Research Proposal for Juvenile Justice - Essay Example

Obviously, though, juvenile justice is more than just benevolent guidance f youths during adolescent development or family crisis. It is also a system for monitoring and controlling juveniles and their families who may be engaged presently in activities deemed dangerous or deviant. To make matters even more confusing, these two sets f system demands (despite their seemingly opposed natures) often become intertwined and sometimes nearly indistinguishable in practice, with clearly coercive tasks disguised in treatment metaphors.

"Intensive treatment units" are often secure, locked institutions; "aftercare counseling" often means regular reporting to a probation officer. In practice, the multiple goals f juvenile justice become blurred and combined into singular activities. As a result, we are often left with the uncomfortable dilemma f not knowing whether we are doing something to a youth in order to do something for that youth (Allen, 1964) or whether we are doing something to a youth for justifiable retribution and deterrence.

It is rarely a clear determination in juvenile justice. This blurred picture is the context in which prevention programming, research, and treatment must operate. It cannot be escaped; it pervades each step f applied research and professional practice in this area. Even a brief exposure to this seemingly sympathetic site will convince the prevention-minded researcher or practitioner attempting to improve service delivery in this system that even more or less "standard" ethical issues take on a distinctive quality when imbedded in the context f juvenile justice.

Problem Definition The ethical issue f problem definition is a subtle but central one in juvenile justice research and practice. Because delinquency is a legal ascription rather than a behaviorally based description and local practices vary widely, a broad range f youths are classified as delinquents. This locally determined selection bias f any sample population makes it unwise to treat juvenile delinquents as a unitary class when constructing theories about adolescent antisocial activity (Reppucci & Clingempeel, 1978).

Moreover, a consideration f case characteristics beyond the mere presence f delinquency is needed to accurately assess the impact f any intervention. The expected prevalence or progression f antisocial activities in the youths sampled must be considered in such assessments (Blumstein, Cohen, Roth, & Visher, 1986).Furthermore, researchers and practitioners working with a legally defined population f delinquents must be aware that they are accepting the values implicit in designating some youths as delinquent and others as merely undergoing normal adjustment problems.

These professionals may even be furthering these values by focusing intervention efforts on the youths most troubling to authorities. Such involvement can lend professional certification to a system that could benefit from a critical appraisal f its values and practices (Rappaport, Lamiell, & Seidman, 1980).On an individual treatment level, dealing with a socially rather than personally defined problem