Juvenile Probation Officer Research Paper

Probation Officers watch over and work with people who have been convicted of crimes, but were not sentenced to jail time. Instead of going to jail, the criminals/offenders are given a probationary time where they must obey everything set forth by the judge. If you wish to become a Probation Officer there are many things you must do to achieve your goal.

The ultimate goal of the Youthful Offender Act is to hold the youth accountable for their actions and to ensure public safety in our communities. This Act has been used numerous times for juveniles committing armed robberies at local convenient stores, homicide cases, rapes and more. After a juvenile is a convicted youthful offender, they will be treated as an adult from there on in all criminal proceedings. That juvenile will also be viewed as a felon and cannot possess a firearm. Just like anything else, this is a tool for law enforcement to help us keep our community

According to statistics from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “there were seventy-eight youth courts in 1994, and there are now approximately 1,400 youth courts in forty-nine states” ("Fact Sheet: Youth Courts", 1) Comparative, California only had two Teen Courts in 1991 but has since grown to have over sixty different programs. This community-based rehabilitation program has succeeded in hundreds of communities across the country on the grounds that they offer the juvenile offender the opportunity to learn how the criminal justice system works, as well as their rights and responsibilities that are coupled with the system. Recent studies show that teen court participation produces a cost-effective program, accountability in young offenders, better community connections, youth influencing youth, and also prevents further delinquent acts ("Fact Sheet: Youth Courts", 2). With the assistance of restorative justice sentencing and harm reduction alternatives to the juvenile justice system, communities around the United States are taking a practical and beneficial approach to the traditional juvenile justice

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.

Examining the environments where these youth come from can show that this problem stems from unmet needs, such as a lack of a support system, lack of a stable home environment, lack of food, lack of proper parental supervision etc. The factors could be various. Multi-systemic therapy approaches tailored to the needs of the individual could address the stressing issues and offer a support system for the youth and guidance to help them follow a constructive path instead of a destructive one. (Tarolla, Wagner, Rabinowitz, & Tubman, 2002) Organizations such as after school programs and community clubs have programs that give spaces to youth where they can have adults to lean on when they need, and access to services they (and their families) might not otherwise have. For every dollar spent on programs like this in prevention, thirteen can be saved in costs of running prisons and punitive programs. (Campaign for Youth Justice, 2012) Aside from the positive morale of building youth instead of punishing them, the financial aspect of investing in prevention before spending it all on punishment could save the government money to put in other places it could be used more efficiently, such as the education system or welfare programs that support

The literature that has been reviewed directly incorporates the principles set out in Goldson and Muncie “Youth Justice with Integrity”. The analysis of the current justice model attempts to maximize diversion by providing more offences available for extrajudicial measures and the use of measures for re-offenders. Additionally, it is argued that the de-politicization of the youth justice model will help the integrity by providing effective programs and services that will address the social needs of specific individuals within the available resources in the community. The programs and services that are being used are effective, but there are areas of improvement for greater prevention strategies which will hold a person more accountable for

The job of a juvenile probation officer is very meaningful. It involves performing several different duties and putting in a fair amount of hours, but it provides a unique opportunity to intervene in the lives of criminal offenders at a time when they may still be open to reform. Major duties include making arrests and conducting searches in homes, testifying in court, reviews and evaluates

The juvenile justice system has made numerous of ethical issues when managing juvenile offenders. The issue with the juvenile justice system is the laws and rules that govern it. It has led to years of controversial debate over the ethical dilemmas of the juvenile corrections system, and how they work with youth offenders. The number of minors entering the juvenile justice system is increasing every month. The reasons why the juvenile justice system faces ethical dilemmas is important and needs to be addressed: (1) a vast proportion of juveniles are being tried and prosecuted as adults; (2) the psychological maturation of the juvenile to fully comprehend the justice system; and (3) the factors that contribute to minorities being adjudicated in the juvenile justice system are more likely than White offenders. These three ethical issues that are rising in the juvenile justice system will be further examined.

There are indication that most criminals have a juvenile records in the US, indicating that crime manifests from a tender age. Therefore, to reverse the incidence of crime, it follows that the best strategy is to reduce the criminal orientation in the juvenile offenders as opposed to hardening them and preparing them for criminal careers. The case of the Crossroads Juvenile Center demonstrates the willingness of the juvenile justice systems to make these changes on the children.

The Juvenile Justice System was a system created over a century ago to prevent young juveniles under the age of 17 to be process and tried as an adult. The Juvenile system was created to let juveniles have an easier sentencing with fair treatments and rehabilitation, but lately the system has been racially biased towards colored juveniles because of their skin color which results the system being unfair towards colored juveniles in the system. The Juvenile Justice System is racially bias towards colored juveniles, because colored juveniles are more likely to receive harsher treatments than their white counterparts, won’t receive enough resources for rehab, and receiving lack of legal representation for trials.

Another study, conducted in austional, where the juvenile conviction rate was very high, demonstrated how supervision skills work within youth probation programs. The view that this research proposed is the “Good Lives Model” (Ward, 2010); This model focuses on client strengths, on enhancing their opportunities to achieve the goals of a good life (such as employment and social relationships), and on developing holistic plans for change. This model is critical of the focus that the RNR model has on risk factors, and instead it emphasizes the importance of therapeutic alliance and of enhancing opportunities for offenders to achieve the goals associated with a good life (Trotter& Evans, 2009). By focusing on their goals and strengths and how they act in social settings, the Good Lives Model allows officers to help their clients have better chances of preventing recidivism. For these reasons, I believe this is a great

In my current role as Probation and Parole Officer, I have learned and gain a lot of experience with the Delaware Court System. While supervising individuals on level 2 Domestic Violence, level 2 interstate and current case load standard level 2 and pre-trial supervision, I have gain a lot of experience with the different court systems which entails, Family Court, Court of Common Pleas, Superior Court, and Justice of Peace. When the court orders an individual to serve Probation, It is my duties to make sure I’m enforcing the terms and conditions of supervision and keeping the Court informed of the individuals compliance or noncompliance. The courts have various programs and resources they can implement to not only help the individual but also the probation officer with their recommendation. The court can request that an individual get evaluated by a physiatrist (most time the evaluation is funded by the state). This help the Officer make an appropriate recommendation for the Offender.

Using juvenile drug court as an alternative to incarceration to decrease the rapidly increasing number of young offenders is a policy that includes various key concepts that one must understand. To start, juvenile drug courts are mostly voluntary. While some juvenile drug courts are mandated, this aspect has not motivated a vast majority of these courts to follow suit. Therefore, these programs are designed to keep youth from using any type of substance. These juveniles are obviously involved in this type of program due to their substance use/abuse issues. The juveniles that are involved in this type of alternate program are comprised of both males and females. It has been shown that female juveniles have improved success at this type of program,

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

Parole is defined as the provisional release of a prisoner who agrees to certain conditions prior to the completion of the maximum sentence period. The word parole originated from the French which meant "voice" or "spoken words". This has come to mean an offenders promise to act as a law abiding citizen according to rules and regulations in exchange for release. Essentially parole means that the offender is released from prison prior to the expiry of his or her entire sentence of imprisonment to serve the remainder of the sentence in the community under the supervision of the parole officer, subject to specific conditions that must be complied with.