Race and Sentencing It has been brought up that certain race and ethic affects a person’s sentencing. Many studies have addressed the question are African Americans treated more severely than similarly situated whites? (Mitchell, 2005). Observers had indeed noted that black defendants get more severe sentencing than white defendants do (Spohn, 1981). For many years’ social scientist has examined this theory and came up with three explanations, racial discrimination, Wealth discrimination, and
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
The American criminal justice system is comprised of criminal courts, correctional facilities, and law enforcement officials. Each of these components also make up the juvenile justice system but the operations of each differs with juveniles than with adults who are suspected of committing criminal acts. A juvenile offender is an individual under a certain age who is suspected of having committed a crime or a status offense. A status offense is an offense that if committed by an adult, would
Introduction: When examining the juvenile justice system for fairness there are many areas that must be investigated. One must look at the police’s enforcement of the law and the juvenile court’s prosecution defendants. The question being asked is this being done fairly to all minors who deal with the juvenile justice system? Why do some juveniles with identical crimes receive different punishments from the court? How do the courts justify these disparities in enforcement? While there are many
Introduction The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is the principal federal program through which the federal government sets standards for juvenile justice systems at the state and local levels. It provides direct funding for states, research, training, and technical assistance, and evaluation. The JJDPA was originally enacted in 1974 and even though the JJDPA has been revised several times over the past 30 years, its basic composition has remained the same. Since the act
The high incarceration rate of juveniles is a significant social problem that affects society as a whole as well as the youth’s individual welfare and developmental trajectory. Adolescents who are incarcerated in the juvenile justice system face a multitude of negative lifelong implications. The history of incarcerating youth in residential facilities such as juvenile halls, camps, ranches or group homes as a consequence for committing crimes has a deep-rooted history in the United States. “For more
Programs and Services On the Tom Green County Juvenile Probation Resources website, I found quite a few programs and services that I believe would work for adolescents who are either at risk or already in the juvenile justice system. The programs and services are: the High Sky Children’s Ranch, The West Texas Boys Ranch, The Concho Valley Home for Girls, House of Faith, The Youth Advocate Program, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. The reason I believed these types of programs and services
Disciplinary changes applied to the juvenile justice system in addition to negative impressions of juvenile males have caused juvenile male incarceration rates to surge. African American male juveniles encounter racial differences in society everyday due to view that media portrays them to be. Racial bias amongst these juvenile African American males is the principal cause of their incarceration rates climbing higher each year. The lives of these juveniles are seriously altered after being incarcerated
disproportionately represented throughout juvenile justice systems in nearly every state in the nation. Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in juvenile justice occurs when minority youth come into contact with the system at a higher rate than their white counterparts. African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans comprise a combined one-third of the nation's youth population. Yet they account for over two-thirds of the youth in secure juvenile facilities (Armour & Hammond,
The criminal justice system conducts trials, determines guilt, and decides what kind of punishments to give to adults who have committed some sort of crime. Adults, however, are not the only ones who commit crimes. Kids under 18 can commit crimes too. In 1899, the juvenile justice system began to form. People thought that kids should be treated differently after committing crimes. Being younger, they were believed to be more able to rehabilitate than adults, the criminal justice system was believed