Juvenile Crime Essay
One of the biggest problems which the United States is faced with is juvenile crime. The reason experts feel juvenile's commit crimes is because of risk factors when they were younger but experts still have not found the main reason why juvenile's commit crimes. Some risk factors associated with juvenile crime are poverty, repeated exposure to violence, drugs, easy access to firearms, unstable family life and family violence, delinquent peer groups, and media violence. Especially the demise of family life, the effect of the media on the juveniles today, and the increase of firearms available today have played a big role in the increase of juveniles crimes.
The
most common risk factor is the demise of the...show more content...
Another risk factor is the effect of the media on the juveniles of today. Before the time a child has reached seventh grade, the average child has witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on the television. There is no doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all economic levels, and all levels of intelligence. Long–term childhood exposure to television is a casual factor behind one half of the homicides committed by juveniles in the United States.
The increased availability of guns has played a big part in escalating the number of crimes committed by juveniles.
In Los Angeles juvenile delinquency cases involving weapon violation grew by 86% from 1988 to 1992, which was more then any other type of juvenile offense. According to a University of Michigan study found that 270,000 guns accompany secondary school students to class daily. This is startling because it shows how many more juveniles are carrying guns and the juvenile use of guns in homicides has increased from 65 to 80 percent from 1987 to 1991.
The possession of firearms plays a big cause in the delinquency of children and is playing a bigger role in the crimes which juveniles commit. Another cause of the increase of juvenile crimes has been the
effect
Juvenile Crime
Imagine two innocent young children; one girl, age seven and the other, a boy, age nine. The two are playing video games inside on a snowy, frigid day. After, the young girl's father, Richard Ratti, ended the festivities a seven year old, Jessica Ratti went outside to ride a snow mobile with her best friend. The nine year old boy, identified as Cameron Kocher, enraged at his parents for not allowing him to participate stormed home, unlocked his father's gun cabinet, and stalked to a window where he delivered the shots that ended Jessica Ratti's life. Cameron, who showed no remorse for his previous wrong–doings, was interchanged from juvenile and adult court, at least once. However, the judge denied the transfer of his case into the juvenile...show more content...
"Following a steady decline since 2006, the Juvenile violent Crimes Index arrest rate reached a new historic low–point in 2014." However, crime rates in the 1980's was comparatively lower than the recent years. The arrest rate may have lowered, but this could mean that children are becoming more efficient criminals. Which is why we need to reinforce the juvenile justice system. A quote from Hanna Chiou further fortifies this statement. "...if our justice system uses mental incompetency as the reason juveniles have their own separate and more lenient court, why aren't 40 year–olds with the mind of a 10 year–old prosecuted in the juvenile justice system..." (Chiou 130).Another quote from Chiou expresses the same fact: "...fully competent and mature juveniles are fully capable of committing the same crime as a competent adult." (Chiou 141). Why is it that in the eyes of society even children with high intelligence, who are fully competent, that have malignant motives for committing these vehement crimes receive gentle treatment, or a mere pop or the wrist? Why is it that age means automatic innocence? Children who commit these crimes have obviously chose so. Remember: "Young people have to obey the same laws as adults." ("Juvenile Crime"167). So why exactly would you not treat a well–functioning child how he or she should be
Juvenile Crime Essay examples
Juvenile Crime
Juvenile crime rates have nearly doubled in most countries. In the news we keep hearing about youngsters got mixed up in shady affairs and committing petty crimes. Firstly they just steal an apple from the market stands, then rob a small shop, next day we learn about a 17–year–old kid who killed his classmates. People are concerned and rightly so.
That's all what we do or maybe give them a harsh punishment. It seems that the problem has only focused on punishment and very little on prevention or intervention.
There is no single cause of violence but we can certainly list a lot of risk factors, which increase the development of delinquent behavior. These include child abuse and family disintegration, violating...show more content...
Young people are allowed to live a totally free and undisciplined life in the dark streets of abandoned city districts. Getting a false image from these places they are assured that the proper way of living is the one they experience there. Just following the bad example, without being aware of what they are really doing,
The situation is the same with the violation, outrage, aggression fuelled by the media and computer games. Thousands of children sit down in front of the television in the late evening to switch off a little bit. What do they get? Blood, fight, hatred, war and a superman who never dies. All that in prime time. After that, what should we expect from our children? To kiss the little doll with love or play with the toy cars... That type of childhood is out of fashion by now. They will rather continue the bloody scenes in their video games using the newest weapons to murder the "bad guys". The game is never–ending because they have more lives. Most of the parents consider it as just like a game. But it's much more than that. Subconsciously everything remains in their brains and reflex. On the other hand sitting all day long at the computer kids get isolated from their peers, friends and social life, too. They don't communicate and thus fall out of the flow of real life. Losing their connections to the world they won't be able to make realistic judgements leading them into crimes.
Young people should not be expected to have the same
1980 Juvenile Crime Report
The problem of how to deal with juvenile offenders constitutes one of our countries biggest challenges. There were 13.9 million reported offenses in 1995 according to the FBI's uniform crime report. That same year over three million juveniles were arrested, 800,000 of those arrests were index crimes, which are crimes of a serious nature. In 1995 there were 69million juveniles. It is predicted that by the year 2010 the juvenile population will reach 74 million (Bureau of the Census 1995). The increase in the juvenile arrest rate during the last ten years is expected to continue at a steady increase until something can be done to reduce the offending rates.
The statistics are staggering. The rate for juvenile...show more content...
During the 1970's, supervision and electronic monitoring were also introduced. By the 1980's the public perceived serious juvenile crime increasing and the system was failing due to its lenient attitude in the juvenile courts. Laws were passed making the 1980's a transitional period that led the juvenile justice system away from its original philosophy of rehabilitation, focusing now on punishment and the safety of the public. Juvenile crime had increased , faith in treatment was on a downward spiral, the courts were becoming more and more inept to realistically address and remedy social ills and political ideology rushing towards conservative trends caused a distinct change in the policies surrounding juvenile criminals. By the 1990's legislation enacted by many states put juvenile offenders that were violent, serious, or repeat offenders accountable for their actions. Five areas of change concentrated on by state legislature include: 1. Sentencing 2. Transfer provisions 3. Confidentiality 4. Victims rights 5. Correctional programming. As a result of the many changes made by legislation, the building of more secure facilities and the development of more adequate solutions for rehabilitation.
The real problem of our juvenile justice system is the manor in which it address' our nations troubled youth. The
juvenile crime Essay
To many Americans today, the country is a hostage–but not from oversea terrorism as one might expect to think. No today, we live in fear from our own children; and these are the same young people who we are entrusting the future of this great country with. According to the Department of Justice report released in November, thirty–eight percent of those arrested for weapons offenses in 1995 were under the age of eighteen (Curriden). In the same report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that in 1995, 3 out of every 100 eighteen–year–olds were arrested for weapons offenses. A rate three times higher than for males twenty–five to twenty–nine and five times higher than for males thirty to thirty–four (Curriden)....show more content...
Juveniles should receive capitol punishment, they should be imprisoned with adults so that maybe, just maybe we can get to the ones that still have a chance and make a difference for them as well as us. In San Antonio, Texas, in 1995 Victoria Dalton a thirteen year old girl, is convicted of smothering two small children left in her care. When interrogated and asked why and how could she do such a thing, her reply was, "They just wouldn't shut up!". Apparently Victoria suffers from migraine headaches, and the two children had pushed her pass her limit. Later during her arrainement, Victoria stated to the judge that she was only thirteen and wondered why she couldn't go home yet (Edmonds).
Fifteen hundred miles away, in Portland, Oregon Brandon Roses ten is found guilty of murdering his five–year–old sister because he claimed that she was annoying him. Later investigators found out that Brandon's father had told him that killing his sister was "OK", because he was too young to be put in jail. Another investigation is currently under way (Edmonds). In Austin, Texas, two young men Efrain Perez and Raul Villareal were both seventeen in June of 1993. As part of Villareal's gang initiation, the boys spent the evening in an open field drinking and fighting among
Juvenile Crime Essay example
Juvenile Crime
Introduction
Every year, millions of juveniles are involved in criminal activities. According to statistics, as of 1999, the arrest rate for juvenile crime has dropped from its peak in the mid–1990's. Statistics about juvenile crime have shown a steady increase of juvenile arrests from 1987 to 1994. Although overall crime rates have decreased since 1994, they are still above what they were in 1980. The following paragraphs and charts show the crime rates of specific crimes committed by juveniles.
Statistics on Juvenile Crime Rates
In the year of 1999, law enforcement agencies made an estimated 2.5 million convictions of persons under the age of 18.
There were 28,000 arrests for robbery,...show more content...
Statistics on Juvenile Court Case Flow
Of every 1,000 petitioned adjudicated delinquency cases handled in 1997, 177 resulted in formal probation and 94 resulted in residential placement following adjudication.
In many formally handled delinquency cases that did not result in juvenile court adjudication, the youth agreed to informal services or sanctions, including out–of–home placement, informal probation, and other dispositions such as restitution.
In a small number of cases (13 of 1,000), the juvenile was adjudicated but the court closed the case with a stayed or suspended sentence, warned and released the youth, or perhaps required the youth to write an essay. In such cases, the juvenile is not under any continuing court supervision.
Although juvenile courts handled more than 4 in 10 delinquency cases without the filing of a formal petition, more than half of these cases received some form of court sanction, including probation or other dispositions such as restitution, community service, or referral to another agency. (http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/delinquencytotal.html)
Note: All of the above graphs and charts were based on info from the OJJDP website.
Our group's opinion on juvenile crimes is that we think that someone who commits a serious crime like robbery, murder, assault and rape, knows what they are doing is wrong. If a thirteen year old or even a ten year
Essay on Juvenile Offenders
Juvenile Offenders
Should Juveniles be waived to adult court Philosophy 14 Nov 98 Should juveniles be waived to adult court. There has been tension between teens (pre–teens) and adults for thousands of years, and the question how to deal with the youth of a culture, in a punishment sense, has been with us for just as long. Socrates, for example, stated that "children show little respect for there elders." Since Socrates time largely due to the spread of guns and drugs, younger and younger children are committing violent crimes. Children that have special needs or have committed a criminal act have been subject to state protection since, 1838. The first juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1890. The assumption, that was made...show more content...
In cases where the offender is younger than 16 the prosecutor must show why the juvenile should be waived. One of main issues of side A, is that if the offender is too old the sentence would not be severe enough for the crime that had been committed. Another issue is the overcrowding of the juvenile justice system. Many of the offenders in the juvenile system, if a few years older, would have already been sentenced to life sentences in an adult court. Side A does not believe that a persons age should be the lone determining factor for non–waiver. While side A does believe that there are a great many negative influences on today's youth, they believe that these circumstances do not dismiss that crimes that have been committed. The core belief that most of the side A advocates share is, the belief that the small percentage of the juveniles that are committing the serious crimes are past the point where a juvenile court could be of any help. Side A truly feels that by allowing serious juvenile offenders to be waived to adult court, thus receiving a stiffer sentence, the community, as a hole, will be much better served. Side B believes, essentially, that no child (juvenile) should be waived. Side B sees several key factors for the rise in juvenile crime. These reasons are ones that are out of the control of