The state of Florida has passed a new law pertaining to the Juvenile Justice System which gives the officer that makes first contact with the youth offender. The officer may, if the youth has no prior criminal acts and the offense is a non-violent or non-drug related offense, just file a civil citation. This happens to be a new program designed to address a youth’s behavior at their first encounter with the Juvenile Justice system providing an alternative to being arrested. Vital to the Department of Juvenile Justice’s effort, civil citations will help reform the juvenile justice system by handing first-time misdemeanor offenders the chance to participate in intervention programs at the earliest stage of delinquency. Civil citations saves millions of dollars by curving first-time misdemeanor offenders, that would have otherwise been spent if the youth had been arrested and forced to go through formal delinquency procedures. The civil citation process put into place by the state of Florida starts with the arrest forms being held and then a diversion process begins. Once the assessment completed to determine the youth’s needs a referral to the appropriate Community Diversion Service is given. The diversion service may consist of a Teen Court, First Offender Program, or any other Diversion Programs the community may have set up. If successful the teen will have no juvenile record and be released from the program. With unsuccessful youths, there arrest form will be completed and a record of the offense will go on the books then they will be sent to delinquency intake to spend some time in a facility for juvenile offenders. The mechanics behind this new process set in the Florida Juvenile justice System start with the officer, as sta... ... middle of paper ... ...uvenile Justice." Florida Civil Citation | Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . 4.) "Gov. Scott: Youth Arrests Down to Lowest Rate in 30 Years." Florida Governor Rick Scott. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. . 5.)"Fiscal Responsibility: The Key to a Safer, Smarter, and Stronger Juvenile Justice System." Southern Poverty Law Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. . 6.)"A Look at Youth Civil Citation: Should North Carolina Implement a Program?." www.ncchild.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
The adult system’s shifts leaked into the juvenile system, causing an increase in incarcerations even when delinquency rates were declining at the time. Juvenile reform legislations prompted more compulsory sentencing and more determinate sentences for juveniles, lowering of the upper age of juvenile jurisdiction, considerable ease in obtaining waivers to adult court for juvenile prosecution, and made it easier to gain access to juvenile records as well. Furthermore, it led to greater preoccupation with chronic, violent offenders, which in turn led to a redirection of resources for their confinement. Thereby, the absence of reliable criteria for identifying such offenders tends to stereotype all delinquents and is more likely to raise the level of precautionary confinements. These three major shifts in juvenile justice policy demonstrate the power and depth of traditional beliefs about the causes and cures of crimes in U.S. society. It also shows how the system can bend for a time in the direction of new approaches to prevention and control. Today, we are presently in a time of conservative responses where the prevailing views about crime express beliefs about prevention, retribution, and incapacitation that are profoundly rooted in our
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.
Jenson, Jeffrey and Howard, Matthew. "Youth Crime, Public Policy, and Practice in the Juvenile Justice System: Recent Trends and Needed Reforms." Social Work 43 (1998): 324-32
Gebo, Erika. "A Family Affair: The Juvenile Court and Family Violence Cases." Juvenile Family Violence 30 June 2007: 501-509.
Males, M. and D. Macallair (2000). “ The Color of Justice: An Analysis of Juvenile Justice
Bartollas, Clemens and Miller, Stuart J. (2014). Juvenile justice in america (7 ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, 58-60.
The book, No Matter How Loud I Shout, takes an in-depth look at the juvenile court system in the state of California in the 1990s. Through a colorful narrative story the author, Edward Humes, paints of vivid picture of the how dysfunctional the system truly was. The main focus is on the various ways the system has failed many of the juveniles that it is intended to help. Peggy Beckstrand, the Deputy District Attorney, says it best “The first thing you learn about this place, is that nothing works.” (No Matter How Loud I Shout, 1996, p.31)
The Juvenile Justice system, since its conception over a century ago, has been one at conflict with itself. Originally conceived as a fatherly entity intervening into the lives of the troubled urban youths, it has since been transformed into a rigid and adversarial arena restrained by the demands of personal liberty and due process. The nature of a juvenile's experience within the juvenile justice system has come almost full circle from being treated as an adult, then as an unaccountable child, now almost as an adult once more.
The majority of the juvenile research concludes that serious harm can be done to juveniles simply being referred into the formal juvenile justice process. Police officers should really take into consideration that who they send for the formal process (Kaufman, I. 1979).At times these juveniles are just playing around and doing things that they are not supposed too and when processed they are being mixed with real delinquents and are being influenced by the wrong people which may cause them to tern deviant and later delinquents. A way to stop this police should only take into consideration serious criminal or repeated criminal
Crime rates across the U.S. for juveniles is at all time high. Juveniles across all demographic have been punished more severely than those of the past. Contributing factors including lower socioeconomic areas such as the Detroit Metropolitan Areas & Chicago. This paper will discuss the apparent issue within the system focusing on juveniles in urban areas.
The juvenile community corrections population has experienced a tremendous growth over the past two decades. In cities like Miami, Florida in places like Liberty City, called “Pork and Beans,” the volume of adjudicated youths ordered to formal probation increased by 67% according to Adams (2011). Juvenile crime has been on a rise, in Miami, Florida since 2002. The police believe that young people are becoming targets, more than before because they are young and are sending them to juvenile court. This growth has had serious inferences for juvenile probation officers that make frequent choices about the case management of juvenile offenders on a daily basis. Juvenile probation officers have to type dispositions and assignment references,
Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. 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.
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
John P. Wright, Kären M. Hess, Christine H. Orthmann. "Juvenile Justice." Cengage Learning; 6 edition, 2012
Bridges, K. M. Banham . "Factors Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 17.4 (1927): 531-76. scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.