Youth At Risk Analysis

The School to Prison Pipeline was chosen as a topic because it is relevant, controversial and dramatically affecting the nation’s youth. The school to prison pipeline proposes youth to choose between an education and jail, though the decision has often already been decided for them. A child should never be pushed away from education for any reason. School is the one place society depends on to guarantee that youth discover world of knowledge, their identity and a safe haven away from home. This issue is no secret as it is very obvious to see in almost any school district that the pipeline is an ongoing practice. The author takes an interest in this topic being a strong advocate of academics. The author disapproves of the pipeline effect as it shows detrimental damages to educational systems and young children across the nation. From the earliest school age to the last, youth are being stripped of their educational privileges due to an unfair system.

In the Documentary ,Girl Trouble, the lives of three girls are recorded over the course 3 years. During those three years the lives of the girls were evaluated while they were incarcerated in the San Francisco’s’ Juvenile Justice system. According to youth advocate Lateefah, and other delinquent advocates, the prison system is not adolescent friendly when it comes to girls. Lateefah insists that there is a worldwide misconception about bad girls, being that there is no meaningful way to rehabilitate, which results to the system throwing away children lives forever. In order to shy away from this misconception, Lateefah and other lobbyists for at risk youth gets girls like the three in the documentary, to attend rehabilitative centers such

“Tomorrow 's future is in the hands of the youth of today” is not a particularly new sentiment. But what is new, what has become a pressing question, is what is to become of the future if our youth are behind bars instead of in schools? Youth today are being pushed into the criminal justice system at an alarming rate. This issue is known as the school to prison pipeline ─ the rapid rate at which children are pushed out of schools and into the criminal justice system. The school to prison pipeline is a term that came into use by activists in the late 1970’s and has gained recognition throughout the years as the issue became more prominent in the 1990’s. Some activists view policies meant to “correct” misbehaviors, especially in regards to Zero Tolerance policies and the policing of schools, as a major contributor to the pipeline. Others believe that the funding of schools and the education standards are to blame for the rapid increase of youth incarcerations. While the school to prison pipeline affects every student, African American students, both male and female, are more often the victim of discrimination in education. The school to prison pipeline must end, and the trend must be reversed.

An estimated 9.2 million to 15.8 million children are considered "at-risk" in this country encompassing all ages from 13 to 19 years old. These youth are at-risk because they are at a crossroad: one leads to successful transition to adulthood, the other to dependency and negative long-term consequences. Youth typically considered or identified as at-risk are more likely to become pregnant, use drugs and/or alcohol, drop out of school, be unemployed, engage in violence and face an increased likelihood of a host of mental health problems, which in turn places them at high risk for entering the juvenile and criminal justice system.

A new and alarming trend that has been occurring in American society is the increase of violence committed by young women. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl’s actions. Girlhood focuses on the life of two young juveniles, Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen both incarcerated for violent crimes. Shanae and Megan both experienced similar circumstances that yielded different outcomes. They were followed for a period of about three years which allowed viewers to really see what kind of role the justice system, family and peers have on the success of an at risk juvenile.

At risk has an unspoken meaning. At risk is synonymous with at-risk-youth in Western Culture. At risk is a phrase used in human services, the media, academia and government to identify young people who are troubling or on the fringe of risky behavior. If you do a Google search of the phrase at risk over 13 million images will appear most of which are of young people. Risk Discourse creates a risk society in response to specific populations being on the fringe of what is deemed “normal” within society. Risk discourse is a popular modernity term written at length by Modernist such as Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens European Sociologists. A Risk Society was not even a term until the 1980s. In the 1990s Risk Society became popular and it acceptance coincided with the infiltration of Risk Discourse into sociology, politics, literature and academia. There is an ongoing debate as to whether environmental concerns created a vacuum for a risk society or if it was a by-product of immigration and the War on Drugs. Either way Risk Discourse and risk society language terms are here to stay. Peter Kelly poses a question asking if young people are a society’s most precious resource then what does society need to do to adequately utilize this resource. He separates young people into categories of income, young people are exposed to high-risk setting more frequently than high income youths. Peter Kelly makes this separation to demonstrate there is inadequate research available on young

Society generalizes first world teenagers, describing them as trapped inside a bubble, shielded from harsh realities of impoverished nations and living with the delusions that their problems dominate all others. While this stereotype does not hold true for all young adults, the unfortunate truth remains: many do not count their blessings. Recently with our soccer team, we had the opportunity to visit Vista Maria, a home and school in Dearborn for girls ages 11 to 17 coming from abusive domestic environments, including sex trafficking and family deficiencies. Interacting with the bright and beautiful girls felt incredible and encouraged us and the team to truly understand how fortunate we live. This trip inspired us to plan on visiting Vista

It is known that the children are unable to determine their life circumstances, their families, and care solely for themselves without supervision. With this being said, children have little to no jurisdiction in determining the situations that they are confronted with. Most of the time when we ponder child poverty we think of low-income families or lack of food in the household, but it extends beyond that to “an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development” (“Children Under Threat,” 2005). Unfortunately, the prevalence of youth poverty in the United States may seem uncommon to those who are personally unaffected by the crisis; however, statistics show that 15 million children (21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (Child Poverty, 2017). Moreover, when considering the demographics of impoverished children the following are true: a child in the U.S. has a 1 in 5 chance of being poor and the younger they are the poorer they are likely to be, and a child of color is more than twice as likely to be poor than a White child (Child Poverty, 2017). Research proves that poverty is the single greatest threat to a child’s well-being as it decreases the likelihood of a child graduating from high school, and it increases the chances of them becoming involved with the criminal justice system (Ending Child Poverty Now, 2017).

When Garinger suspends these students, it’s putting them behind in their studies, which will most likely help make the decision of dropping out of school. When the student drop out of school it’s not just ruining their chances of employment, but they’re also contributing to the dropout rate. “A small percentage of incarcerated youth are unsurprisingly diagnosed with a conduct disorder, a term that describes a young person who harms or is threateningly aggressive toward others. Yet even excluding conduct disorders, 61 percent of males and 70 percent of females involved in the juvenile justice system struggle with mental disorders at the start of detention, including anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. The rate of psychosis, a severely distressing and debilitating condition, is 10 times that of the general population.”(Olivia Herrington, 2015) We’re imprisoning these students, who may not know the proper way to handle this anger, which will then turn them to fighting and causing harm to other students. We need to show others that we have better things going for ourselves, other than just violence at our school. These are ways the community can help: stop the school-to-prison pipeline. Institute a "Cradle Roll" within your faith based institution or community, linking every child to a permanent, caring family member or adult mentor who can keep them on track and get them back on track if and when they stray, promote learning by starting an after-school program for children, ensure that at least one caring community member attends every public

by Barbara Haworth-Attard, readers have a chance at seeing just how hard life on the streets can be for teenagers. We should study

A surprisingly large majority of young offenders outgrow crime. According to Gail Garinger, a Massachusetts juvenile court judge, “it is impossible at the time of sentencing for mental health professionals to predict which youngsters will fall within that majority and grow up to be productive, law-abiding citizens and which fall into the small minority that continue to commit crimes” (94). Everyone is bound to make poor decisions in their lives. More than the other there are just good people making bad choices. Children should be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they can mature and rehabilitate. They deserve a chance to prove that they can become different people. The best time to decide if someone is deserving of spending most to all of their life in prison is not when they are a child. If placed in juvenile correction systems, teens can be given the support and needed help to change their ways and prove that they will not always be the immature criminal they once

The author explains how by delaying adulthood is has become a negative issue for working citizens and cold harm these kids future. The adolescents were viewed as more problematic than the children with a higher chance of peril activity to follow them. Jane    Addams a reformer provided support for juvenile courts in response to these misbehaviors in hopes of redirecting children in a positive light. “Since adolescents were not quite adults, they were viewed as malleable enough to be reformed and/or educated in ways that would improve their own prospects and maintain the US promise” (Fass 3). The protection from being charged as adults would give the children a chance to change their life for the better. Receiving an education and going to high school was simply called “Growing up”.  This schooling and secondary schooling  gave these children a way to express themselves and be different ultimately creating a different culture for adolescents.  School became a way for kids to stay off the streets, participate in illegal activity, and give them a purpose in life. It also gave them space from their parents and allowed

Take a Hike is a Youth at risk Foundation is a non-profit organization where volunteers and other workers collaborate together to provide opportunities for at-risk youths to achieve success. Take a Hike is a full-time educational program where at-risk youths interact with each other through adventure-based learning, academics, therapy, and community involvement. Instead of making at-risk youths sit inside a classroom and listen to lectures, the organization provides help at-risk youths (drug and alcohol addiction, physical and mental abuse, criminal activity, low self-esteem, depression, and/or trauma) reach their potential through mentorship program, scholarship programs, and other activities such as hiking. The program runs year-round in

Pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger is okay if it’s not loaded right? No? Some KIDS would disagree with you. What some people keep asking about twain's article are “do his critiques about society and behaviors of people in them relate to those things of our society today?” and also if his advice given in his article “advice to youth” help benefit and relate to kids of today's society. In my opinion, I think his advice still relates perfectly with the society that I myself go day to day living in. I guess some people say other wise.

There are two main concepts in the literatures of the sociology of youth, which linked risk and young people together. The first concept is ‘at-risk’ and the term is often used to identify or describe young people who, due to difficulties and disadvantaged situations,