The Juvenile Justice System Is Creating A Criminal Class

African-Americans are more likely than others to have social histories that include poverty, exposure to neighborhood violence, and exposure to crime-prone role models. For example, African-American children with no prior admissions to the juvenile justice system were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than white children with the same background that were charged with the same offense. A major study sponsored by the Department of Justice in the early 1980s noted that juvenile justice system processing appears to be counterproductive, placing minority children at a disproportionately greater risk of subsequent incarceration (Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment, 2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,

This article is a critical examination of the role of race across multiple stages in juvenile court outcomes based on peck and Jennings study on the mistreatment of black offenders in the juvenile court system.

A developing body of research suggests the criminal justice system in intensifying family insecurity and reproducing inequality in the African American families life. The family related complexity initiated by mass incarceration necessitates

This movement seems to have evolved from an increasingly polarized economy that yielded great inequalities in wealth based on education levels and race. Inequalities such as these contributed to racial segregation whereby blacks were and continue to be relegated to urban ghettos where crime, unstable family structures, social disorganization, drugs and the proliferation of handguns contributed to an image of black gang members as violent and dangerous. The intersection of race, guns, and homicide fanned the public and political panic that, in turn, led to the recent get-tough reformulation, (Feld 203). In order to mollify public fears of older, more dangerous juveniles and to appear to be tough on crime, policy makers brought retributive, adult punishment more and more into the purview of the juvenile court. Mandatory sentencing laws are one such manifestation. The issues with stricter sentencing guidelines are numerous. First, too much judicial discretion based solely on the crime and the juveniles past history lends itself to extensive racial and class-based discrimination. It is difficult to judge the efficacy of rehabilitation based on only a few objective factors without taking into account the structural condition of a juvenile’s situation. Also arising from the get tough movement, juvenile justice waiver laws were changed to decrease judge’s discretion and pull more youth into the adult criminal system a system based on

When thinking of reforming the juvenile justice system one has to think; what can we do to make this better for everyone involve? There are some programs that can be implemented when trying to make a change in the juvenile system. The main thing is getting parents or the guardian more involved in the child’s whereabouts. Secondly the community where the youth will have a place to go and have something more constructive to do to keep them out of trouble. Law enforcement can get involved in giving ride along and having visits to the local jails or prisons from the youth to talk to some of the inmates. Crime in life isn’t racist at all it has a no age limit, no certain gender and no social status for most of those whom decide to partake in a criminal activity. From the beginning juveniles have been an issue with law enforcement, the question has always arisen of whom will take control without cruel and unusual punishment and assist with the rehabilitation and prevention future crime actions.

Before this class I only knew a few things about juveniles, and even then it wasn’t in detail it was just the very basics. Even though I did not know that much about this course before taking it learning the information was very interesting and thought provoking. I knew that a juvenile was someone under the age of eighteen. I also knew about the dare Program because they had that when I went to elementary school and I attended it. I also knew that a juvenile could get into trouble with the law and could go to court. I knew that depending on how serious the crime was he could go to a detention center or to jail. Again these are just the basics that you pick up on when going through school and getting older. This class helped me learn some of

When juvenile courts were first set up, they were primarily intended to be places where it would be possible for children to receive individualized attention from concerned judges. Most of the court hearings were largely informal and the judges were free to exercise their individual discretion as to how each of the cases that was presented before them was to be handled. However, there was some significant public concern in the 1950s and 1960s over the effectiveness of the country’s juvenile justice system. these concerns were mainly triggered from the disparities in treatment that resulted from the absolute discretion that was exercised by the juvenile judges. To help in bringing uniformity to the juvenile court process, a series of fundamental decisions were made by the Supreme Court in the 1960s that helped to formalize juvenile courts in addition to also introducing more due protections such as the right to counsel (Elrod & Ryder,

The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-term negative consequences young African Americans face after being tried as adults in the justice system. This research is intended to find means of reducing the number of minority juveniles tried as adults by bringing awareness to local communities on how the juvenile justice system works. It is important to explore the history of juvenile justice systems, as well as the particular cases of individuals who have experienced being placed in an adult jail systems. The research will mainly focus on North Carolina. This is because there has been a recent bill put into place by the North Carolina General Assembly, which seeks to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction. This means that youth aged

I agree with the article “Report: Juvenile justice system schools do more harm than good.” 70,000 juvenile are incarcerated at any time across the nation. This is considered “character-building”. Most of these juveniles leave the school feeling physically or sexually abused , feel unwanted because of special treatment, and should have a choose and should not have to be forced to go to juvenile especially if they didn’t even harm themselves or any one.

Social control has been a central concept in sociological discussions of law for the past century (Black, 1976), the juvenile justice system as a form of social control is no exception (Blomberg, 1977). Juvenile justice has a rich history in early British Law, but as a separate entity in the US, its history is relatively short but no less important. What began as a movement to separate youths from adults to shield them from contamination of incorrigibility (Fox, 1996), appears to have become another way of legal segregation and control of the underclass, impoverished, minority youths living in disorganized neighborhoods (Staples, 1987). Is the juvenile justice system as social control a form of crime control or control of the underclass?

“For any crime to occur, there must be the convergence “actus reus” ( The guilty act) and “mens rea” ( The guilty mind) known as criminal intent.” ~ Philip Holloway, CNN. Crime in any situation is tragic, so it is only plausible that those who deal the crime are charged accordingly. Violence is implicated in our minds each and every day, anywhere from video games and tv shows, to our own cellular devices. So it only makes sense in a technological rise that juvenile crime rates would also be on a rise. So shouldn’t they also be charged accordingly? Or is that the loophole in the judicial system? Justice should be served to all who have done wrong under the law, therefore any child or juvenile that knows how to pick up, load a gun and shoot

On October 9, 1921, The New York Herald posted an article about “Child Crime Waves” sweeping the United States bigger cities. The wave resulted in many people beginning to examine what was causing this uptick in crime in the juvenile population. This examination brought increased scrutiny on the family of the children that were acting out. For various reasons, such as the Great War and the change in the daily lives of the average family, many began to question the ability of the normal American family to proper raise their children. Which led to many beginning to call on the government to change and create new programs, in particular the juvenile court system, to work a kind of supplement what might normally be thought of as the customary family

In Stimulus 4, a 15 year old boy has pleaded guilty to selling synthetic LSD which has resulted in another teen falling into an induced coma. The Juvenile Justice

Over the course of a couple years juvenile crime rates raised. This was towards the mid-1990’s. During that time all of the states began to prosecute the minors that committed crimes as adults. The increase in crime turned around and changed into a decline. The juvenile homicide rate in 1997 had dropped to its lowest level in 25 years. Even though that crime rate had dropped lower, crimes were still being made among the youth. It is not only just back in the 90’s, but is still happening present day. Getting minors into jail and prosecuted as adults will benefit the public by keeping them safe and leave a positive effect on the upcoming generation for society.

Since the beginning of time crime has always been factor in humanity. In the bible, crime started from Adam and Eve the first man and women. From eating of the forbidden tree to current stage of time, crime has become a part of the human society. However, what is considered a crime and what is not is something that is still controversial. Crime can be defined as a wrong doing by an individual that another individual or groups of individual consider to be criminal. Because the definition of crime is based on human interpretation and individual beliefs, what is criminal and what is not is constantly changing. Thus, what was considered criminal in the current decade may have or not been considered criminal previous years. Two major factor of crime is the punishment that is associated with the wrong doing and the individual that is involved. Therefore, some people may commit the same crime but how the individuals are punished would be different.