Mental Health Issues In Juvenile Offenders

For a juvenile to transfer into the adult court system a juvenile must be charged as a youthful offender. Youthful offenders often pose a threat to the community and/ or have committed a violent crime. State legislation has passed youthful offender laws permitting juveniles to be charged as an adult in criminal proceedings.

justice model, the crime control model, and the balanced and restorative justice model. The Parens

As a result, they miserably lack the opportunity to get back on their feet. Many are released back into society with no financial means or resources such as, housing, employment, and family. When these resources are taken away the chances of them reoffending increases. Resources are difficult to find even without the complications of a prison term. Upon release, many offenders return to the same social environments that added to their trouble in the first place. The inability to withstand peer pressure often results in the perpetrator reoffending. For instance, when people who are lacking funds may try to find other sometimes illegal means to get money. Even as an adult the susceptibility to peer pressure exists. According to Dr. Laurence Steinberg, the brain is still developing maturely in the teen years and well into their mid 20s in areas like reasoning and judgment (Patti R., 2015, P 1). This is a huge reason why teens are so susceptible to peer pressure. We can’t always be sure of what drives a young teen to commit a crime, but there are certain risk factors that make them more vulnerable to criminal activity. A risk factor is a personal characteristic or environmental condition that helps predict the onset, continuity, or escalation of violence. Some of the top risk factors are: family issues, psychological/mental characteristics, peer influence and socioeconomic status (What Causes Someone, 2016). If an adolescent exhibits six or more of these risk factors, they are ten times more likely to become violent. It is imperative to identify and resolve more of these risk factors when children are young. In order to decrease the number of people in prisons as well as mentally ill inmates. In the United States, the number of the general prisoners population has increased from 220 per 100,000 in 1980 to 700 per 100,000 in 2012 (University of Bergen,

Adult prisons are terrible environments for rehabilitation of juvenile criminals. Juveniles are at high risk for sexual abuse and suicide in prison. “Congressional findings in the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 posited that juveniles were five times as likely to be sexually assaulted in adult rather than in juvenile facilities - often within their first 48 hours of incarceration. Youth advocacy groups report that juveniles housed in adult facilities are 36 times more likely to commit suicide” (Parsell). This hostile environment leaves a lasting impression on a young prisoner's personality, making assimilation into

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.

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.

Does mental health cause or explain why a juvenile committed a crime? There is no way to determine if criminal involvement is directly linked with mental illnesses. Mental illnesses are different for every individual. Juveniles with mental illnesses are not at an increased risk for criminal involvement; it’s just associated with some juveniles. Demographics had no deciding factor if juveniles would be re-incarcerated for crimes in their adulthood life. Juveniles with a history of substance abuse or were originally arrested for substance abuse problems have a higher risk for being arrested again in their adult life because of substance abuse problems. What is substance abuse? Substance abuse is an addiction or dependence on drugs or alcohol.

Cunneen, C., White, R., & Richards, K. (2013). Juvenile justice: youth and crime in australia. Retrieved from EBook Central.

Youth crime in Canada has decreased overall but that does not mean crime has disappeared as there are cases where youths. Studies have shown that the “typical” method of justice, through incarceration has not made a huge impact on juvenile offenders ( S.M. Tarolla et al. 127). Which makes this topic so important because if young offenders are not given the right help and treatment they could continue onto the adult criminal justice system. Furthermore, if there is a way to identify recidivism, and provide help for young offenders then we would be adhering to the goals of the criminal justice system which is to rehabilitate and put people back into society as productive peoples.

In the United States prisons there are two thousand juveniles serving life without parole before, the age of eighteen. Only one of a few countries in the world allows children, to be sentenced to prison without release. And, the United States is one of them holding young teens accountable for their actions. But, there is accordance with age, stage development and how their cases should be dealt with in court. There are an estimated twenty-six percent of juveniles sentenced to prison for life convicted with felony murder. There is fifty-nine percent serving life without parole with a first time sentence. For example, there are twenty-six states that sentence life without parole being mandatory for anyone. So may feel, there is a racial issue

Equally important, is the matters in which both the Young Offenders Act and the youth Criminal justice Act, Aid Young offenders that are trying to reintegrate into society after being released. This matter can prove to be very important to the courts due to simply to the fact that if there is a higher and the most successful rate of offender reintegration in Canada, there will be a significant decrease in the yearly youth crime statistic because of the fewer amounts of youth re-offenders. According to the Department of justice Canada( 2009), “Under the YOA, a young person can be released from custody with no required supervision and support to assist the young person in making the transition back to his or her community”( Custody and Reintegration). With these findings, we can clearly conclude that although these young people were capable re-attaining their freedoms, many of Canada’s youths would have

According to the developmental research of Moffitt (2006), there are two different types of offenders that emerge in adolescence. One is the repeat offender, referred to as the life-course-persistent offender, who begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive behavior in adolescence (or even childhood) and continues into adulthood; and the age specific offender, referred to as the adolescence-limited offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency begins and ends during their period of adolescence. Because most teenagers tend to show some form of antisocial, aggressive or delinquent behavior during adolescence, it important to account for these behaviors in childhood, in order to determine whether they will be life-course-persistent offenders, or adolescents-limited offenders. Although adolescent-limited offenders tend to drop all criminal activity once they enter adulthood, and show less pathology than life-course-persistent offenders, they still show more mental health, substance abuse, and finance problems, both in adolescence and adulthood,

Siegel, L. &. (1988). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law (3rd ed.). United States of America: West Publishing Company.

Juvenile delinquency is a growing social problem in the world today, as worldwide, about 200,000 murders occur among youth 10–29 years of age each year (more than 500 deaths a day), which is 43% of the total number of murders globally each year (WHO, 2016). It is defined as major or minor law breaking (e.g. murder, rape, robbery, and theft) by youth (Berger, 2000) and the United Nations defines ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Consequently, juvenile delinquency is a critical problem in the society, which could lead to social instability by violence and insecurity perpetrated by and against young people. These problems are caused by various influential factors ranging from peer and parental influences, environmental, and strain. It also affected by family process variables (e.g. parent-child involvement, communication, parental monitoring), indeed parenting is one of the important factors among them.