Juvenile Violence Prevention Policies

Death is a constant of all living organisms. An individual could attempt to avoid it; however, death will catch up to him. The youth will inherit the world from the adults. It is necessary for society to nurture these juveniles; however, the former Princeton Professor John Dilulio’s super predator theory triggered moral panic of public fear of juveniles. School officials started to target schools with large minority populations, transforming them into a prison environment. Schools started to punish students outside of the norm set by school officials. The current policy criminalizes youths, prevent them from succeeding, and have initiated the rise of juvenile violence.

The juvenile violence prevention policies mirror the key points of Broken-Windows Theory. The Theory claimed when authorities do not catch hooligan behaviors early, then the behavior would continue and gradually evolve to heinous acts (Lorenz, 2010). The broken windows theory perceived juveniles as no self-restraint animals, only punishment could end their criminal rampage. This theory led to the Dilulio’s super predator theory, he claimed delinquent juveniles would transform into mastermind criminals when they grow up (Dilulio, 1995). This initiated the movement of curbing juvenile crimes and punishing kids at an earlier age. Although he retracted his belief of the theory in 2001 (Becker, 2001), the moral panic of juvenile violence has begun. The parents widely supported implantation of Zero Tolerance Policy in schools at the beginning. The core of the policy started as a way to punish student for bringing weapons to school harshly (Skiba, 2013). However, the policy shifted to force schools to punish a wide range of student behaviors with no room for leniency.

School officials and resource officers continue to criminalize juveniles in school. Schools in poor and minority neighborhoods have installed security cameras and metal detectors. Resource officers at entrances are searching student backpacks for contrabands. The effects of implementing these changes have negatively affected the students. Theriot’s research shown schools in economic disadvantaged areas have a higher percentage of minority students. They also are more likely to have resource officers on campus compared to school with low percentage of minority students. Schools with resources officers have up to 25% higher arrest rate than school without (Theriot, 2009). Resource officers on campus target minority students. Schools started to discipline students through the justice system by criminalizing them. In Victor Rios’s study, he witnessed the constant harassment by police and teachers of minority boys in Oakland.