Juvenile Delinquents

Picture a mother receiving a phone call from the local police station that her ten-year-old son is being held in a jail cell for stealing school supplies and is facing charges of five years in prison; his mother weeps as she knows it is her fault for not being able to afford them. This has been an issue in the juvenile system since the early 1800s. The juvenile justice system has not been strong enough to find an appropriate sentence for small crimes committed by children who are not living stable lives. In the 1800s, they believed that the death sentence was one of the only ways to teach people that crime is not permissible, and even if children committed a very low-level crime, they could be put to death. Since then, the justice system has gone through phases of accepting the death sentence for children, to banning the death sentence for children under 18, and then banning the death sentence and life without parole for children completely. Many of these children have not had a fair chance in the system and have been punished for crimes that others may have done, so this problem must be fixed. Although most people would say that juveniles should be punished for their crimes, the community should be better involved in helping these children to know that these crimes are not allowed, and if they are committed, the community should be there to help these children learn from their mistakes.

Juvenile Delinquency is the participation of illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit. A delinquent is a minor who commits a crime or a status offense. A status offense is conduct that is illegal only because the child is under age i.e. smoking cigarettes (Senna 10, 20). The cases of Eric Smith, Lionel Tate, and an unidentified NJ child are similar only because, they are guilty of killing another child, but the Criminal Justice System treated and punished them very differently. In August 1993 in Savona, New York 13 year old Eric Smith killed 4 year old Derrick Robie. Smith lured Robie into the woods and strangled, beat with large rocks, and sodomized Robie. Smith was questioned by police and kept changing some

Data shows that in 1990, there were a total of 1.492 gang related homicides in a spam of only 408 cities; and from 1996-1998 there was approximately 1,204 homicides per year within 237 cities.What makes the youth so attracted to gang affiliations? Most theories have failed to target the reasons as to why individuals join gangs. However, there has been research that young adults whom join a gang, lack some of these five stages; physiological, personal safely, feeling love and “belonging”, low self-esteem, and self-actualization. When individuals join these gangs, “fulfill” all of these characteristics. Once associated, members receive shelter and food. In their eyes, gangs are viewed as sororities, where they know if anything happens to one of their members there will be protection from the others. With that being said, self-esteem and self-actualization naturally come about, bringing personal satisfaction. Most members are those with poor family network, low net-income, leading to devoting their time to the streets. Much of these has to do with the social network from these children and are often lured into these

Many people question the justice system on their decisions when it comes to sentencing juveniles. A juveniles background is always a huge question. People also question the living circumstances and who and how the juvenile was taken care of. Many juveniles return to the system because they are already labeled as criminals. The justice system should focus more of preventing crimes from happening. Alot of juveniles like myself were brought around areas where the law wasnt considered the most important thing. The majority of people in the justice system cant relate to what the juveniles have been through. There is no sympathy during court because the system feels as if the juveniles are angry and intended to do the crimes. I do not agree, As a

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (2017), there has been 22 juvenile delinquents executed from 1985 to 2016. This number does not include the juveniles still on death row. In the year 2016, there were 20 people in general executed (CNN, 2017). The execution rate declined 39 percent from the year before and is the lowest execution rate in the United States since 1991. Currently, in 2017 the execution rate in the United States has been 23 people (Reuters, 2017). As of 2004, there were over 7,000 inmates in the Unites states under the age of eighteen in state prisons, serving a sentence (Fagan, 2005). Juvenile delinquents are being incarcerated and given the same punishment as adults are given, there are different factors to why

Juvenile delinquency is a social issue in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, is when “a violation of the law is committed by a juvenile and is not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Juvenile Delinquency). The juvenile system is different from the adult system in many way and most juvenile delinquents are from the age of ten to the age of seventeen (Juvenile Delinquent). Once the delinquent or anyone is at the age of eighteen, they are considered to be an adult. Therefore, in the justice system they are tried as an adult. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, peer influence, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. Teens are greatly influenced by the interactions and surroundings they are around. Their behaviors can result from the parent and/or their peer influences. Parents play a great role in the child’s life and a teen’s peers also play a strong role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not insight. This research will examine links between the social environment of teens and how it influences the teens actions and behavior which leads them to commit an offense.

At the young age of fourteen, children can be moved into adult court and charged as adults under certain circumstances. At seventeen this change is automatic. There is much debate over whether it is lawful to pick and choose which children deserve to be charged as adults, but that is just one of the many problems the judicial system faces when it comes to the punishment of juvenile offenders. There are also many problems with the examination and sentencing of juvenile offenders today, due to the fact that it can be difficult to determine the mental stability of the juvenile being charged, as well as the amount of parental influence that was had at the time of the crime. However, the biggest problem juvenile offenders face is no longer about

The progressive movements, in the United States, to improve society in physical, emotional and intellectual health continues to improve every day. In this progress, juvenile delinquents create an interesting debate, as alternative placements continue to be utilized, while youth continue to change. In order to find the best treatments for juvenile delinquents, it is necessary to approach the past and analyze the success between different treatments and what each alternative placement attempts to control. As a whole, the goal of treating juvenile delinquents differently than offenders, is to avoid having youth grow to become criminals and discourage

Allowing juveniles to be convicted without a fair trial is unlawful. These children should be given a chance to represent their side of the trial when being tried for a crime. This also means allowing the children to be given the help they need to improve their life. There are reasons why many juveniles turn to crime, so instead teach the children to turn away. Juvenile delinquents should not have limited privileges or unfair trials which would include: no help at recovery, being charged as adults, and not allowing their personal background into evidence.

Juvenile offenders of violent crimes should be tried and convicted as adults because they should take responsibility for their actions, not hide behind their age, and give justice to the victim's families. Murder is murder, there shouldn’t be exceptions. Ignorance of both parties judge and jury always have a high influence on these topics.

Old, jobless people, sitting on their T.V’s watching program after program. Young, Juvenile Delinquents, out on the streets dealing gram after gram. Smart people are nerds who study hard for their exams.

Negative effects of juvenile delinquency and juvenile incarceration, includes mental health, social relationships, and education of the individual, which impacts on families, school, and wider community (Lambie & Randell, 2013). These factors can have damaging effects that contribute to recidivism and other unfavourable outcomes.

The Newsela article, "Study: Teens who expect to die young are more likely to commit a crime", is about young kids growing up in a poor, high crime neighborhood. There is drugs, gangs, and guns on every block of the street and many do not think they will live past 20. Henderson, a boy who lives in this poor neighborhood said, “We all end up in jail or dead. I always thought it would be much better to be dead than in jail.” Many kids do not think they will be successful in life since many around them have poor choices in their lifestyle. In the article, it states,"The study, released last month, asked more than 1,300 serious juvenile offenders in Arizona and Pennsylvania one question: How long do you think you’ll live? Their answers ranged from

Juvenile delinquents commit crimes to get away from an abusive household or life problems. It is a coping method which allows the individual to have a sense of power and belonging in the world. When this notion is perpetuated, people never change since no one intervenes in attempting to rehabilitate people in need of assistance.The few dedicated persons who work diligently to create a transformation in the lives of juveniles deserve recognition for lowering crime rates. Cyntoia Brown is an example of a teenager who had a sense of innocence robbed from her, therefore resulting in a drastically different maturation process. She is accused of murdering man who hired her as a prostitute as a 16 year old. Ms.Brown is a 29 year old model inmate who earned a GED and an associates degree while in prison but unfortunately she was sentenced to life in prison. Many celebrities rally behind this case and do not think that she is a dark person. The sole reason why Cyntoia killed the man who expected her services, was to escape an outcome of inevitable pain and suffering. If juveniles are tried as adults, they will never find out the deepest secrets about themselves and live a normal life. Therefore, I believe it is never appropriate to treat juveniles as adults because these individuals become accustomed to a lifestyle of mundaneness which harms their mental and physical state in a negative manner. My position has not changed since I think juvenile incarcerations stunts adulthood

A traumatic childhood may predispose a child to violence against themselves or against others, in adolescence or adulthood. This information is and has been off the records, but so far no known relationship between the magnitude of traumatic experiences and different forms of violence at puberty. A study published in Pediatrics, which involved 136,549 U.S. students between 12 and 17 has been commissioned to evaluate this relationship. The researchers sought to determine six adverse experiences for which they had passed the boys in childhood and physical and sexual abuse, witnessing abuse or problems at home by alcohol or drugs taken by a relative. Then he saw the violent behavior at puberty: crime, harassment, bullying, dating violence,