Juvenile Offenders

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Recommended: Social perspective on juvenile delinquency

Children have been described as our future, our greatest resource, and our hope for a better tomorrow. For many Americans, though, children invoke fear. They represent violence, a segment of society lacking in self-control and devoid of ethics and morals, and the failure of the family to instill traditional values, top among them being the value of human life and respect for others.
Fear of crime, especially random violence perpetrated by young Americans, is among the nation's greatest concerns. It has served as the motivation for countless numbers of people to change their lifestyles, take self-defense classes, install home security systems, and carry handguns for protection. Moreover, fear of crime has influenced politicians and laypersons to adopt the position that a conservative justice system, which seeks to punish and deter, holds the most promise in curtailing juvenile crime.
Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children engage in criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous delinquent acts or that they have learned criminal behavior through interaction with others. A person who becomes socially alienated may be more inclined to commit a criminal act.
Families have also experienced changes within the last 25 years. More families consist of one-parent households or two working parents. Consequently, children are likely to have less supervision at home than was common in the traditional family structure. This lack of parental supervision is thought to be an influence on juvenile crime rates. Other identifiable causes of delinquent acts include frustration or failure in school, the increased availability of drugs and alcohol, and the growing incidence of child abuse and child neglect. All these conditions tend to increase the probability of a child committing a criminal act, although a direct causal relationship has not yet been established
Most theories of juvenile delinquency have focused on children from disadvantaged families, ignoring the fact that children from affluent homes also commit crimes. The latter may commit crimes because of the lack of adequate parental control, delays in achieving adult status, and hedonistic tendencies. All theories, however, are tentative ...

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...in delinquency. The methods can be categorized as community treatment, residential treatment, nonresidential community treatment, and institutionalization. It is important to point out that no specific treatment has been proven the most effective form. Effectiveness is typically measured by the percentage of children treated who subsequently commit additional criminal acts. The recidivism rates for all forms of treatment, however, are about the same. That a large percentage of delinquent acts are never discovered further complicates this measurement. Thus, an absence of subsequent reported delinquent acts by a treated child may mean nothing more than that the child was not caught. That is why I feel lowering the age might be very effectiveWorks Cited

Hindelang, Michael J. Measuring Delinquency. Sage, 1981

Prescott, Peter S. The Child Savers: Juvenile Justice Observed. Knopf, 1981

Eldefonso, Edward. Law Enforcement and the Youthful Offender. Wiley, 4th ed.,
1983

Chang, Dae H. and Janeksela, Galan. Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice: Comparative and International Perspectives. Touchstone, 1993

Gido, Rosemary. Criminal Justice Policy Review Journal, Vol. 9, Num. 1

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