Three Categories Of Juvenile Crime

Juvenile delinquency is the violations of the criminal law by any minor. Minors are considered to be anyone under the age of eighteen, or in some states, under the age of seventeen or even sixteen. When a minor commits a crime that would have been a serious case if committed by an adult, they are considered a “juvenile delinquent.”

A Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a study in 40 of the nation’s largest urban communities. “It was found that an estimated 7,100 juvenile defendants were charged with felonies in adult criminal court in 1998. Of these 40 county criminal courts, juveniles were 64% more likely than adults to be charged with a violent felony. These juvenile defendants were generally treated as serious offenders, as 52% did not receive pretrial release, 63% were convicted of a felony, and 43% of those convicted received a prison sentence. States have expanded the mechanisms by which juveniles can be charged in criminal courts. In 1998, statutory exclusion was the most common method (42%) used to charge juveniles defendants compared to the more traditional use of juvenile waiver (24%). In the 40 counties in 1998, 62% of the juvenile felony defendants were black, 20% were white, 16% were Hispanic, and almost 2% were of another race” (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”).As time goes on, crime rates of youths

Understanding the risk and protective factors of child delinquency is imperative in order to create and implement treatment and intervention programs. Because children’s behavior develops during the first five years, it is important to know what risk and protective factors could increase the likelihood of a child becoming a child offender (Wasserman et al., 2003). Moreover, overcoming the risk factors would help prevent the child offender from becoming a juvenile, and later, adult offender. As Wasserman et al (2003) stated, “risk factors for child delinquency operate in several domains: the individual child, the child’s family, the child’s peer group, the child’s school, the child’s neighborhood, and the media” (pg.1). As one can see, children are exposed to risk in partially every aspect of their lives. As a parent, it’s important to understand protective factors in order to offset some of the exposure to certain risk.

In this study conducted by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, 59.6% of the study group of students who did have interactions will school discipline systems. Approximately 23% of these students would later on have involvement with the juvenile justice system, and those who have more disciplinary infractions in school have a higher chance of interacting with the juvenile justice system, which could mean higher chances of being sent to a detention center. (Fabelo et al., 2011). Some of these youth actively have disabilities such as physical or mental disabilities, or emotional disturbances. Out of the students that had contact with the juvenile justice system in this study, it shows nearly 48% of those diagnosed with emotional disturbance have contact with the juvenile justice system, while students who don’t have diagnosed disabilities are disproportionately less likely to come into contact with the justice system. This trend shows that more frequently, youth who have diagnosed disabilities or emotional issues are more prone to having contact with the juvenile justice system than those that don’t. (Fabelo et al., 2011) Alternatively, race plays an issue in the numbers of students who come into contact with the system. Students of Caucasian descent are least likely to come into contact with the juvenile justice

The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention and Protection Act (JJDPA) was established in 1974 and was the first federal law that dealt comprehensively with juvenile delinquency to improve the juvenile justice system and support state and local efforts at delinquency prevention. This paper will assess the JJDPA and summarize its purpose and implementation and enforcement. Next, there will be a discussion of the historical context of the policy; followed by a focus of the latent consequences. Finally there will be a vignette as to how this Act has affected a person or family as well as personal reflection toward the policy.

In the juvenile system, black children are up to 18 times as likely to be sentenced as adults than white children, and African American youth that is accused of felonies are inclined to be viewed as more at fault for their crimes than are white youth. Research that was constructed by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and the Center for Children’s Law and Policy suggested that minority youth are presented with harsher treatment than their white peers through almost every stage of the juvenile justice process. The process is already the punishment, but being a minority can make it worse. Minority juveniles are sentenced for longer periods and are less likely to receive alternative sentences or probation compared to white juveniles (Armour & Hammond, 2009,

They also wanted to emphasize on the “risk and protective factors” that led to recidivism. They were able to test their research by using 43 male offenders and 33 female offenders between the ages of 11-17 (Carr & Vandiver 2001). The youths group of friend’s, history of offence, their IQ, their family situation and role models were also some of the factors they tested when looking for recidivism. Furthermore, each person was given a form that tested for stressors, risk and protective factors. To test the stressors, they looked at two specific stressors, which was low SES scores and if there was separation with the family. For the risk factors, to measure it they looked at a youth’s personal characteristic, familial conditions, drug use, peer selection, school attendance and school difficulties. They measured the risk factors from zero being a low risk and 23 being a high risk. Next to measure protective factors they looked at “personal characteristics, familial conditions, positive role models, peer selection, school interests, and activities and hobbies” (Carr & Vandiver 2001 415). With the measure of protective factors ranging from 0, being low protection and 23 being high

We have seen today in society of how crime rates have been rampant and how statistics show that most of the crimes were being made by minors. I believe that when most of them look at the bottom of these young offenders come disproportionately from impoverished single-parent homes that are located in the neighbourhoods desinvertido and have high rates of learning disabilities, mental health, and substance abuse and problems with the help of the system of juvenile justice that can make a great return on a successful transition to adulthood. Their ages ranged from 20 and under, most are under fifteen years of age.

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.

Most of the juveniles have lack of education, the increased use and the availability of guns and drugs. There are many solutions that will help young minorities not commit crimes, building the economy again, changing the community so there would be no access to drugs. Regardless of the sides, it is clear that previous increases as well as recent decreases in violent crime committed are unreasonably generated by the nation’s youth. All minority groups are classified differently and treated differently in the system. The justice system seems to treat African American and Hispanic people differently from other minorities groups. The author explains “A number of recent surveys have shown that there are profound racial disparities in the juvenile

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.

The two theories I have chosen are Terrie Moffitt’s dual pathway developmental theory and Sampson and Laub’s age-graded developmental theory. Moffitt’s dual pathway theory really focuses on the relationship between age and crime. Moffitt looks at the life-course of offenders to see where the criminal habit developed. She categorizes offenders into two categories: life-course persistent offenders and adolescent-limited offenders. Life-course offenders make up the smallest percentage of criminals but also make up the highest percentage of crime. Adolescent-limited offenders make up the majority of criminals but commit less crime and usually quit criminal behavior as they mature into adulthood. Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory is more

Juvenile delinquency means that a youth specifically those who are below 18 years old commits an act that is against the law. It can also be used as legal term for the criminal behavior carried out by minors. According to UNICEF, an average of 10, 500 minors are being arrested and detained every year – about 28 children every day, or more

According to The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), teenagers are more likely to commit crimes compared to adults. Numbers of crimes were being recorded by the OJJDP that are typically committed by teenagers and in the year 2000, statistics show that 2,369,4000 juvenile

In an age where juvenile crime has escalated from simple truancy to more serious crimes such as mass school shootings some would agree it is time to abolish juvenile courts or modify the system at the very least. Because of the seriousness of juvenile crime in this day and age, most states have already lowered the age limit for juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 years and are prosecuting more children as adults depending of the seriousness of the crime. Some criminal justice and child welfare scholars argue that younger children do not have the mental capability or experience to weigh the consequence of committing a crime and much less understand the implications of a criminal record in their future. Furthermore, they note that most juveniles grow out of criminal behavior as they mature out of the system and in