Crossroads Juvenile Center Research Paper

Essentially, it is obvious St. Louis City juvenile justice has taken great strides in ensuring their clients partake in juvenile justice reform. Certainly, over the years this has been the center piece of the institution in providing a plethora of services, which compassionately meets many of the needs of its youth. However, despite the history and longevity associated with the St. Louis City’s juvenile system, including the uniqueness of the services they provide within the institution today. The need to further develop facility resources, which provides adequate programming and additional tools for its detainees and staff is continual. Clearly, the institution has undoubtedly exceeded many of its own expectations over the years, impressively

Juveniles being tried as adults in the justice system face the same penalties as adults, including life without parole, will receive little or no education, mental health treatment, or rehabilitative programming. Transferring adolescents to the adult system is counterproductive and even harmful because adult facilities cannot meet the special needs of the juvenile offender. Trying juveniles as adults they will obtain an adult criminal record that may significantly limit their future education and employment opportunities. This choice to try juveniles as adults put them at greater risk of assault and death in adult jails and prisons with adult inmates. The ultimate outcome of transferring juvenile offenders to adult prisons is overwhelmingly

In this paper, I will be summarizing and discussing the key points about a bulletin written by The Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention name "Juvenile Arrest 2008." I will also discuss the overall decreased in juvenile arrests and the increase in drug offenses. Included in this paper will be the implication for female juvenile offenders and members of different ethnic including minorities. I will also discuss the increased in the arrest of juvenile females offenders vs. the decreased of male juveniles offenders for violent crimes. I will discuss how the tracking of juvenile arrest could be used as a method to measure the amount juvenile crime.

The juvenile court system is a fixture of the justice system with many moving parts. Each component and member of the court system are essential in carrying out their common goal. By helping operate a complex system built to rehabilitate juveniles, these people, and the programs they run, prevent juveniles from reoffending, benefit them, and help them towards the path of becoming a productive member of society.

The federal government’s “War on Crime” by the Johnson administration in the 60s made way for tougher law enforcement and surveillance (Hinton, 2015). However, with this came the separation of children and adults in the criminal justice system; then the separation of juvenile delinquents from status offenders. As mentioned, status offenders are different from juvenile delinquents because they had broken rules which apply to only children. Meanwhile, juvenile delinquents are youths under the age of 18, who committed offenses that would be punishable to adults as well. By the late 1960s, there became a growing concern that juveniles involved in the court-based status-offense system, were not getting their best interests met (Shubik & Kendall, 2007). This can be seen in the growing number of court-involved status offenders who were being detained and placed outside of their homes for noncriminal behavior (Shubik & Kendall, 2007). Following multiple studies and research, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that the juvenile court be the agency of last resort and that community-based organizations, not penal institutions, should be responsible for these youths (Shubik & Kendall, 2007; Farrington,

Not only does Berstein call for an overall reform of this nation’s juvenile prisons, she goes as far as saying the practice of locking up youth is in need of a “more profound than incremental and partial reform” (13). The fact that Bernstein outlines the numerous failed strategies and goals of this practice with her compelling use of studies and statistics is enough to promote an audience to reject the practice of locking up youth. The statistic she shares that “four out of five juvenile parolees [will be] back behind bars within three years of release” as well as the studies she conducted on numerous instances when a guards abuse of power lead to the death of a child work to further prove her point: being that “institution[s] as intrinsically destructive as the juvenile prison” have no place in a modern society (13, 83). Bernstein refutes this false sense effectiveness further by sharing her own ideas on what she believes works as a much more humane solution to rehabilitating

There are differences between a juvenile court and criminal court in the United States. The focus of the juvenile justice system is on rehabilitation, in hope of deterring the minor away from a life of crime so they will not commit a crime again as an adult. In contrast, the criminal justice system focuses on the punishment and often bases the sentencing outcome on the criminal history of the youth. In a study conducted, Butler (2011) showed that the participants’ experience with adult jails and prisons show that those facilities may instill fear but are otherwise emotionally—and often physically—dangerous for youth. Many of the adult prisoners, who were minors when they enter the adult institution, felt they were forced to “grow

The book provides various opposing viewpoints regarding the cause of juvenile crime and how the criminal justice system should treat juvenile offenders. Each argument highlights the main risk factors for juvenile crime. For example, gang plays a large part of juvenile violence. Some teens become gang members because they feel a sense of belonging and protection. Therefore, the community should focus on building strong relationship and positive role-models. Other critics claim adult prison is not appropriate for juvenile offenders and should find better alternatives.

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

In today’s world there are countless crimes committed every single day. “In 2015, there were 1.42 million total arrests, at a rate of 3,641 arrests per 100,000 residents” (State of California, Department of Justice). Grown adults are not the only people being arrested every year, there are also juveniles, children, being arrested every day. One topic of controversy today is whether or not juveniles who commit these crimes should be tried as adults in criminal court. There are many differences between the justice system for adults and the justice system for juveniles. If a juvenile is defined as a person under the age of eighteen can we justify trying them in as an adult? Is convicting juveniles as adults a better solution?

There are many subjects in the book “The Essentials of Criminal Justice.” Through the fourteen chapters, the chapter I will be discussing is chapter eleven. Chapter eleven talks about the history of correctional institutions, jails, prisons, and alternate correctional institutions. In this paper, I will be discussing only part of chapter eleven. It will be discussing the history of the correctional Institutions which includes the following: the history of the correctional institutions, the origin of corrections in the United States, the development of prisons, the New York and Pennsylvania systems, and the comparisons of the 19th and 20th century correction systems.

The “Primetime: New Model for Juvenile Justice” video discusses that kids in Missouri commit crimes because the families are not supportive, kids are abused by the parents and feel abandon by their parents, and the new model of the juvenile justice system in Missouri. Most importantly is the fact that the model consisting of programs such the Rosa Parks Center and Waverly Youth Center should be followed or attempted as it shows it works to rehabilitate the kids. Both programs are not a jail but a place in which kids share their problems and feelings in a small group setting. Missouri Juvenile Justice system knew that the traditional juvenile jail did not work in Missouri so the creation of these youth centers to work with kids’ behavioral problems.

In this documentary kids behind bars the goals that are being achieved by institutions designed for youth juveniles are discipline, responsibilities, able to function in society, anger management, correct character deficiencies, drug and alcohol counseling. In Texas Paul was not able to function in society. Paul was use drugs and missing curfew. He was sent to a county boot camp for six months. Another Paul from England who is just 12 years old, got caught with the police for stealing golf clubs and a pack of Pokemon cards. Paul is also dyslexic, struggles in school and gets bullied. Sam who is 15 years old also from England, and she is very unruly. Sam been in and out of foster care, she runs away from home, gets drunk, gets into fights

A police officer must compose a pre-dispositional report on a juvenile which consists of criminal records, family backgrounds, and academic progress. Part of the judge’s role is to review these reports to determine what sentence is the best for the juvenile. There are two types of traditional dispositions; confinement and probation. However, there are numerous alternative dispositions for juveniles. Boot camps are one way of traditional incarceration that was extensively used during the 1980’s. Although it helped adolescents, it is rarely used today. Another approach was placing a youth in a penal institution this was also known as shock incarceration. It was viewed as an intermediate form of punishment for juveniles, with intent of scaring them into proper

Roxanne, L. (1994). JUVENILE OFFENDERS: WHAT WORKS? A Summary of Research Findings. The Evergreen State College.