History Of The Juvenile Detention System
Juvenile detention centers were officially established in the United States in 1898 in Chicago, Illinois. Before this, minors were tried as adults in the criminal justice system. This change was founded on the two basic principles that minors should not be expected to receive the same punishments as an adult would, because they have not fully developed, and that the court system should focus on rehabilitation for the young children. The juvenile detention system established, was supposed to be quite different than an adult prison. The system was supposed to focus on the child, rather than the crime they committed. Much more power was granted to the juvenile court judge, and because the judge was supposed to rule in the best interests of the
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When a child is punished for their crime through incarceration, they are lumped in with other delinquents. A collective group of troubled kids creates behavioral problems that normally would not have existed prior to incarceration. In fact, compared with other kids with a similar history of bad behavior, those who entered the juvenile-justice system were nearly seven times more likely to be arrested for crimes as adults FOOTNOTETIME. Richard Tremblay, a psychology professor at the University of Montreal, conducted a study in which 779 children (ages 10-17) projected to be at high risk of delinquency were interviewed annually for 20 years, and the research team tracked their juvenile, and later on adult, arrest records. The team found that kids were twice as likely to be arrested as adult if they had previously entered the juvenile-justice system. FOOTNOTEJOURNALOFCHILDPSYCHOLOG Then if a child were to be put on probation, in which they were often in close contact with other delinquents, the odds of adult arrest were raised by a factor of 14REPEAT. This is because, just as in all areas of life, there is a social hierarchy among juvenile delinquents. However, this particular social hierarchy is based off of who has committed the most or worst crimes. Especially among children, peer pressure holds a large amount of power over an individual’s actions. In order to fit in or gain credibility, children within the juvenile justice system continuously commit crimes, both while incarcerated and after their
When a child is punished for their crime through incarceration, they are lumped in with other delinquents. A collective group of troubled kids creates behavioral problems that normally would not have existed prior to incarceration. In fact, compared with other kids with a similar history of bad behavior, those who entered the juvenile-justice system were nearly seven times more likely to be arrested for crimes as adults FOOTNOTETIME. Richard Tremblay, a psychology professor at the University of Montreal, conducted a study in which 779 children (ages 10-17) projected to be at high risk of delinquency were interviewed annually for 20 years, and the research team tracked their juvenile, and later on adult, arrest records. The team found that kids were twice as likely to be arrested as adult if they had previously entered the juvenile-justice system. FOOTNOTEJOURNALOFCHILDPSYCHOLOG Then if a child were to be put on probation, in which they were often in close contact with other delinquents, the odds of adult arrest were raised by a factor of 14REPEAT. This is because, just as in all areas of life, there is a social hierarchy among juvenile delinquents. However, this particular social hierarchy is based off of who has committed the most or worst crimes. Especially among children, peer pressure holds a large amount of power over an individual’s actions. In order to fit in or gain credibility, children within the juvenile justice system continuously commit crimes, both while incarcerated and after their