Juvenile Behavioral Challenges

Juvenile delinquency has become a controversial issue within the Criminal Justice system. In the United States, juvenile delinquency refers to disruptive and criminal behavior committed by an individual under the age of 18. In many states, a minor at the age of 16 to 17 ½ can be tried as an adult. Once the individual reaches adulthood, the disruptive and criminal behavior is recognized as a crime. However, the criminal justice system has divided juvenile delinquency into two general types of categories that has brought upon controversial issues of inequality and corruption. Yet, putting young individuals in juvenile detentions facilities seems to open the door for them to commit more crimes in the future. Therefore, under certain circumstances juveniles should be tried as an adult.

The juvenile justice system is imperfect, at best, and part of this stems from the fact that juvenile justice, as a specific, discrete category of crime and punishment is still a relatively recent phenomenon. In fact, the notion of childhood and adolescence as distinct phases of human development is a novel idea that did not truly emerge until the twentieth century, so it is only natural that some elements of the juvenile justice system seem to have been made up they went along. Now, however, after substantial research into juvenile delinquency, it causes, and potential solutions, a much clearer picture of the phenomenon is emerging that will allow parents, teachers, legislators, and law enforcement officials to better reduce juvenile delinquency without imposing unnecessarily harsh restrictions of juveniles. By examining the history of the juvenile justice system alongside more recent research into juvenile delinquency, it will be possible to see how the most effective treatments going forward will likely focus on reducing risk before delinquency occurs and rehabilitating juveniles already in the justice system, as opposed to more punitive measures that mark juveniles as a criminal and thus hinder them for the rest of their lives.

Thousands of youths have to go through the Juvenile Justice System every year. Sentencing is unfairly given to many of these youths that end up going through The Juvenile Justice System has become a school for criminals. The sentencing has become biased. Barry C. Feld is one of the nation's leading scholars of Juvenile Justice. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his J.D. from the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University where he was a Russel Sage Foundation Fellow in Law and the Social Sciences ( “Feld, Berry | University of Minnesota Law School,” n.d.). He wrote the article Justice for Juveniles. Justice for Juveniles is an article outlining various issues and solutions

The underlying rationales of the juvenile court system are that youth are developmentally different from adults and that their behavior is impressionable and able to be fixed. Rehabilitation and treatment, in addition to community protection, are considered to be primary and viable goals. If we can

The Juvenile Justice System (JJS) has transformed tremendously over the last 300 years. From adolescents and adults being charged with the same brutality, to the introduction of rehabilitation and diversion programs. As time went on and new political policies were brought forward in the courts, the crime rates fluctuated until the late 1900s and with policies like the Gun Free School Act (GFSA) the number o incarcerated delinquents skyrocketed. Though the conditions of juveniles that are incarcerated have somewhat improved with Positive Youth Development (PYD), there is still a large amount of discrimination in the JJS today. The system is failing to ensure that all youth with disabilities, mental issues, lower class and minorities are provided with the resources needed to live a productive and crime-free life outside of jail. Juveniles are the future of our country and it is imperative that they receive the proper education needed to become effective adults in our society. The JJS needs to be restructured to more effectively lower the chances of recidivism and advocate higher education programs for our youth. In order to accomplish this, there has to be complete reformation of PYD and restorative justice.

The American juvenile justice system had developed over the past century with a number of variables that makes it different from the adult criminal justice process. Juvenile justice advocates supports the differences on the youthful offenders. Juvenile crime policy over the course of the twentieth century talks about transferring the law’s conceptions of young offenders. Starting from the nineteenth century, many of the youths were tried and punished as adults. However, treatment of juveniles in the United States started to change. Reformers created a way where juveniles can be housed in special facilities. Their mission was to protect juvenile offenders by separating them from adults. Juvenile justice system focuses primarily on rehabilitation and help youths avoid a future of crime. Since then there have been many milestones and historical evolutions that can make juvenile justice an effective system.

The juvenile law in America’s system was created on the premise that due to young people’s immaturity, the crimes they have committed should be handled in a different manner from those ascribed to adults. The young people were mostly under the age of eighteen. The key basis was to address the cause of their misdemeanors and to ultimately restore their responsible membership within the community (Bernard, 2012). Juvenile courts date back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the United States, juvenile courts vary in structure and organization, but all serve the common goal of rehabilitating young people.

There is a direct relationship between juveniles that are convicted and held in adult prisons and the depression it inflicts, creating a poisonous cycle of crime that they will be unable to escape from. After an increase of murders committed by juveniles during the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a quick adjustment was made by the supreme court and state courts to increase the abilities of the law to condemn violent juveniles with bleak futures into adult prisons to protect the children who had more optimistic chances. While the protection of the less violent children is important, however, there has been a great many studies that prove it is not the wisest way of seeing the situation at large. Juveniles in prisons designed for their age groups create a sense of value to them as human beings, are generally safer, and are more focused on rehabilitation into society as young adults. Sentencing a juvenile to an adult prison leads to feelings of worthlessness, depression, alienation and a fearful environment where they are unsafe and more likely to be encouraged to further their crime abilities to survive in an adult world.

The American juvenile justice system is consistently developing to adhere to societal values, just as any individual or system in our surroundings. It is important to note that there is not one but several juvenile justice systems within the United States. Each state has its own set of laws governing their juvenile justice system (National Research Council Institute of Medicine, 2001, p. 155). 1899 was the beginning of a substantial shift in the rights of juveniles. However, with two opposing views of the protection of society and the rehabilitation of youth, several states have battled between adopting policies less stringent on youth and adopting policies like the 1990’s, “Get Tough” depriving youth of the protection of the Justice System (University of Pittsburgh, 2009).

Not all states think that the juvenile justice system is persistent in rehabilitation into changing the child’s behavior. In a nationwide height of delinquent behavior in late 1980’s and early 1990’s, some states adopted a “get tough” policy on crime. Considering the fact that juveniles needed to experience the dangers and probable abuses ascribed to incarceration with adult offenders in the criminal justice system. However, when this is being regulated into the youth all they are seeing is negative aspects that may not even fear them. They are so use to crime and looking at more crime within itself in the criminal justice system is just another reality of what is set into their future.

The juvenile justice system is a complex web of people and agencies that process about billions of funds on a yearly basis. To understand the system requires that you have some sort of baseline knowledge of the trends that have shaped the system’s ability to function and the roles played by the various components of the system. This policy paper provides information on changes in the juvenile justice system and analyzes why the increased prosecution sentences of juveniles in adult court is another failed “get tough “policy and does nothing to focus on the best interest for the juvenile. Before the modern era, it appeared that children who committed crimes received no type of preferential treatment. They were adjudicated, punished, and imprisoned

The Juvenile Justice System is seen by many as being ineffective in treating the youth of this country, the programs are outdated and there seems to be little, if any hope that these youth will stay on the right path once released back into society. This paper will discuss the history of the Juvenile Justice System as well as how it has evolved since its inception. We will also discuss the “waiver process” that is used when transferring juveniles into the adult system, and what,

This paper will discuss the history of the juvenile justice system and how it has come to be what it is today. When a juvenile offender commits a crime and is sentenced to jail or reform school, the offender goes to a separate jail or reforming place than an adult. It hasn’t always been this way. Until the early 1800’s juveniles were tried just like everyone else. Today, that is not the case. This paper will explain the reforms that have taken place within the criminal justice system that developed the juvenile justice system.

Juvenile delinquency has been a problem in the United States ever since it has been able to be documented. From 100 years ago to now, the process of juvenile delinquency has changed dramatically; from the way juveniles are tried, to the way that they are released back into society, so that they do not return back to the justice system (Scott and Steinberg, 2008). Saying this, juveniles tend to

It is a common believe that adolescents require a special system thru which be processed because they are “youth who are in a transitional stage of development…young offenders that are neither innocent children nor mature adults…” (Nelson, 2012). Because juveniles are in a process of constant development sociologically, psychologically and physiologically, the juvenile court system focuses on alternative sentences and the creation of programs that will offer them rehabilitation instead of incarceration. However, in cases of extraordinary circumstances, the juvenile system shifts from looking at rehabilitation as a first choice to accountability and punishment (Read, n.d). All levels of society are collectively involved in delinquency