Solutions to Juvenile Crime Essay

To many Americans today, the country is a hostage-but not from oversea terrorism as one might expect to think. No today, we live in fear from our own children; and these are the same young people who we are entrusting the future of this great country with. According to the Department of Justice report released in November, thirty-eight percent of those arrested for weapons offenses in 1995 were under the age of eighteen (Curriden). In the same report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that in 1995, 3 out of every 100 eighteen-year-olds were arrested for weapons offenses. A rate three times higher than for males twenty-five to twenty-nine and five times higher than for males thirty to thirty-four (Curriden).

With the escalation of murders and rapes committed by minors as seen in recent years the people are looking for the right answer. Public concern over the effectiveness of the juvenile courts when dealing with these offenders has brought about change in the justice system. (Stolba, 2001). The courts now, are quicker to transfer a juveniles’ case to adult court than when the juvenile system was first formed. There stands a conflict of interests within the two court systems. Juvenile courts are to protect the rights of youths determined incapable of adult decisions. The primary concern is that the youth be rehabilitated and not become a repeat offender. Thus, protecting the child from incarceration with adult criminals and any possible future victims. The concerns of the adult court is to make sure the convicted offender pays for their crime and that the victim gets justice. Rehabilitation is not a primary concer of the adult justice system.

The exact definition of a juvenile is a “young person” who has yet to reach their 18th birthday. The average life expectancy of someone living in the U.S. is about 79 years old. Proposition 21 requires juveniles to be viewed and tried as adults, including receiving adult punishment such as a life sentence. If a juvenile receives a life sentence before they reach adulthood, more than three-fourths of their life is gone (“California Proposition 21”). Juveniles don’t even have a fully developed brain and as a result, can’t fully understand the circumstances that they find themselves in. Courts must not be given the power to try and sentence juveniles as adults because the environment in adult prisons are for adults, not juveniles, therefore, Proposition 21 should be repealed.

According to crimevictimsunited.org, Measure 11 passed with a two-thirds majority in November of 1994, and was first implemented on April 1st, 1995. While this bill had good intentions there have been, in my opinion, some serious side effects. Before Measure 11 was in place, a judge could look at each case on a case-by-case level. A judge used to have the ability to look at the circumstances that came with each case, and was able to actually judge each case accordingly. However, since judges must follow Measure 11 to the T, that power has been taken away from them. Also, due to this bill, juveniles ages 15 and up can be sentenced under the guidelines of Measure 11. That means that once a teenager turns 15 and commits one of the Measure 11 crimes he or she can be charged as an adult and get a mandatory minimum sentence regardless of their criminal history and the circumstances involved with their case. In reality, this is a “One Strike and You’re Out” approach, which is only adding to our problems.

A “Yes” vote for this measure meant that various changes have been made to the juvenile and adult criminal law. Among the more significant changes is the requirement that more juvenile offenders are to be tried in adult court; it requires that certain juvenile offenders be held in local or state correctional facilities; increases penalties for gang-related crimes;

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.

There are many similarities and differences between the adult and juvenile justice systems. Although juvenile crimes have increased in violence and intensity in the last decade, there is still enough difference between the two legal proceedings, and the behaviors themselves, to keep the systems separated. There is room for changes in each structure. However, we cannot treat/punish juvenile offenders the way we do adult offenders, and vice versa. This much we know. So we have to find a way to merge between the two. And, let’s face it; our juveniles are more important to us in the justice system. They are the group at they

“The philosophy of rehabilitating juveniles shifted to a philosophy of punishing juveniles. A big part of this nationwide “get tough” on teen offenders policy has been legislation making it easier to try juveniles offenders as adults” (Taylor, 2001-2002). So what does Proposition 21 actually do? Depending on the nature and seriousness of the crime it can require an adult trial for juveniles14 or older include who have been charged with a murder or specified sex offenses. It can also force elimination of informal probation for juveniles who have committed felonies and require registration for gang related offenses. It also designates additional crimes as violent and serious felonies which subject offenders to longer sentencing if found guilty. There are also two revisions in proposition 21 that dramatically alter the identification and punishment for fringe offenders. ”First, a defendant

“Uniformly in our communities, more and more young people are engaging in more and more dangerous and serious behavior. And I see as a result of that, more prosecutors and the citizens generally seem to be exerting more pressure to charge these youths as adults, as opposed to having them processed through the juvenile justice system,” Juvenile Judge Elizabeth Crnkovich

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

From an online article published by KARE11 News station, in October in 2016, a 17-year-old boy decided to commit murder to a man and a harmless 7-month-old baby without even thinking.

Every process has room for improvement, but the juvenile justice system can be altered by adding in possible solutions of what can be done to help this problem in American society. About 100 years ago, juveniles were always tried as adults. Now, that the government has altered the system for the better, the government knows that trying juveniles as adults is not always justified. It depends on the crime, but the majority of the time, juveniles are often always tried as juveniles, based solely on their age. Not only that has changed; the process of juvenile justice has changed as well to better help the juveniles in the system. The rights of juveniles in the system have changed so that the children can improve their lives once they are out of the system. Even though the process has changed and the rights have improved for the juveniles, there are still many improvements to be made. Studies show that recidivism rates are in fact going down, but the rate can always be better so that juveniles do not return to a life of crime.

Juvenile crime is a major problem in today's society, nevertheless it's one of the most

The criminal activities done by youth who are under age of eighteen is called youth crime. There are many types of crime which are done by youth. Property crime, drug offences, violent crime, common assault, mischief, break and enter, sexual assault, robbery all are included in crimes that youth mostly do. Mostly youth commit crime by involving more than one person. In this paper, I will discuss different type of crime that youth do, how Parental status effect youth to commit a crime, how government and police handle the situation when youth commits the crime and how Good education can help to prevent a youth for committing the crimes. Youth had a double crime rate than older adults aged 25 and over.

grew by 86% from 1988 to 1992, which was more then any other type of juvenile