Status Offenses In The Juvenile Justice System

The major problem facing in the juvenile justice system today is status offense. Researchers Kendall and Hawke (2007) study that each year thousands of youth enter or at risk of entering the delinquency and criminal systems because of noncriminal misbehavior. Commonly referred as status offenses (Kendall & Hawke, 2007). Status offense is an act illegal only for children, however status offense can have similar effects on adults. The common status offenses are truancy, running away from home, disobeying parents, underage drinking, and curfew violation. The main challenge that is faced in the juvenile justice system researcher’s emphasis on is the one-pot approach. Hess, Orthmann and Wright (2013) implies that the one-pot approach is allowing the justice system placing youths who committed status offense, neglected and abused in the same facilities with violent re-offending (Hess, Orthmann & Wright, 2013).
Steinhart (1996), criticized the juvenile justice system in the failure of not helping youth whom been deinstitutionalization, not focusing on the public concern about violent juveniles and the effort of removing the status offenders from detention facilities (Steinhart,1996). Many juveniles who are placed in detention center are not all bad offenders based on looking at the various status offenses. Unfortunately, society had label them “delinquent” which brought negative backlash towards the youths. Some may agree with this statement and other will not. There are many suggestions that can have a greater impact for the juveniles in avoidance of using labeling or tough punitive to the juvenile because of their wrongdoing. Moreover, how labeling can affect the court systems, family and limiting the juveniles access of intervention on building a better justice system to satisfy each