The Problem Of Juvenile Justice System

With the escalation of murders and rapes committed by minors as seen in recent years the people are looking for the right answer. Public concern over the effectiveness of the juvenile courts when dealing with these offenders has brought about change in the justice system. (Stolba, 2001). The courts now, are quicker to transfer a juveniles’ case to adult court than when the juvenile system was first formed. There stands a conflict of interests within the two court systems. Juvenile courts are to protect the rights of youths determined incapable of adult decisions. The primary concern is that the youth be rehabilitated and not become a repeat offender. Thus, protecting the child from incarceration with adult criminals and any possible future victims. The concerns of the adult court is to make sure the convicted offender pays for their crime and that the victim gets justice. Rehabilitation is not a primary concer of the adult justice system.

Bartollas & Miller (2008) states that the future of the juvenile justice system faces a variety of challenges, the population of juveniles under the age of eighteen will increase between 2000 and 2025, about one half of the 1% per year. By 2050, it is estimated that the juvenile population will be 36% larger that it was in 2000. Given this population growth of juveniles in the years to come, it looks like the juvenile justice system will have greater demands placed on it.

There are many similarities and differences between the adult and juvenile justice systems. Although juvenile crimes have increased in violence and intensity in the last decade, there is still enough difference between the two legal proceedings, and the behaviors themselves, to keep the systems separated. There is room for changes in each structure. However, we cannot treat/punish juvenile offenders the way we do adult offenders, and vice versa. This much we know. So we have to find a way to merge between the two. And, let’s face it; our juveniles are more important to us in the justice system. They are the group at they

This paper is an attempt to understand and point out the flaws in the legal system that has of late in many cases begun to treat juveniles in the same footing as adult offenders. There is a raging controversy over this move that makes young offenders to be tried and incarcerated just as if the crime was done by an adult. The arguments over this have been made in the Supreme Court and the land mark judgement Roper Vs Simmons (1995). However it is submitted that simple observations of the post procedure effects on young persons have not been verified or recorded properly. If this system continues, would it not be against the logic of creating the juvenile justice system

The juvenile justice system varies from the adult justice system in many ways. For more than a century, the states have believed that the juvenile justice system was a means to ensuring public safety, by establishing and implementing a system that responds to children as they are maturing into adulthood. Today’s youths, however, are increasingly committing more serious crimes that in turn are raising the public’s criticism concerning the modern juvenile justice system. There are those who are in support of keeping every juvenile I juvenile court system and then there are the others who argue if juveniles were held to stricter standards they would not become repeat offender in the system and eventual end up in the adult corrections system.

A surprisingly large majority of young offenders outgrow crime. According to Gail Garinger, a Massachusetts juvenile court judge, “it is impossible at the time of sentencing for mental health professionals to predict which youngsters will fall within that majority and grow up to be productive, law-abiding citizens and which fall into the small minority that continue to commit crimes” (94). Everyone is bound to make poor decisions in their lives. More than the other there are just good people making bad choices. Children should be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they can mature and rehabilitate. They deserve a chance to prove that they can become different people. The best time to decide if someone is deserving of spending most to all of their life in prison is not when they are a child. If placed in juvenile correction systems, teens can be given the support and needed help to change their ways and prove that they will not always be the immature criminal they once

In the 1800’s, children were considered property of their parents. If a juvenile committed a crime, the parents would shell out the punishment, and the court system was not involved at all. Parents believed that youth were vulnerable, fragile, innocent and in need of protection and understanding. The Juvenile Justice system was developed with this same concept in mind. If we already acknowledged that children should not be able to be tried as adults and we created a juvenile system to correct this, why would anyone want to try juveniles as adults? The answer is simple; we shouldn’t. What we need to do is improve our juvenile system. There are people who believe that juveniles should be tried as adults for any crimes that they commit and should not be treated any differently. This paper will explore the arguments for and against trying juveniles as adults.

The juvenile justice system is always changing and developing new ideas. The first example of a change or development can be the status offense reform. The basis of this are they are trying to keep the non-delinquent kids form the juvenile justice system. Some examples of status offenses are skipping school, or running away – offenses that are not illegal for adults. These offenses can lead to possibly detention, which might do very little to rehabilitate or change the issues that juvenile has. How this can all change is to bring these troubled kids to community based services to make them learn that it is possible to change and become a better person. Some other examples of changes or developments in our juvenile justice system (that I won’t go into detail about) are the quality of aftercare and how the system is trying to reduce racial-ethnic discrepancies and making it fairer for everyone (models for change).

Diving into an important aspect of criminal justice, I examined the cause/causes of juvenile delinquency, what others believe to be the best or most beneficial course of action for juvenile delinquency, and who has the most influence on juveniles, ages 10-18 years old in Vermont. Through a six question survey, I discovered an over whelming number of participants had indicated their belief that Vermont has an issue with juvenile delinquency. However, to my surprise, an impressive number of participants felt that Vermont did not have an issue with juvenile delinquency. Comparing my survey results to previous studies, it appears that, as a whole, the United States has seen a decrease in juvenile delinquency rates (Butts, J. A. 2013). Even

There are many things that contribute to youth being in conflict with the law such as mental health, there has been much reliance on the juvenile justice system to meet the needs of juvenile offenders with mental health concerns. It is really concerning that the number of youth with significant mental health needs involved with the juvenile justice system. The presence of these youth in the juvenile justice system poses significant challenges to the juvenile justice and mental health systems this is presenting a major crisis for the juvenile justice

Those who make and influence policy are eager to know “more about what happens to youth after they have been in contact with the juvenile justice system. What are their rearrest and reincarceration rates? How do they fare in terms of education, employment, and other important outcome measures while they are under juvenile justice supervision and afterward?”(p.1). Sullivan points out that society’s “tough on crime mentality” is the precursor to trying youth as adults. Incarcerating them in adult prisons only increases their chances to offend and become repeat offenders. (p.9) “Being in adult facilities alone does not just increase the chance for being a recidivist. Simply the act of criminal court processing, even without a criminal sentencing,

The Juvenile Correction System is the fundamental system used to address and deal with youth who are caught and convicted of crimes, such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assault. The juvenile justice system gets involved in delinquent behavior through police, court, and correctional commitment. Throughout history, many individuals have tried to change the policies and process of the juvenile correction system. Some agree with the structure of incarceration and the treatment these teens “deserve” for breaking the law. Others agree on the rehabilitation of the youth back into society. There are many different perspectives the general public has towards this system. The juvenile justice system is built with many advantages and

In recent decades, juvenile crime has become somewhat of a controversy due to the young age and immaturity of these criminals. Incidences of juvenile crime skyrocketed in the 1980s and 1990s, and policymakers pushed for laws that sent children as young as thirteen years old to trial, and even made them eligible for prison sentences. The general public has expressed a common desire to reduce the incidence of juvenile crime and find effective legislation to discipline these youths, but there are questions about these methods. What is more effective, incarceration or rehabilitation? Does criminal punishment intimidate more youths away from a life of crime, and would productive rehabilitation efforts influence these youths to becoming more valuable members of society?

It is a common believe that adolescents require a special system thru which be processed because they are “youth who are in a transitional stage of development…young offenders that are neither innocent children nor mature adults…” (Nelson, 2012). Because juveniles are in a process of constant development sociologically, psychologically and physiologically, the juvenile court system focuses on alternative sentences and the creation of programs that will offer them rehabilitation instead of incarceration. However, in cases of extraordinary circumstances, the juvenile system shifts from looking at rehabilitation as a first choice to accountability and punishment (Read, n.d). All levels of society are collectively involved in delinquency

Juvenile delinquency has become a great issue in this country. The reasons for delinquency are many, yet the fixes to the delinquency problem are few. Not enough is being done for the youth of this country to rehabilitate, deter, or change the way the youth acts. There isn’t enough communication or interaction between the key stakeholders that can help prevent juvenile delinquency. For the longest time juvenile delinquency has been increasing despite any efforts put forth by lawmakers to deter this. In fact, too many practices in juvenile corrections do not deter future criminal behavior, provide ineffective treatment, and are not associated with lower rates of recidivism. Reactive solutions, such as building more prisons or adding more beds in existing facilities to accommodate those affected by “get tough on juveniles” policies, are not only less effective, but also cost more than proactive approaches such as preventing crime and providing educational supports to offenders and their families, or to those individuals considered to be at risk of offending (Leone, Quinn & Osher, 2002). The fact is that parents, schools, the juvenile courts, and the service providers for those that enter the juvenile justice system or those that are at-risk of becoming a part of the system need to work together to help the lost juvenile. Each of these entities has a different role in the lives of the juvenile, but each is perpetually important. The stakeholders need to take hold of their duty