Is Religion An Effective Deterrent Against Juvenile Delinquency?

When it comes to kids, we tend to baby them. We organize their lives and set limits on everything. If they want to do something outside those limits we tell them they are not old enough or they have not experienced enough of the world yet. After all, what can they possibly know about love, major decisions, and what is best for them? Yet somehow, despite all this, when they commit a crime we turn into hypocrites. Magically, they are geniuses who know everything about the world. In society’s eyes, they are no longer a child, but a monster.

The environment a child is surrounded in is what develops a child’s perception into the mind of a criminal. The mind of a child is made purely of innocence until one is exposed to destructive developmental patterns. Children that have grown into the shoes of a criminal had been raised into a home with no control and where the environment creates vulnerability. Those who grow up into childhood with an unorganized lifestyle only want to possess the control and power that criminals contain. Children raised in this unstable environment develop a slow pace of skills adolescents learn earlier on (Shi and Nicol par.2). Juvenile sex offenders do not fully develop basic skills which makes it easier to be negatively pressured by society (par.

Criminal justice within the United States of America has in recent times been receiving heavy amounts of flack due to the unsettled case of whether or not it is just to sentence children convicted of major felonies to life without parole in state prisons. In the current state of criminal justice concerning minors, children as young as thirteen years of age are deemed eligible to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. According to The American Civil Liberties Union, an estimated 2,570 children between the ages of thirteen to seventeen are currently serving time in federal or state prisons with adults as a result of this policy. Much concern and weariness has arisen from this policy with many arguing that children of the ages of thirteen

It is understood that at an early age, it is impossible to some advocates, for children to have the mental ability like that of a normal adult, to plan and execute a crime and moreover to understand the consequences of it. Therefore it is controversial where or not to try them as adults. During the adolescent years, it is asserted that a child becomes mature and begins to understand important concepts like society and expectations they are still trying to deal with society, their own inner battles of peer pressure, lack of direction, impulsiveness and lack of identity, according to the Legal and Justice Center. At

People feel that the American justice system constructs upon holding perpetrators accountable for their actions. Most states in America believe by setting harsh sentences that this will act as a deterrent to other juveniles who are considering committing crimes. There may be some veracity to trying juveniles as adults. The juvenile arrest rate reported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention shows that, “The juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate increased in the mid-2000s, and then declined through 2012 to its lowest level since at least 1980. The rate in 2012 was 38% below its 1980 level and 63% below the peak year of 1994. In 2012, there were 182 arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses for every 100,000 youth between 10 and 17 years of age. If each of these arrests involved a different juvenile, which is unlikely, then no more than 1 in every 544 person’s ages 10-17 was arrested for a Violent Crime Index offense in 2012, or less than one-fifth of 1% of all juveniles ages 10 to 17 living in the states.” This rating shows that by trying juveniles as adults has coincided considerably with the lowering rate of juvenile

Children being tried as adult’s unfortunately is not a new practice in the U.S. or one that is looked down upon. In the United States there are thousands of underage children that get tried in criminal court each year. Countless of studies show that trying children as adults does not benefit neither the child nor the society. This essay will show that trying a child as an adult is unconstitutional and violates the criminal law conduct. This essay will carful define the terms regarding children in the criminal justice system, to fully understand the situation.

It is often stated that the future lies in the hands of our offspring’s. Meaning, that the youth are our future adults. The world revolves on the status of the children and what they will do to contribute to life. Accordingly to The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquent Prevention 1.8 million juveniles were arrested in 2009 (OJJDP). The Juvenile Justice system holds the keys to unlock many doors of broken children that are on the wrong path in there adolescent life. The difference between children and adults is that children have a greater capacity for change when an adult can be more resistant to it (JLC.org). This is one reason why The Justice System should give additional help to the Juvenile Corrections System.

Clearly, religion had a negative impact on Lily Sabbath, but in the real world, does religion have a positive or negative impact on children? John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids to rate how much self-control they believed their children showed, how often they exhibited negative or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers (livescience.com). The researchers then compared their answers to how often these children’s parents said they attended religious services, talked openly about religion with their child and argued about religion at home. The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services and talked openly with their kids about religion were said to have better self-discipline, social skills and learning abilities than kids with non-religious parents. The children whose parents often argued about religion were more likely to have these problems. Bartkowski noted that “Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family.” If religion has such a positive impact on children, why is there so much crime? Are crimes often connected to religious preferences?

Juvenile incarceration has been a controversial issue long before the formation of the Juvenile Justice system. During the 18th century, Americans adopted Great Britain’s English Common Laws, which believed in “malice supplies the age” (Blackstone, 1769). This meant that children as young as seven years old could be convicted of crimes to the same degree as adults. During this period, the courts did not acknowledge the variance in cognition between children and adults, so they were tried equally. As a result, children were incarcerated with adult offenders, where they were exposed to risk of maltreatment and corruption (The American Bar Association).

This paper examines the effectiveness of the American justice system surrounding juvenile offenders not yet responsible for their punishable acts. Although the purpose of the juvenile justice system is the rehabilitate and deter juvenile offenders from breaking laws, evidence suggests the justice system is ineffective and unjust. The sentencing of juveniles is unjust and ineffective because juveniles are not mentally developed enough to make rational decisions, incarcerating juveniles is costly, and youth incarceration does not discourage youth from committing more crimes, and the incarceration of juveniles often results in mental and physical abuse of the youth.

The courts experience many challenges that include determining whether a child who commits a heinous crime should be sentenced in a manner that reflects their actions or based on their ability for rehabilitation. Children have the capacity to commit terrible acts of violence, and when they do the question posed is if they should be punished based on their actions or based on their ability to rehabilitate. The judges also look to see what’s in the best interest of the child (Chambliss, 2005), especially regarding their age. The age of the juvenile in question places tremendous weight on the judge as they want what is

If a fourteen-year old child murders another person should they be tried in an adult court with the possibility of a life in prison without parole? According to a Gallup Poll conducted in 2003, 59% of people surveyed that they support harsher sentences for serious crimes committed by a minor. The juvenile courts can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a way to prevent the children of a growing immigrant population from falling victim to a life of crime. Despite the original intentions of the juvenile system, the recidivism rate for minors continues to rise at an alarming rate meaning that convicted youth are trapped in a viscous cycle of incarceration that never allows them to grow and prosper. This paper discusses the foundation and intention of the juvenile court system as well as focusing on three issue areas that are complicating the court system: the advancement of neurological studies such as Laurence Steinberg’s, A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking, a lack of proper education and resources necessary to teach the incarcerated youth causing them to fall behind those who have attended a normal school, and an ineffective or complete lack of a rehabilitation plan for convicted juveniles. Finally, this paper discusses the Supreme Court case of Miller v. Alabama (2012) that rendered a 5-4 decision that declared charging a minor life in prison without parole unconstitutional.

This paper reflects on the question of if a child of 10 years or less can act morally wrong or commit morally virtuous acts. Children in today's society are nearly forced to be older than their actual age and thus must increase in maturity and morally comparatively to children of as little as three decades ago. The argument of agreement will be proved by examples of needing a two person income family with a comparative of a child in a single parent versus both parent environment. Although it is a "grievous moral wrong to harm" (Waller, 2008, p. 32) children under the age of ten, the evil in society today will be proved with examples to show children who are harmed are able to commit not only morally virtuous acts but can and

In recent decades, juvenile crime has become somewhat of a controversy due to the young age and immaturity of these criminals. Incidences of juvenile crime skyrocketed in the 1980s and 1990s, and policymakers pushed for laws that sent children as young as thirteen years old to trial, and even made them eligible for prison sentences. The general public has expressed a common desire to reduce the incidence of juvenile crime and find effective legislation to discipline these youths, but there are questions about these methods. What is more effective, incarceration or rehabilitation? Does criminal punishment intimidate more youths away from a life of crime, and would productive rehabilitation efforts influence these youths to becoming more valuable members of society?

Many children become familiar with the Juvenile Justice System without knowledge of why they continue to commit crimes. Many of them suffered years of being abuses, which caused socialization changes that pushed them to withdraw or act out. This research is important because it shows the long terms effects child abuse has on children that become juvenile delinquents. Statistics show increasing numbers of children who are the victims of child abuse and neglect, although they decrease in delinquency may reflect a greater nation focus on the issue and the use of more effective programs to attack the problem. This research is important to me because the Criminal Justice System doesn’t address the causes of deviant behavior in juvenile delinquents to its full potential. They rather just focus on policing and tough sanctions. Hopefully with this paper and many others child abuse can be prevented along with the long-term effects of child abuse and better programs can be invented to treat child abuse victims. The Office of Justice Programs came up with a “Safe Kids Safe Streets” Program, which acknowledge the correlation between child abuse and juvenile delinquency and is aimed at breaking the cycle of early childhood victimization and later delinquency (Safe