Punishment of Juvenile Offenders

Youth violence is escalating in the United States. More juveniles crimes, are sentenced to juvenile court, and then sent right back to where they started The question is, are these juveniles being treated right, are they getting the proper attention? Should they be treated like adults? Or should teenagers, no matter what the crime may be, be treated as juveniles?

Many social and cultural factors in a child's life may influence a child’s behaviors. In fact, according to Dr. Noguera, Most violent teens are from lower class urban areas. Many of them are minorities and a lot come from dysfunctional families. Why then, do people say there is no way to prevent a juvenile from turning violent? When a child is aggressive with at school, or siblings at home, or even when or if they kill animals, they are calling out for attention. These are signs that lead to violence. Has society just given up on teen's altogether once they commit a crime? Obviously there is a pattern, and prevention is key. California and other states respond to the increase of violence and juvenile offenders by building new facilities. Instead, of doing this they spend that money on prevention methods such as providing schools with more counselors? They could provide more after school programs to help keep the kids off the streets. If a child needs help with a problem they should be able to talk to a counselor. I'm not talking about two or three days after he is arrested, instead there should be a adult available to talk to right when the first signs of problems appear. Young people were asked how they perceived violence by a questionnaire. There was a total of four middle schools, two of which primarily served middle-class suburban students, and the other which served low-income urban students in the survey. Students in the low-income urban areas said that they would turn to peers instead of adult figures for help, because adults are not always there for them. They said they were afraid the adults would just make the situation worse. perhaps these juveniles have never seen or experienced the positive aspects of life. Maybe if they had access to prevention centers before they started their life of crime they could be saved along with hundreds of innocent people.