveniles would not have a way to escape from the negativity they see on a day to day basis.
Each year something is rewarded or taken away during their ceremony. The ceremony of eight, the eight year olds get their toys removed, start service hours and they receive smaller buttons and pockets. The ceremony of nine is a ceremony many children look forward to, they receive their bicycle and girls remove their ribbons, which are tied tightly every single day. Most kids are secretly taught how to ride a bicycle by their older sibling. That is the only rule that is sometimes disobeyed very secretly.
FUTURE OF THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM PROPOSAL Even though the number of juveniles have increased and seen as no hope is available, changes are needed to improve the juvenile justice system with the help from the community, family, law enforcement support system in order to reduce the recidivism. Community Involvement Community Involvement is considered as a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristics in common such as our young juveniles. Community Involvement plays a tremendous role with our juvenile youth by helping them to stay on the right path. There are a lot of community programs that will help our juvenile youth to stay focused and there are some after schools activities programs. Community Involvement have been reaching out to our at risk juveniles.
Through the correction function of juvenile court system, young offenders are influenced to realize their potential by helping them to build acceptable vocational and interpersonal skills. Over the years, the juvenile justice system in the United States have been facing a major challenge trying to balance between punishments and transforming the behavior of young offenders (Heiss, 2006). The juvenile justice system has two divergent philosophies the conservative and liberal philosophies. The conservative philosophy is based on the premise of retribution. Retribution helps to remove offenders from the society through incarceration.
According to (Zimring,1978) “The view is that young offenders deserved less severe punishment than adults justified the separate juvenile justice system and persisted, seemingly with broad public support, throughout most of the last century”. Minors in most cases will not be given the same opportunity as adults to have their case heard. Stated in (Kent v U.S., 1966, p. 30) “grounds for concern that the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he gets neither the protection accorded to adults nor the solicitous care nor rejuvenative treatment
Corrections programs aim to treat and restore delinquent youths rather than punish them for their actions. Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania offers the Community Service Work Program which focuses on balanced and restorative justice. This focus addresses the needs of the victim, the offender, and the community by utilizing victim restoration, youth redemption, and community protection. Community service has proven to be an effective method of mending victim and community harm while building positive life skills in juveniles. The activities in the program are aimed to assist the juvenile in building empathy and recognition for the
Such activities encourage young people to take up criminal activities given that it is portrayed as the norm. Only when such people are removed from the community can additional programs to rehabilitate the youth be sustained. Majority of juvenile offenders are convicted of petty crimes. Rather than confine them in juvenile facilities, juvenile offenders should be subjected to community work. In this way, they will get to meet people within their community who will offer advice while contributing to the betterment of the community.
These are some of the things that will help the parents resolve some of the problems that are going on with a teenager’s life. I know that it is hard for parent to not give their children the phone because it is very helpful for emergency. That’s why I think that some of these types of mobiles are very helpful for the parents. In chapter 11, page 367, it is very important for teenagers to have a knowledge about sex and that’s where sex education comes in. Sex education is the main key which can reduce adolescents’ likelihood of having unsafe sex, but it does not reduce their likelihood of having sex.
‘The application of restorative justice principles is strategically valuable in addressing youth offending.’ Evaluate the soundness of this statement with reference to two specific youth offences. Restorative justice is a relatively new approach to tackling youth crime, this new way of thinking arose around the 1990’s and is now a key component in the government’s dealings with youth offenders. It was developed to divert young people away from the traditional pathways of the juvenile justice system [ (Cunneen, 2007, p. 331) ] and is seen as presenting an answer to the failings of the criminal justice system. The restorative justice approach brings about much debate as to the benefits it provides for the victims of crime, youth offenders and the community. However, research that has been done to date shows that restorative justice principles are strategically valuable in addressing youth offences, because it has a positive effect on the offender’s behaviour and attitude as the focus is not on their faults or weaknesses, but on repairing the harm that was caused by the crime [ (Van Ness, 1996, p. 23) ].