A growing number of probation officers, judges, prosecutors as well as other juvenile professionals are advocating for a juvenile justice system which is greatly based on restorative justice. These groups of people have been frustrated by the policy uncertainty between retribution and treatment as well as unrealistic and unclear public expectations. As a primary mission, the balanced approach or policy allows juvenile justice systems together with its agencies to improve in their capacity of protecting the community and ensuring accountability of the system and the offenders . It enables the youths to become productive and competent citizens. This guiding philosophical framework for this policy is restorative justice as it promotes the maximum involvement of the community, victim, and the offender in the justice process. Restorative justice also presents a viable alternative to sanctions as well as interventions that are based on traditional or retributive treatment assumptions. In the policy proposal for restorative justice, the balanced approach mission assists juvenile justice system in becoming more responsive to the needs of the community, victims, and the offenders . Therefore, this paper considers how restorative justice reduces referrals of juveniles to criminal and juvenile justice systems and gives a proposal on the implementation of restorative justice in the community together with a number of recommendations. For instance, preliminary research reveals that application of restorative justice in schools significantly reduces school expulsions, suspensions, and referrals to the criminal justice systems. Restorative justice programs are an alternative for zero-tolerance policies for juveniles or youths .
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...ide. Available at: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/sisfcf/
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Sharon Lewis, Improving School Climate: Findings from Schools Implementing Restorative Practices, (Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices, 2009).
Kim, Catherine Y., Daniel J. Losen, and Damon Hewitt. 2010. The school to prison pipeline: structuring legal reform. New York: New York University Press.
Sherman, Francine T. 2011. Juvenile justice: advancing research, policy, and practice. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Kafka, Judith. 2011. The history of "zero tolerance" in American public schooling. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9781137001962.
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One of the fasting growing juvenile treatment and interventions programs are known as teen courts. Teen courts serve as an alternative juvenile justice, to young offenders. Non-violent, and mostly first time offenders are sentenced by their peers’ in teen courts. Teen courts also serve as juvenile justice diversion programs. Teen courts vary from state to state, and sometimes within the same state. With this program, all parties of the judicial setting are juveniles with the exception of the judge. Each teen court, is designed specifically to meet the needs of the community it serves. Teen courts were created to re-educate offenders throughout the judicial process, create a program with sanctions that will allow the youth not to have a juvenile record, and to also instil a sense of responsibility.
The Youth Criminal Justice Act has many concerns creating inequalities in the restorative justice approach. For instance, juvenile delinquents who develop from a background that is impoverished may lack the ability to satisfy the reparative objectives of punishment and may not be ready to be reintegrated back into socie...
School-to-prison pipeline embodies an unescapable and intimidating horror for juveniles today, because they are being put into the criminal justice from minor offenses (Messinger, 2016). It is punishable by a ticket, court appearance, and even put away in prison or a juvenile detention center. Also, this includes the presence of a police officer at the schools, School Reference Office (SRO), which included harsh tactics, physical restraint, punishments that result in suspensions, expulsion, or “push out” of class (Elias, 2013). With this research, I tend to find why are low income, racial minorities are being targeted and how are they are being
The school to prison pipeline, is a term used to describe the alarmingly increasing number of students having contact with the juvenile criminal court systems, because of the implemented zero tolerance policies
...a clear definition for what the school-to-prison pipeline is and why it continues to exist. I see the issues that have proceeded because of this policy. The research gives me an advantage of providing the unconstitutional wrongdoings. This is not an issue just morally wrong, it is unjust. Literature provides me with information on why courts are not taking action as well as possible solutions to endure without depending on legislators to take actions. The school-to-prison pipeline has a direct target and the literature also contributes information on who that target group is and why they are so easily targeted.
With increased media coverage of violent juvenile behavior, legislators began to pass laws to toughen up on juvenile crime. Many laws made it easier to waive juveniles into adult courts, or even exclude juveniles who had committed serious crimes from juvenile court jurisdiction. Furthermore, the sentences to be handed out for offenders were lengthened and made much more severe. As a result, the juvenile courts began to resemble the adult courts. Yet, this movement’s influence began to fade, and by the turn of the century, another shift had occurred. In the current juvenile courts, a balanced approach is emphasized. While the court deals with chronic and dangerous offenders with a heavy hand, needy youth who need help to get back on track are still assisted under the parens patriae philosophy. Restorative justice has come to be the preferred method of today’s juvenile courts. In an overall sense, the modern juvenile court has taken on a paternalistic view similar to parens patriae towards youths who are in need of guidance, while punitively punishing offenders who do not respond to the helping hand extended to
The criminal justice system is made up of several different aspects that help operate it as smoothly as possible. A relatively new and promising feature of the criminal justice is restorative justice. Restorative justice looks at rehabilitating offenders and reconciling them with their victims and the families. The practices found in restorative justice differ from the adversarial system; they include victim-offender mediation, circle sentencing and restitution to the victims. This paper will discuss how restorative justice practices work and the positive outcomes that follow a restorative justice framework. Restorative justice offers a healthier outcome for both victims and offenders and suggests that a more retributive justice system does
There are various reasons why many juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system unjustly. The pipeline commences with inadequate resources in public schools. Many children are locked into second rate educational environments in which they are placed in overcrowded classrooms, insufficient funding, lack of special education services and even textbooks. This failure to meet the educational needs of children leads to more dropout rates which could also increase the risk of later court involvement. Surprisingly enough, some school may even encourage children to drop out in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes which create incentives to push out low-performing students to increase overall test scores.
The school-to-prison pipeline is the idea that schools funnel students into the prison system. This theory is narrow-minded and ignores how the government benefits from the surveillance of African Americans. With the imagery of a pipe, this complex issue is reduced to the single-minded idea that schools force people of color, most notably African Americans, and does not discuss the evolution of the larger society. The way society has evolved to discriminate against African Americans at the institutional level is a key factor in the increased incarceration rates. The school-to-prison pipeline is an outdated and prejudiced model that does not fully explain the situation many African Americans face.
The concept of restorative justice became a game-changer in juvenile justice system. Through the course of time, professionals explored every possible methods and approaches that could positively affect the children without the expense of harming their future and wellbeing. The idea of restorative justice is “administer justice that focuses or repairing the harm done to the victim and the community. (Save the Children-UK, 2005)” The four guiding principles are to: (1) Repair and restore the balance within the community. (2) restitution for the victim. (3) Ensure that the offender understand and take responsibility. (4) Help the offender to change and improve. In South Africa, this is practiced in their community throughout
‘Zero-tolerance’ policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools’ overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline (Gabbard 2013:33).
Tulman, J. B. (2008). Time to Reverse the School-to-Prison Pipeline. (Cover story). Policy & Practice (19426828), 66(1), 22-27.
Committing a crime will always be illegal no matter what age they commit it at. In the United States, if you are under the age of eighteen years old you are automatically considered as juvenile but can be tried and sentenced as an adult. This will be agreed on depending on the crime you commit. The purpose of the juvenile justice System is rehabilitation rather than being punished. Being tried as an adult can give you the punishment of life without parole, meaning that you will spend the rest of your life in prison. More than 200,000 youths are tried or sentenced as adults every year in the United States. I believe that juveniles under the age of 13 years old should be tried as juveniles because they are not yet adults. Punishments will help them view their horrific crime and hopefully learn right from wrong. Trying Juveniles, as adults will not give them the opportunity to learn from mistakes and get the mental help they need to turn their life around.
Walgrave, Lode. Restorative justice for juveniles: potentialities, risks and problms for research : a selection of papers presented at the international conference Leuven, May 12-14, 1997. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1998.
As the purpose of restorative justice is to mend the very relationship between the victim, offender, and society, communities that embrace restorative justice foster an awareness on how the act has harmed others. Braithwaite (1989) notes that by rejecting only the criminal act and not the offender, restorative justice allows for a closer empathetic relationship between the offender, victims, and community. By acknowledging the intrinsic worth of the offender and their ability to contribute back to the community, restorative justice shows how all individuals are capable of being useful despite criminal acts previous. This encourages offenders to safely reintegrate into society, as they are encouraged to rejoin and find rapport with the community through their emotions and