Preview

Explain The Realities Of Juvenile Crime

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
732 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Explain The Realities Of Juvenile Crime
The Realities of Juvenile Crime in the United States
Name
Institution

The Realities of Juvenile Crime in the United States
Delinquency and Status Offenses Status offenses refer to actions that are only unlawful when conducted by a certain class of people. Notably, the term status offenses are mostly used with regard to the offenses that are committed by a minor. In addition, status offenses are only chargeable when a minor is involved. The restrictions are mainly put in place to increase the likelihood of minors attending school, return home in safe hours of the day, prevent them from using and becoming addicted drugs, or getting involved in other harmful activities (Rose, 2014). Other examples of status offense include underage
…show more content…
On the other hand, to de-criminalize the actions of actions of a minor, the court system prescribes different terminologies to refer to the events of the process involving a juvenile. For instance, the term arrest is replaced by the term ‘taken into custody’. In addition, when an adult is arrested, the court sets a bond for the suspect to ensure that he appears for the hearings. In contrast, a juvenile is not subject to a bond unless the case is serious enough to be treated as an adult offense. The other difference is that the adults have right to choose a jury while a juvenile does not have the same rights unless individual is faced with a bindover.
The Effects of Juveniles Being Tried As Adults The transfer policies where juveniles are tried as adults have harsh negative consequences on the minors. The minors are incarnated in the facilities meant for the adults and therefore do not access the facilities they need to for such purposes as learning which are important for purposes of development. . In addition, the minors are exposed ton risks of assault as well as incidences such as abuse (Ramirez, 2008). To sum up, the transfer polices have led an increase in recidivism across the judicial system.
Current Issue in the Juvenile Justice

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The United States government is based on a checks and balances type system. The three main parts of this system are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. This judicial system’s job is to uphold the law of the land. Law can be defined as a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct (Wikipedia.org, 2005). This is a very wide and all encompassing definition of the law and the governing judicial system. Just like the United States government the judicial system is broken up into different checks, balances, and systems. Two of these main systems are the juvenile justices system and the adult justice system. The obvious difference between these two courts is that the juvenile system is designed to handle youth offenders and the adult system is designed to handle adult offenders. Both of these two systems despite their difference have the same end goal; to administer justice. In the pages to follow we will discuss the big picture of the juvenile justice system, go over a point by point comparison between the juvenile system and the adult system, touch on both the benefits and disadvantages to being tried as a minor in the juvenile court from the perspective of a minor, and review the societal implication of abolishing the juvenile court system.…

    • 2342 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report evaluated a study of outcomes for juveniles prosecuted in adult court rather than in juvenile court and found that there were counter-deterrent effects of transfer laws. Trying Juveniles as Adults, supra . A summary of six studies found that there was greater overall recidivism for juveniles prosecuted in adult court than juveniles whose crimes “matched” in juvenile court. Id. Juveniles in adult court also recidivated sooner and more frequently. Id. These higher rates of recidivism can be attributed to a variety of reasons, including lack of access to rehabilitative resources in the adult corrections system, problems when housed with adult criminals, and direct and indirect effects…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the justice system juveniles is quite different from the adults criminal. In the justice system their main objective is to rehabilitate the juvenile while as for adults their objectives are to deter crime and punish the offender. When it comes to juveniles in the justice system issues are developed and questions are raised whether or not juveniles should be adjudicated to the adult court system. When juveniles are adjudicated to the adult court system, there are many issues introduced to the justice system, such as at what age should juveniles be adjudicated to adult court and for which crimes.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One thing that correlates to the crimes is child maltreatment. When they child is not taken care of they tend to veer off and find other means of living and making ends meet. Another variable is alcoholism and drug use. A parent or parents is a child’s biggest role model and so are their siblings and any other older siblings. If a child grows up always seeing nothing but alcohol around the house and their family getting high off of pills and smoking than they are naturally going to take that lifestyle in and think that it is normal and okay and they will think that everyone else around them lives the same lifestyle. Bullying has in my world been a major variable. Whens someone is bullied they think that they need to find their own happy place and they claim that committing crimes does that for them. For example when a person gets in a fight or steals something and all the attention is turned on them, that is the highlight of their lives because everyone always bullied them. Single or no parent homes is probably one of the biggest variables. Like I mentioned before a parent or parents are a child’s biggest role models. A child’s mind is like a sponge and they always play the game of monkey see monkey do. This will never go away even when they are all grown up and moved out. I was a child that was in a single family home and there was nothing I would of ever…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Status offenses are consider minor offense that under the law of a jurisdiction would not be consider a crime if committed by an adult; such as running away, being ungovernable or incorrigible, violating curfew laws, or possessing alcohol or tobacco (American Bar Association. n.d.).…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some states allow juveniles to be held in general population. Others have all juveniles segregated. In some cases, juveniles will be kept with “youthful offenders”. These are offenders who are under the age of 25. In the last 20 years, juveniles held in the general population in prisons have nearly doubled. There is overcrowding in detention facilities at the juvenile level just the same as the adult criminal level. Roughly 47% of juveniles are being held in facilities that exceed their maximum capacity. At this time there are approximately 8000 juveniles being held in the general population at the adult criminal level. The problem with this situation is the simple fact that juveniles held in general population generally show a higher recidivism rate than those segregated with subjects around their own age group.…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Juvenile incarceration has created a lot of uncertainties in the legal justice system. This is because it is often assumed that indeed there are several persons that are underage that at the time of the crime did not have the proper mental reasoning to appreciate that indeed they were committing a crime. For this reason, there has been several problems regarding Juvenile incarceration and it has been argued that there is a need to re-evaluate and ensure that indeed the problems that affect the system are given the proper judicial involvement and justice. . This paper is going to examine how different it is from adults and juvenile when it comes to…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s society, there is a national debate about what to do with juveniles in the criminal justice system. This debate is a result changes in practice throughout United States. The United States made it possible to try juveniles as adults in court after the case of Kent vs. the United States in 1966. The change in legislation is relatively new due to the fact that juvenile courts have "for most of the past century, treated youngsters between 7 and 17 not as criminals but as delinquents." The United States choose to treat the kids as delinquents because there was a major focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.…

    • 4926 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Delinquents are known as persons under the legal age, who commit crimes. Most people see delinquents as a teenager who was caught consuming alcohol under age, or partaking in the use of illegal drugs, but in reality delinquents are capable of committing crimes much heavier than those. There are a great number of acts of delinquency that go beyond small crimes; there are juveniles who have even committed murder, some more than once. The slightly smaller crimes, such as underage drinking, are called status offenses. These are actions that are used only to a certain class of people, and most often applied to offenses only committed by minors. When a juvenile commits a status offense they are not necessarily committing a heavy crime. Status offenses can be used to describe a juvenile who got a traffic violation, or was fined for some reason, but never arrested. There are speculations, however, that the punishments for these status offences should be harsher because some people believe that these offenses can lead a delinquent to commit harsher crimes if…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trying Juveniles

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Trying juveniles has been a topic to the public we hear about in the judustrial system. It contains a lot of arguments which has its pros and cons. Considering being a juvenile delinquent you must commit a crime that is under the age of 18. Prosecutors can charge juveniles as adults when they are suspected of violent offenses or crime. Back in time when this happened, this treatment involved the death penalty. As of today it involves being prosecuted through adult courts and incarcerated in the adult jails and prisons. Addressing this topic is important because society is not aware what happened or what is happening to juveniles being tried as adults. After reading this paper, you will learn different offenses juveniles commit and why it leads to being tried as adults. You will know how the death penalty came in effect, ended, and the different cases that happened between times. I will talk about juveniles being prosecuted through adult courts and the benefit of it. Also juveniles being incarcerated with adults and the risks they face. My intention of writing this paper is to get you to know the research I gained from it, and hoping it interest you to do more research on it too. Do convicting a juvenile as adults helps stop crime.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The primary difference between the juvenile court system and the adult court system is that the juvenile is viewed by the court with more civility and as an delinquent and on the other hand in adult court is it view with criminality. Moreover, the standard of proof when it comes to a juvenile he or she in the courts system is looked upon as with the preponderance of the evidence and in adult court the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. However, both the adult and the juvenile has the right to remain silent and refrain from self-incrimination and also, they both have the right to confront their accusers and the right to counsel and/or an attorney.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In contemporary society, there is a debate over whether a separate justice system should exist for juveniles and adults. While some juveniles have demonstrated the need for a separate justice system for juveniles, others have proven otherwise. There are separate justice systems for juvenile and adult offenders because of the belief that the mind of juveniles can be reformed unlike adult offenders. However, the juvenile justice system is similar to the adult justice system in many ways. In terms of the rights of the offenders, both juvenile and adult offenders have the right to an attorney, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, the right to protection against self-incrimination, the right to notice of charges, and prosecution needs proof beyond a reasonable doubt…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Con One of the reason is most juvenile crimes are rising in such a growing is most of the juveniles have no structure in the home. So they struggle in the homes where there are no father figure in the child life. The father never comes around so most of the young adults look for the street to be there guide in life how to become men/women. Most of the times these juveniles are looking at other people older adults is selling drugs seeing the fast life so they try to fit in. these juveniles are carjacking and when they are done joy ridding they just abandon it. They find other ways to make a large sum of money they target people in robberies markets liquor stores, and other retail establishment. The state needs…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Various research findings on juvenile crime relate child abuse and neglect to crime. Child mistreatment and abuse in the United States of America have led to the growth in the number of youth gangs. It is unfortunate that while child abuse has been on the increase, its outcomes probably manifest when a child matures. From these studies, it is evident that children who have been victims of sexual assault are more likely to suffer from Posttraumatic Stress disorder (Siegel & Welsh, 2011). Thus, when these children get into adolescences, they may commit delinquent crime. Some of these individuals cannot withstand the pressures of the world and end up abusing drugs…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juvenile Crime

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    children are more likely to be arrested, and 38% more likely to commit a violent…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics