Juvenile crime and managing young offenders continue to be long contested issues. Professional opinions regarding treatment of said wrongdoers have swung between rehabilitation, punishment, and currently rehabilitation. Balancing public safety and the perpetrator’s mental and emotional development causes scrutiny and debate over laws and methods regarding treatment for the youth. Juvenile law focuses on rehabilitative services, when transfer to adult court is needed, and alternatives to incarceration. Understanding children’s mental and emotional development is crucial for developing an effective system of adjudicating and rehabilitating the offender.
Charging a juvenile as an adult is done by a method which is called waiver to adult court. This waiver allows adult criminal court to have the power to exercise jurisdiction over juveniles and handle the juvenile’s case as an adult’s case would be tried. According to Flesch (2004) a juvenile is both tried and if convicted of the crime the juvenile will be sentenced as an adult when his or her case is waived from the juvenile court. Waiver to adult court initially was viewe... ... middle of paper ... ... Critical Next Steps in Assessing the Impact of Laws for transferring Juveniles to the Criminal Justice System. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 1(2), 156-169.
Juvenile delinquency is a serious problem and leads to negative outcomes for youth, families, and society as a whole. Adolescents under the age of 18 who are arrested for committing a criminal act are processed through a juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system is grounded on the principle that the youth have different needs than adults. During adolescence, youth are forming their identities and still developing mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally. Due to their early stages of development, juveniles who violate the law should be treated differently than adults.
Due to this label, it could be seen that juveniles have no choice other than to live up to the labels presented to them and that labelling a youth as a criminal has adverse affects as to what was desired. It’s argues that by labelling someone as a criminal it traps them into that career and fulfils a self fulfilling prophesy (Carr and Wahidin, 2013). Another thing that crime has often been linked to is the level of intelligence an individual has. The common theory is that if someone has a lower level of intelligence then they will be more likely to struggle during education and could be more likely to rebel in the form of criminal acts. However saying this, intelligence is often a feature in unsuccessful criminals (That’s to say, those who are caught) (Burke,
If a child is damaged at a young age, then they way they think and perceive the world changes, especially if help is not given to them in their time of need. Child abuse is a serious issue and is a major point that affects juvenile delinquency and the role they play in society, meaning if they have a positive, or negative role and the way they will live their life. Elrod and Ryder (2011) state that child physical abuse is rather more specific than any other kind of “discipline”. There is a difference between spanking and child physical abuse, and that child physical abuse is more of a degree, not kind. There is no specific estimate of the exact role that child abuse and neglect plays in the United States, however, it is certain that there is a significant social problem in this area.
In return tackling the problem of high recidivism rates and reintegration into society. Mental Health Issues in Juveniles Young people are unintentionally vulnerable when it comes to mental health development causing them to at times make unreasonable decisions. This is why we have laws and restrictions that keep adolescents from voting, entering legal ... ... middle of paper ... ...venile justice . Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1-27. McAlinden , A.
Juvenile delinquency is described as illegal or immoral behavior, generally among young people under the legal age of eighteen. In order to reduce these high rates of delinquency, parents, and other adult figures, must first ask themselves, what is causing this? What external and internal
WHY TOUGH DOESN’T WORK 2 Introduction This paper will determine the importance of realizing how young offenders should be treated differently in the criminal justice system in comparison to adult offenders. In order to gather a better understanding of youth delinquents, the history of youth delinquents will be explored, as well as important examples of why youth delinquents must be taken care of in a different manner compared to adult offenders. The following two main examples will be discussed in order to prove that young offenders must be handled differently compared to adult offenders: 1) The criminal pathways that youth face, 2) Youth as victims of violence. There have been numerous interventions that have been successful
This study will cover origin of the behaviour problems that include biological, psychological and sociological relations that may factors as to why youth become delinquents. For example, a sociological issue that might lead to a juvenile becoming a delinquent may be the more delinquent friends one has, the greater chance one has to become a delinquent themselves. Delinquency then causes several problems within society that allows youth to attain criminal records, receive criminal punishment and ruin one’s reputation within society. Pre... ... middle of paper ... ... central of reasons for criminal activity. All juvenile cases and scenarios are unique and different, and the causes of each youth’s actions are all different.
Although some argue that juveniles are well served in these courts, it is in the best interest of society that juvenile offenders be tried and prosecuted as adults. Juveniles should be held fully responsible for the crimes they commit because even though they are young, juveniles have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong when choosing to commit a crime. Trying juveniles as adults ensures a strict punishment, vindication for the victim, and the re-establishment of order and protection for society. Psychologists say that a child's values and morals are permanently set by the time they reach the age of 5. Once juveniles have reached the legal juvenile age, they should not of problems discerning between right and wrong.