Juvenile Delinquency - Essay Example

?Juvenile Delinquency and Its Best Strategies Affiliation with more information about affiliation, research grants, conflict of interest and how to contact Topic: Juvenile Delinquency and its Best Strategies: Thesis statement: To examine the grounds of juvenile delinquency and develop excellent strategies and interventions intended to stop it. Introduction: Juvenile delinquency means illegal or antisocial activities committed by young people or children. The majority legal methods prescribe particular measures for dealing with juveniles, like juvenile detention centers. There are various systems on the causes of offense, which can be useful to the reasons of youth offense. Youth offense is a major issue and an element of crime which be given huge concentration from the politicians and news media. “Delinquency is not an inherited trait, like some forms of diseases or alcoholism. It is acquired through parental neglect, poverty, environment, frustration at society, and, perhaps most important of all, peer pressure” (Hass, 2010). In the US, a juvenile criminal is a human being, who has not yet attained the age of eighteen and whose activities have been tagged as juvenile delinquency by any court. The particular requirements are different from state to state. In the US, the federal government enacted legislation to unify the conduct of juvenile delinquents through the Delinquency Act of 1975 and juvenile justice. History of juvenile justice and approaches to its Prevention: The formal method of juvenile justice has been in existence in the US for almost 200 years. “The early reformers envisioned a regime in which young offenders would receive treatment that would cure them of their antisocial ways—a system in which criminal responsibility and punishment had no place. Because of the juvenile court's rehabilitative purpose, procedures were informal and dispositions were indeterminate” (Scott, 2008). The US juvenile justice method was formed on the basis of conflicting value methods. The idea of youth as a separate social entity did not emerge in the current US history until the 19th century. Agreeing with that point, adolescent adults were the main focus of culture and children had close ties to their relatives until they became teenagers. Before the nineteenth century, the abnormal behavior of teenagers was handled in a casual manner inside the family and not through a formal juvenile justice method. The growth of the society for renovation of juvenile delinquents and other like minded civic organizations to deal with the rising problem of juvenile delinquency, reflected society’s usual concern with instilling straight outlook behaviors in its adolescents. This was chiefly true throughout the 20th century when the term juvenile justice was adopted. The origins of juvenile delinquency are difficult to comprehend as well as are not frequently well implied and consist of psychiatric, family and other such issues or a mixture of all these. It is significant to recognize the interplay of these factors for adolescence, when planning facility delivery, in order to congregate the desires of the youth. The 1990s have brought a propagation of forensic mental health experts who concentrate in psychiatric evaluation of teenagers involved at various points in the juvenile justice method. These practitioners are trained to concentrate on assessing the legal and mental health issues as well as to give essential information that will help attorneys and judges to decide whether the individual is a convict or not. These evaluations can also be crucial in assisting contributors who are involved in planning a method of care for an adolescent along with his or her family. Then again, professionals are concerned with juvenile justice population in an assortment of settings and can intervene in methods that facilitate more efficient care giving. An exhaustive examination of all stakeholders to juvenile delinquency and a complete description of the issues addressed: The main stakeholders of juvenile diversion programs are the youth, who are selected in places of official court processing to take part in diversion program involving parents, county attorney and diversion coordinator. “Juvenile justice stakeholders—judges, prosecutors, probation officers—need to get a better handle on how to use assessment tools to make decisions about how to help youngsters in trouble with the law” (Elkin, 2011). The stakeholders of juvenile justice often face problems in understanding the difference between the tools of risk assessment and need assessment. The tool that helps to categorize youth into groups, on the basis of actual probability of committing crime, is the risk assessment instrument. This instrument helps to take decision on releasing children back to the community. The risk assessment instruments are purely based on statistical data. On the other hand, the instrument of need assessment is purely for the mental assessment of children. This tool assesses the mental health of children and categorizes them on this basis. The use of drugs, violent behavior, and breaking of law come under the need assessment instrument. Factors like poverty, drugs, peer pressure, neglect from families etc contribute to an increase in juvenile delinquency. Isolation from family causes the majority part of delinquency in children and this often leads to children becoming part of bad peer groups who influence them to even use drugs. The current society is becoming more and more complex and, therefore, isolation of individuals is a common scene here. Tendencies of suicide, smoking, drug use and pregnancy at adolescent stage are the main problems faced by juvenile justice system. Use of weapons like guns and knives are the methods adopted by children to solve their disputes and this ends up in taking them to the juvenile justice system. Suicidal tendencies are high in those children who have been arrested for a breach of law. “Each year in the United States, approximately 600,000 minor boys and girls cycle through juvenile detention facilities after being arrested and while awaiting further legal action (data from 1998, as reported in Building Blocks for Youth, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2003; and National Juvenile Detention Association and Youth Law Center, 1998)” (Ramirez, 2008). In the report by a US surgeon general, it is revealed that mental illness in children has increased by a large margin that now, one among ten children are mentally ill victims. Among these children, around 60 to 70 percent come for treatment in the juvenile justice system. Youth violence in America has showed an increasing trend during the past few years. There are various forms of youth violence and trials for the offenders have increased the burden on the legal system of America. One of the issues faced by juvenile justice is the transfer of trial of youth above 15 years to adult court. Another issue is the increasing trend of female delinquency while the overall juvenile delinquency is declining. “The historical record reflects a continuous rise in the proportion of arrestees who are female: 11 per cent in 1960, 15 per cent in 1975, 21 per cent in 1992 and 27 per cent in 1998 (Poe-Yamagata and Butts 1996; Snyder 1999)” (Jenson, et al, 2001). A detailed analysis of possible strategies and interventions designed to stop juvenile delinquency: Juvenile delinquency is the antisocial behavior that prevails among either children or young adults. In all cases of juvenile delinquency, prevention or early intervention is better than cure. It is in the sense that early intervention is essentially needed in the case of juvenile delinquency so that remedial solutions can be offered before there occurs maximum damage. One of the many possible strategies and interventions designed to stop juvenile delinquency is the formulation or establishment of a number of wide-ranging services and programs for the affected individuals. Programs that build self-esteem of these individuals are necessary. “Address the behavioral health needs of youth in the child welfare system to prevent penetration into the juvenile justice system; strengthen the role of functioning families and support parental responsibility” (Policy Position: HHS-06. Juvenile Crime and Delinquency Prevention Programs and Principles, 2010). Mental health needs of the affected should be considered. The environment should be free of violence, alcohol, drugs and all such negativities so that there is no recurrence of juvenile delinquency. The government of the state should adopt measures in order to stop further crimes. Adequate grants should be allotted for the prevention of global crime of juvenile delinquency. The interventions needed to stop these crimes are unlimited but the major ones are controlled playing field actions, behavioral sessions, behavioral observations and fortifications. Physical and mental developmental classes should be provided to children as well as adolescents so that they understand more about the emotional trauma that they face and also learn how to conquer these stages of life in order to become good assets for the society as well as the nation at large. Youth concerns need to be addressed at the right time to stop juvenile delinquency. Complete education with respect to physical as well as mental care should be offered to stop this issue once and for all. Anti social behavioral among children should be recognized from the beginning and preventive measures should be taken against them. Sometimes laws make severe reprimands to the crime committers as it is in the case of juvenile death penalty. A comprehensive list and weighing of alternatives, both pro and con, to the strategies/interventions propose: There are multiple causes that lead to juvenile delinquency, therefore, the remedies also need to be considerably sufficient enough. Remedial measures have both pros and cons. Government interventions have positive effects on society with the development of wide ranging new programs and services, which aim to prevent the occurrence of juvenile delinquency. Grants and aids provided by the government along with the intervention from other social groups create a positive and progressive environment for the society. Controlled playing field action is another social intervention, which is usually adopted in juvenile homes, to monitor the children and adolescents who are victims of juvenile delinquency. But these actions have negative impacts as they result in suppressing the playing abilities of the children and, therefore, they may not retort appropriately. Behavioral sessions are positive while behavioral observations made on a child or an adolescent may result in protests if noticed by he child and he may turn more violent. Juvenile death penalty cases have negative consequences on the society and should be avoided at all costs. “Such responses are so heavily charged with emotion for two reasons: the death penalty, in itself, elicits strong emotions; and the killing of a child elicits equally strong, if not stronger, emotions” (Kato & Warren, 1997). Behavioral sessions help the adolescents to control their anti social behaviors in a way accepted by them, while the adolescents may not like continuous behavioral observations as they may feel irritated being spied on every time and would like to go against the rules and live according to their own wish. A prediction for how juvenile justice prevention and intervention strategies will be handled over at least the next two decades: To guarantee that aggressive juvenile offense declines in the future, it is required to carry out all-inclusive early interference (intervention), prevention and various sanction plans to reinforce families, offer youth various chances to succeed as well as hold juvenile criminals answerable for their wrongdoings. Intervention strategies help to prevent crimes. Organizing a number of wide-ranging services and plans for the affected youth would surely help in decreasing the number of juvenile delinquencies taking place throughout the world. “The juvenile violent crime arrest rate declined 12 percent from 1994 to 1996. More notable was a 31 percent drop in juvenile arrests for murder that occurred over the 3-year period 1993 to 1996, despite increases in the juvenile population (Snyder, 1997). These encouraging data suggest that the wave of juvenile violence that the United States has experienced over the last decade may be subsiding” (A National Strategy for Juvenile Delinquency Prevention, 1997). The comprehensive policy encourages an organized approach to decrease the crime that illustrates the basic values of the public health method. According to this method, it must recognize the root reasons of the committed juvenile offense and then execute a range of plans and services to stop delinquency from happening in the first place. If crime still happens, a complete range of endorses must be resorted to for resolving and managing such behavior at the earliest chance. The most efficient method to avoid juvenile delinquency has unquestionably been to help kids and their families in the beginning. Various state plans try the method of early intervention, which proves to be an effective way. National funding for society initiatives has permitted independent sets to tackle the difficulty in new methods. As mentioned earlier, government grants and interventions from various social groups have mostly positive consequences on the society. “Delinquency-prevention programs in com­munity settings can be created 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” (Greenwood, 2008). Conclusion: The study tries to focus on the various causes of juvenile delinquency as well as the best policies and interventions designed to stop this serious issue. Juvenile delinquency is anti social behavior among the youth. The study also consists a detailed history of juvenile justice along with varying approaches to prevent such crimes. A detailed analysis of possible strategies and interventions must be designed to eradicate juvenile delinquency. Mental attitude of the person also influences him or her to commit a crime. Therefore, behavioral sessions must be organized that would assist adolescents to control their anti social behaviors according to their own pace. Whereas continuous behavioral observations must be avoided when possible since it would create a feeling in the minds of the adolescent that he or she is being constantly watched. This would ultimately make him or her even more violent than before. Therefore, through the ways mentioned in this study, juvenile delinquency can be stopped. But the most important factor would be cooperation from the part of the youth, parents and all people who are involved in their daily lives. Reference List A National Strategy for Juvenile Delinquency Prevention. (1997). Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/titlev/97rpttocong/sect-i.html Elkin, E. (2011). Measuring risk and need in juvenile justice decision making. VERA. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.vera.org/blog/measuring-risk-and-need-juvenile-justice-decision-making Greenwood, P. (2008). Prevention and Intervention Programs for Juvenile Offenders. Future of children. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/18_02_09.pdf Hass, W. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency. associated content. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5581672/juvenile_delinquency.html Jenson, J.M., et al. (2001). American Juvenile Justice: Recent Trends and Issues in Youth Offending. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.bolender.com/Dr.%20Ron/SOC1023G%20Social%20Problems/New%20Social%20Problems%20Course%20Folder/Trends%20and%20Issues%20in%20Youth%20Offending.pdf Kato., & Warren, M. (1997). Juvenile Death Penalty. Hein Online. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/jjuvl18&div=10&id=&page= Policy Position: HHS-06. Juvenile Crime and Delinquency Prevention Programs and Principles. (2010). National Governors Association. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.8358ec82f5b198d18a278110501010a0/?vgnextoid=2aca9e2f1b091010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD Ramirez, F. (2008). Juvenile Delinquency Current Issues, Best Practices, and Promising Approaches. Larryram. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/gp_solo_magazine_home/gp_solo_magazine_index/juveniledelinquency.html Scott, ES. (2008). Journal Issue: Juvenile Justice: A Brief History of Juvenile Justice in America. The Future of Children. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=31&articleid=40§ionid=103 Read More