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Earlier this year the Supreme Court of the United States handed down arguably one their most important, yet controversial decisions regarding juvenile law. In the case Roper v Simmons (2005), a narrow 5-4 decision, overturned the United States practice of allowing capital punishment for juvenile offenders.…
The impoverished neighborhoods who innovate and resort to selling drugs socialize their children into their world where masculinity and respect are the only things that establish power. Single parent homes, which lack parental supervision while the mother is mostly at work, gives the adolescent the opportunity to be surrounded and learn from delinquent peers with deviant norms. The Differential Association Theory proposes that criminal behavior is learned and maintained through interaction. It occurs within close personal groups learning criminal behavior with specific motives, neutralizations, and a definition of legal codes as unfavorable. It looks at how frequent and how important the crime is to the criminal, excess of definitions favorable to crime, contemplates whether learning criminal behavior is the same as learning how to do “normal” activities, and why criminal behavior is not explained by general needs and values. If criminal behavior were to be explained by general needs and values, the question of “Why are some people more likely to commit a crime?” is more heavily weighted. It is difficult to test this theory because of the causal order; was the crime learned from peers or was it out of…
Juvenile transfer is the process of removing juvenile offenders from the juvenile court and placing them into the adult court. Although states implement this process in varying ways, it is seen in different viewpoints as either having a positive effect on juveniles or a negative effect. Studies have been conducted examining the statistics regarding recidivism for juveniles who have been transferred to the adult court versus those who have not. After taking a look at these two perspectives, I have gained a broader understanding of the multiple studies that have been conducted over juvenile transfer and its effectiveness, and have come to the conclusion that it is a sound policy that should continue to be used in the United States for certain…
Over time, there has been extensive research done on juveniles in the justice system. The way to deal with mental illness is to identify and treat the disorder. According to the National Conference of State Legislation, studies show that 70% of juveniles in the system suffer from some form of mental disease or defect. About 20% of them suffer from an illness so severe that it can lead to ongoing delinquency and eventually criminality in adulthood. When our juvenile justice system takes a mentally ill, underdeveloped minor and puts them in jail instead of a treatment facility, it can only make the situation worse. Idaho, Nevada and Texas all have laws that require mental health and/or substance screenings for all juveniles taken into custody.…
The juvenile justice system needs to better prepare youth to enter the adult world and workplace. Per Virginia Performs, “Within twelve months 49.1% of the juvenile offenders released will be rearrested.” This is almost fifty percent. The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice records recidivism by tracking rearrests, reconvictions, and reincarceration for twelve months after release from a juvenile correctional center. Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. The juvenile justice system does not prepare youth to enter the world and workplace because youth who enter the system lack intellectual development, emotional maturity, and preparedness to transition out into the community successfully. Recidivism rates are a…
In Tennessee, a juvenile can be transferred from juvenile court to adult court after a petition is filed alleging delinquency based on conduct that is a crime under Tennessee law, local ordinances, or the Court. A hearing is held to determine if the child is sixteen years of age at the time of the alleged crime or if the child is less than sixteen years old. If the child is less than sixteen years old, then for the transfer hearing to move forward the child has to be charged with a serious offense. Those crimes include "first-degree murder, second-degree murder, rape, aggravated rape, rape of a child, aggravated robbery, especially aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping or especially aggravated kidnapping or an attempt to commit…
Martin, M. (2011). Introduction to human services: through the eye of practice settings. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.…
This theory also, “assumes that youths learn about crime and then commit criminal acts, but it is also possible that experienced delinquents and criminals seek out like-minded peers after they engage in antisocial acts and that the internalization of deviant attitudes follows, rather than precedes, criminality” (Siegel, 239). However, still differential association theory is used today to help us understand criminal behavior. This theory is multifaceted in that it does not look at only one explanation for criminal behavior. Criminology has reaped the benefits of this theory and will continue for many years to…
Their study goes hand-in-hand with United States criminologists Edwin Sutherland’s and Donald Cressey’s “Differential Association Theory”. Some of the basic principles of the differential association theory are: Criminal behavior is learned, learning is a by-product of interaction, learning occurs within intimate groups, and criminal techniques are learned (Siegel, 219). All of these principles are related to whether or not deviant peers cause people around them to engage in devious acts as well. Paternoster and his fellow criminologists state, “Quasi-experimental, observational, and qualitative investigations have undeniably led to a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the connection between deviant peers and delinquency, but on the key question of causality, they do not offer the same clarity and confidence as would true experimentation” (Causal Impact of Exposure to Deviant Peers, 2).…
The youth of today’s society are not held accountable for their actions. In 2015 alone, 53,500 juveniles were arrested for committing violent crimes. However, many of these crimes go unpunished under the Juvenile Justice Act, “on the theory that long sentences are unlikely to help rehabilitate young offenders, the new act specifies relatively short terms for offences”(Dolphin). While violent crimes are being committed, the juvenile offenders go on, hardly punished at all. These juveniles need to be taught that they are responsible for the actions that they commit. The Juvenile Justice System should create harsher punishments for juvenile who have commited violent crimes in order to teach them about the consequences of their actions. Juvenile…
Juvenile Delinquency has been a huge problem here in The United States. It has risen in past years and is projected to increase until 2015. With this current threat on the rise the U.S. have tried to analye the many causes and factors that may cause juvenile delinquency. As we take a look into the factors behind this problem we will also look into what changes has been made to the juvenile justice system to combat this.…
M., & Matza, D., pg. 664). This statement is supported by Sutherland’s theory of differential association, which determines that delinquent behavior involves the learning of motivations, crimes, validation, and they have to want to violate the law. They argue that individuals who participate in these delinquent offenses are set in thinking that what they are doing is right like they are…
The ‘child-savers’ movement began in New York in the early 1800’s. These early groups were concerned mainly with the moral education of children. They felt that private groups and families were not doing enough to properly educate young people and wanted more control to be given to the government. These groups were formed by prominent members of the community who could influence law makers. “Child-saving organizations influenced state legislatures to enact laws giving courts the power to commit children who were runaways or criminal offenders to specialized institutions” (Seigel & Welsh, 2011). From these groups the concept of parens patriae was made popular.…
Early in U.S. history, children who broke the law were treated the same as adult…
With the development of economics and the improvement of society, the rate of juvenile delinquency is at a high level. Juvenile delinquency has already been a very hot social issue nowadays. The causes of juvenile delinquency have been summarized in this research, such as personal、family、school and society factors; what features juvenile delinquency have and how we can control the delinquency effectively so that the youths can grow up healthily have also been discussed in this research.…