Juveniles

75% of youth in correctional facilities for delinquency are not in for a serious violent felony crime (Ross). Many minors in such facilities are held because their families cannot take care of them. Drug use, often stemming from the parents, is prevalent in teens detained in juvenile detention. Additionally, teen pregnancy and sexual abuse are common among the incarcerated young adults. Most of them have some level of a psychiatric disorder, however, a small percentage of them actually receive treatment. An unhealthy home environment, drug addiction, and mental trauma all contribute to the cycle of juvenile detention. In fact, 66% of youth who have been arrested will become repeat offenders within 24 months (“21 Juvenile Repeat Offenders

Studies show that the national average for an adolescent’s first sexual intercourse encounter is seventeen years old. Despite this number being very close to the average age in other industrialized countries, the United States holds a higher percentage of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction than those countries (Harper et al, 2010, p. 125). It’s becoming evident that while a majority of the nation’s youth is sexually active, they are not doing so with the appropriate knowledge to keep themselves and others healthy.

This study revealed that 32% of males and 22% of female juveniles reoffended within 12 months (Conrad, Tolou-Shams, Rizzo, Placella, & Brown, 2014). Besides rates of recidivism, there were also factors that separated the sexes. Males tended to have more issues with drugs or alcohol and prior offenses while females experienced more childhood sexual

In beginning my research on females in the juvenile justice system, I was shocked to see how many of the new female juvenile statistics had increased and were gradually catching up on the juvenile male statistics. The numbers have been growing every year, and may soon surpass the numbers the boys have held for so many years. It makes me sit back and wonder what in the world is going on with our female youth in today’s society to cause such a slight, in some cases, to drastic increase depending on the offense. In this research paper, I want to examine the statistics for female youth over the last ten years to discuss what offenses are increasing over others, investigate the reasoning behind this increase in order to try and understand where these teens are “coming from”, and if there is a way for our society to be proactive in our female youths lives in order to prevent them from entering the juvenile justice system and one day adult prison.

Teens end up getting sexually transmitted diseases because they are unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex. No abstinence-only program affected the incidence of unprotected vaginal sex (The Australian). Annually 3 million teenagers contract STDs from their partner (Robert Rector). Teens who have early sex not only suffer from STDs, they also have emotional and physical damage. Research shows that young people who become sexually

UCLA Law Review source is most reliable because it draws leading practitioners, students, and professors to a forum that is designed to exchange of ideas and to facilitate. The presumption is that minors cannot legally consent to sex and thus are always victims. Being characterized as a victim helps youth access support services and avoid prosecution in certain circumstances. However, local and state governments struggle to provide all youth with comprehensive resources. The conventional wisdom is that the distinction between legal and equitable remedies is outmoded and serves no purpose. Young people locked up in juvenile prisons have an enormous need for mental healthcare, one which juvenile prisons have consistently found themselves unable

In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States

Master of Professional Health Debra Hauser states that sexual education is an essential part of the development and growth of teenagers. In her article “Youth Health and Rights in Sex Education”, MPH Hauser provides a report of teenage pregnancies and STDs incidences, which points out that each year in the United States, about 750,000 teens become pregnant, with up to 82 percent of those pregnancies being unintended. Young people ages 15-24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S (Hauser). According to Hauser, “sex education teaches young people the skills they need to protect themselves”, such as the ability to recognize patterns of a toxic relationships, learning to value and have control over their bodies, understanding

The USDOJ reports that sexual abuse and victimization is noted in both juvenile and adult facilities for youth. “About 10% in state-owned or -operated juvenile facilities and state contract facilities reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization. About 2.5% of adjudicated youth (an estimated 450 nationwide) reported an incident involving another youth. 7.7% (1,390) reported an incident involving facility staff. Some reported sexual victimization by both another youth and facility staff (0.7%).” (Cantor, Hertge, & Smith, 2013, p.9). “The BJS survey found eight facilities in which more than one in 10 incarcerated youth reported that they had been forcibly sexually assaulted by a staff member in the previous 12 months.” (The Huffington Post, 2013) The risk for mental illness increases for those behind bars and EJI (2015) notes the particular vulnerability for children, as they are “five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities and face increased risk of

In 2013, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, BJS, published a special report entitled “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2012”. It was the result of surveys of 8,707 youth in facilities owned or operated by a state juvenile correctional authority and adjudicated youth held under state contract in locally or privately- operated juvenile facilities. The data collected reaffirms the need for a structured response to sexual assault upon juveniles in these facilities. Specifically, BJS reported the following (estimated through weighted sampling): 9.5% of

This paper will examine how parental monitoring effects the risky sexual practices performed by adolescents, ranging from seventh to twelfth grade. One study that examined whether parental monitoring mediated the relationship between community violence exposure and spectrum such as recidivism, risky, sex, and drug use among youth with a history of being detained, found that females exhibited more risky sexual behaviors compared to males, even though they reported significantly higher levels of parental monitoring (Viosin, Tan, Tack, Wade, DiClemente, 2012). Similar to what I plan on finding, Huang et al. (2011)’s data shows that most males reported having lower parental monitoring than females. In addition, adolescents that recorded having

Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and adopt healthy sexual behaviors. Strong evidence suggests that comprehensive approaches to sex education help young people both to withstand the pressures to have sex too soon and to have healthy, responsible and mutually protective relationships when they do become sexually active. A November 2007 report found that “two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavioral effects (Rochman 2012).” Many delayed or reduced sexual activity, reduced the number of sexual partners, and increased the use of condoms or other contraceptives. Research has identified highly effective sex education and HIV prevention programs affect multiple behaviors and achieve positive health impacts. Behavioral outcomes have included delaying the initiation of sex as well as reducing the frequency of sex, the number of new partners, the incidence of unprotected sex, and increasing the use of condoms and contraception among sexually active participants. Long-term impacts have included lower STI and pregnancy rates (McKeon

Programs that encourage abstinence have become a vital part of school systems in the US. These programs are usually referred to as abstinence-only or value-based programs while other programs are called as safer-sex, comprehensive, secular or abstinence-plus programs which on the contrary promote the usage of effective contraception. Although abstinence-only and safer-sex programs disagree with one another, their core values and stand on the aims of sex education is to help teens develop problem-solving skills and the skill of good decision-making. They believe that adolescents will be better prepared to “act responsibly in the heat of the moment” (Silva). Most programs that have been currently implemented in the US have seen a delay in the initiation of sex among teens which proves to be a positive and desirable outcome (Silva).

While abstinence from sex is a very important aspect of avoiding sexually transmitted infections and unprepared pregnancies, it does not teach one on how to stay safe during sexual intercourse. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes – these diseases can be the result of unprotected, and even protected, sexual behavior (SC#9). What type of protection should teenagers use to lower the probability of receiving these diseases (BE#8)? Should they use birth control or a condom? Through sexual education, a student has some knowledge about protecting themselves and their partner during sex; it is better to be safe than sorry. Additionally, it is unlikely that sexual education encourages sexual activity. The World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a study of thirty-five sexual education classes around the world and found, “there is no evidence that comprehensive [sexual education] programs encourage sexual activity”

Coinciding with the onslaught of the new millennium, schools are beginning to realize that the parents are not doing their job when it comes to sexual education. The school system already has classes on sexual education; these classes are based mainly on human anatomy. Most schools do not teach their students about relationships, morals, respect, self-discipline, self-respect, and most importantly contraceptives. Everyday students engage in sexual activity, many of them with out condoms. This simple act jeopardizes these students' futures and possibly their lives. An increasing amount of school systems are starting to combine messages involving abstinence from sexual activity,