Juveniles and the Justice System

Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The decision of whether to waive a juven... ... middle of paper ... ...sier to flip the switch, pull the lever, or inject the needle.

Previously, society thought we could rehabilitate juveniles and turn them away from a life of crime. What is the best answer for society, the juveniles and their victims? People in America began to get very worried and upset about the news reports they were seeing almost daily in the paper and on the television about juveniles committing serious crimes. There was a movement that began to demand governments do something about this increase in crime by juveniles. In 1988, about 1.6 million juveniles were arrested, 69,000 for violent crimes, which include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Our solution to the rising juvenile crime problem to get tougher. According to a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, 60 percent of Americans believe that a teenager convicted of murder should get the death penalty (Ollson). In response to this “get-tough” mood, more and more states are passing legislation to try youths as adults for more types of crime at younger ages. Colorado for example has a brand new type of tough love for their juvenile threats to society, this new “love,” so it is termed consists of lowering the age so that juveniles as young as fourteen can be sentenced as adults (Hetter). This recently instated law, I feel should be Federal law as opposed to state law.

So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased juvenile delinquency? Simply put, we must create a means of measuring juvenile’s level of risk and in turn, form an effective rehabilitation program that will decrease their risk level for future recidivism. Show the problem exists: “Critics of the juvenile justice system claim that approximately 500,000 youths who move through to the nation’s pretrial detention centers each year—70 percent of them nonviolent offenders—are thousands too many and that this experience may even increase the chances that they will commit more crimes and go “deeper” into the system” (Hardy 2007). These numbers are staggering. Of these half a million youths 350,000 of them will be re-incarcerated in just a matter of 12 months or less.

Juveniles Being Tried As Adults Jennifer Combs University of Mount Olive Steven N. Long, J.D. Abstract Juveniles Being Tried As Adults Numerous studies have been conducted with juvenile crimes and the outcomes from what happens after they have been put into criminal court. Legal procedures and laws that relate to juvenile offenders go back thousands of years when children disobeyed their parents, and sons would curse their fathers. The Roman civil law and canon law 2,000 years ago distinguished juveniles and adults based upon the idea of “age of responsibility”. The Moslem law also believed in leniency in punishing youthful offenders and children under the age of 17 be exempt from the death penalty.

There have been many, many times where an adolescent has caused such pain and sadness, just to be let off with a slap on the wrist. I’m talking about murder here, accidental or otherwise, murder is murder no matter who or how old you are, and the fact they they practically get away with it because of their ages disgusts me. According to the justice department, about 10% of the homicides in the United States are committed by juveniles under 18. Want to see just how serious it gets? Every year the FBI has to arrest more than 33,000 juveniles under 18 for various crimes, according to Huma Khan at http://Abcnews.com.

In Florida, where probability wise more kids are tried as adults then in any other state, studies found that youth sent through the adult court system are twice as likely to commit more crimes when they're release... ... middle of paper ... ... proponents say 'cracks down on the worst of the worst among teen criminals.' It is unbelievable that our society will allow for such a law. It seems unfair that a fourteen year old child can make a mistake and pay for it the rest of his/her life. The reason our system has never tried youth as adults is because they are not mature enough to think like an adult and take responsibility for themselves. At such a young age there is still hope for an alteration in his/her lifestyle, locking the child up only diminishes the chance of change.

The 1980s witnessed an increasingly desperate outcry for courts to take more extreme measures to contain juvenile crime, which is assuming ever more serious forms. It is almost a daily occurrence to turn on the nightly news and hear stories of ever increasing youths committing crimes. Even more alarming are the ages of these offenders. In Lake Station, Indiana, three first-grade students were plotting to kill a classmate. They even went so far as to draw a map of where the slaying was to take place.

The court system back then believed that if enough evidence could be gathered to convince a jury, the underage person would be convicted and sent to an adult prison. Currently in our state, persons as young as 14 can be tried as an adult, due to the effects of Emily’s law. Emily’s law was created when her parents left her with a babysitting company, and the owner’s 13 year old son raped the 2 year old and threw her against the wall. She then died on impact.Throughout the harshness of sentencing juveniles, a court specified for juvenile delinquents was created in 1899. Trying juveniles as adults is too severe, because the charges set against them are unjust.

expected of a person when they join a gang. It will be explained who do gang violence is at an all time high right now in my city. According to nij.gov in recent years it almost 1.3 million crime in 1994 to a low of 331,618 incidents in 2008. Since then it has risen in 2011 there were 414,562 incidents. Every day and night in the news,it is reported that young adults,teenagers and children are being hurt or killed due to gang violence.