The History of Juvenile Justice - Essay Example

? Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Delinquency Introduction The rise in anti-social behaviors has raised a concern in the world.The behaviors have affected both adults and children and society as a whole. A juvenile delinquent is a person who is under the majority age, which in most countries is eighteen years, and commits illegal behavior, which would be a crime if an adult commits (Hess, Orthmann and Drowns, 2010). Juvenile Delinquency is the anti-social offenses committed by people who are underage, which two adults is a crime (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). Juvenile justice is the process of handling cases of juvenile delinquents in the court. The rise in anti-social behaviors has led youths to engage in juvenile offenses, in their adolescence. These offenses range from status offenses like smoking while young, to property and violent crimes. The high percentage of juvenile offenses is a major concern of the society because, the behavior the youths develop in their adolescence affects their adult life if not corrected in advance. The research work that follows will look at some of the causes of juvenile delinquency, prevention methods, and the history of juvenile justice, that is, the handling of juvenile offenses during the early history days and at present, the statistics of juvenile justice in different countries, and the importance of the study. The History of Juvenile Justice For years, law has successfully defined juvenile and adult offenders by drawing a line at different places as well as different reasons. Juvenile crime policy history through the 20th century is a narration of how the conception of young offenders has been transformed by law. Before the juvenile court era, by the end of 20th century, young offenders were tried and punished in the same way as adults were. Although the law was greatly influenced by common law of England, different countries had different methods of handling juvenile delinquency cases in the early history days. In Greece and Rome, age made no difference on criminal responsibility (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). The young people accused to law breaking received the same treatment as the adults. According to the Roman law, the Twelve Tables, law breaking of underage children and adults got the same treatment, that is, the treatment given to the adults applied to children (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). In the criminal justice system, juvenile offenders got treated the same way as adults, although they differed in the punishment given. The Roman law considered only the children under the age of seven years to be exempted form criminal liability, but girls from 12 years and boys from 14 years were as adults in regard to crimes. Those in between received judgment according to their capability of distinguishing between right and wrong (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). The English Common Law took judgment of juvenile cases like those of Greece and Rome. Although their law termed children as responsible for any crime right from birth, few children under the age of 7 years faced legal penalties for their crimes (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). The rising crimes in early days of history in the United States led to the formation of institutions to treat the wayward youths who developed anti-social behaviors due to social changes in Europe (Krisberg, 2005). The changes affected almost all the fields of life for the people of Europe, for example, increased population due to urbanization led to increased fees paid by farmers who worked on the farms. The living standard of the farmers dropped leading them to migrate to towns and cities to look for means of survival (Krisberg, 2005). This immigration of these farmers into towns caused an increase in crimes that brought unrest in the towns. To control the effects of this immigration, the town leaders enacted laws to prevent immigration and also invented other laws like the ‘Poor Laws’ as it was their name, to prevent the migrants from obtaining citizenship. Although they tried to discourage migration to the urban centers, people continued to migrate, and this change brought the urban life under pressure thus; children escaped the constraints of the community and roamed in the cities at night as they engaged themselves in all forms of misbehavior (Krisberg, 2005). These misbehaviors led to founding of institutions to deal with prevention and control of juvenile offenses in the United States. Members of The Society for the Prevention of Pauperism founded The New York House of Refuge in 1825, aiming at reforming their social status (Krisberg, 2005). There was no juvenile justice in the early days because young offenders got the same treatment as adults. The reformers group called for separation of juvenile delinquents from adults because they thought their exposure to more offenders would increase their chances of engaging in criminal activities when they grow than when they separated them (Krisberg, 2005). The members also called for the creation of prisons for juvenile offenders so that they may be separated from the adults. The reformers group called for the prisons to be schools for instruction rather than punishment. They suggested that the youths in these prisons should be taught courses on discipline (Krisberg, 2005). The history of juvenile justice started changing after the opening of the New York House of Refuge that opened the way for development of other houses, like the Boston House of Refuge opened in 1928. These houses accepted children who had committed crimes, and destitute children who had nobody to take care of them after neglect by their parents. Their aim was to reform them by training them on morality and religion, equipping them with skills that would help them to earn a living, and separating them from the adults (Krisberg, 2005). This is the year in which enlightenment occurred; leading to immigration and industrialization, and the juvenile justice, this time took responsibility of the child (Cole and Smith, 2009). The changes in the administration of justice on juvenile delinquents led to the elimination of death penalties on juvenile offenders from 2005 to date where scientific evidence on the youth’s emotional, biological, and psychological development has to be done. This has changed the juvenile justice system because the laws that governed juvenile delinquent cases significantly differ from those used in the early history days. The juveniles are nowadays not treated the same as adults because justice systems recognize that juveniles are less culpable than adults (Cole and Smith, 2009). Causes of juvenile delinquency With the increasing rate of juvenile delinquency, scholars have endeavored to document the reasons behind this issue. In the research, it is evident that several factors contribute to offenses committed by people under the legal majority age. Age Age is one of the factors that affect how teenagers live and their behavior. The increased population of teenagers in the same age group contributes to different effects on their behavior. If groups consist of underage children who are idle, they will devise ways of gaining financial support, which might turn them to behaviors, which are against the society like stealing, and this leads to increase in crime rates (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). The kids who develop the behavior of committing crimes end up in retaining the behavior in their adulthood, and this increases crime rates. Economy The change in the economy has adverse effects on the lives of the youth in any society. Economic status fall or drop of a country leads the youth to engage to different practices to look cash to fight the high rise in economic demands. Indeed, the current economy of the country dictates the life led by many youths. As such, involvement in crimes by minors is much dictated by this factor. Thus, the economy's fall affects the youth mostly because most of them are unemployed or have just come out of school and find any means to sustain them. This makes them engage in anti-social activities like drug trafficking to source for money to support themselves (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). Immigration This is the temporal movement of people from one country to another. It is a factor that promotes rise in crime as the countries see immigrants have migrated due to crime issues from their countries and think that they (the immigrants) will influence the residents, especially youths, to engage in criminal activities or if the immigrants themselves are young people, they engage in the crimes (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). An example of immigration that brought rise in crimes is during the social changes in Europe that saw farmers migrating to the urban centers, causing population increase in the cities, a situation that increased crimes in the cities (Krisberg, 2005). Social factors The problems that affect the society like single-parent families, school dropouts and the conflict between races contribute much to the rise in delinquent offenses (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). For example, the case of school dropouts contributes to juvenile delinquency because children that have dropped school seek to engage in activities that bring them money, and it can be any activity even if it is antisocial. However, other researchers think dropping out of school is not what makes the teens engage in crime, but rather the discomfort and painful experiences at school (Binder, Geis and Bruce, 2001). Irrespective of the factors surrounding the dropouts’ involvement in crimes, the increased number of premature termination of education by minors has contributed remarkably to these crimes. Availability of Guns The high rise in technology and the increase in security deficits have led to possession of guns among many communities in the world. The availability of firearms has contributed to the growth of criminal activities among the youth. Surveys according to Siegel and Welsh indicate that six to ten percent of school students carry guns most of the time (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). This availability of guns is risky as it can lead the students to engage in criminal activities or even lead students to convert fights to murder cases. Gangs A gang is a group of people, which ideally deals with activities that are not good according to the society. Their availability is a threat to the society as many of them engage in criminal activities, and when they influence the teens, they engage them in their activities (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). The practices they do in their present lives contribute to crime. The research also shows that criminal activities increase as the teens join the group. The above points are a few of the many other factors that in one way or the other contribute to the rise in juvenile delinquencies. Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency The rising rates of juvenile crimes call for better methods of prevention and control. Different methods prevent this problem among the youth. The society is one of the best tools that can be used to prevent juvenile delinquency. To intervene on the rising rates of juvenile delinquency among the youths, community-based programs and government agencies need establishment in areas where crime is prone (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). These programs address issues that encourage the problem of juvenile offenses like drugs, engagement in gangs that promote criminal activities, among others. YMCA/YWCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America are examples of community and government agencies as well as social services and health organizations fall under as such agencies (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). Communities That Care (CTC) is another community based delinquency prevention program that emphasizes on reduction of risk factors on delinquency and enhancement of protective factors against delinquency from birth to adolescence (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). The program analyzes the problem, identifies available resources in the community, develops the priority of the delinquency problem, identifies successful plans used in other communities, and compares them with the local needs of the community. Although this method is uncommon to all the community-based organizations to prevent delinquency problems, it has supported that it produces the best results compared to the others (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). However, this method got criticism from ‘Merton’s Theory of Anomie’, which undermines the ability of a society whose behavioral rules like customs and norms have broken to reform. The theory argues that if a society has broken from these values it cannot establish and maintain control (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). Another method of prevention of delinquency is by individual and group counseling, job development, recreational and educational experiences, school-based lectures on juvenile delinquency prevention among others as Gang Alternative Prevention Program in Los Angeles County does (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). These programs help in preventing teenagers from joining gangs, and those already in the gangs get warning that they are under watch. The programs help prevention of more criminal activities, which would result from the formation of more gangs. Counseling helps individuals from joining these gangs that engage in criminal activities, as it brings out the disadvantages of joining them, while job development or creation helps the youths to be engaged in an activity so as not to be idle. Statistics on juvenile delinquency cases It has always been a thought of many that males perform more juvenile delinquency crimes as compared to females, although other reports show the number of female delinquents increasing faster than that of males, according to a study by the U.S Law Enforcement Agencies (Poe-Yamagata and Butts, 1996). The agencies reported an estimated a total of 2.4 million arrests of the underage persons in 1993, almost a quarter of which were females. The number of females arrested increased in each offense as compared to males. The United States law enforcement agencies conducted researches on the juvenile delinquency crime cases and provided data on the comparison of males and females involved in the crimes. The data according to Poe- Yamagata and Butts shows that the number of female delinquents has increased compared to that of men. For example, in 1989 and 1993, the number of female juveniles arrested increased by 23 % compared to male juveniles arrest increase of 11%. The report also shows that, between the two years, juvenile court cases involving females charged with delinquency offenses increased by 31% while cases involving men increased by 21% (Poe-Yamagata and Butts, 1996). Comparison of Juvenile arrest trends between males and females between 1989 and 1993 The agencies reported that, between the two years, the growth in the number of female arrests was 23% doubling that of the males, which was 11% (Poe-Yamagata and Butts, 1996). Juvenile females arrested for violent crimes increased by 55% while that of men increased by 33%, affecting the ratio of arrest of male to female from 8:1 in 1989 to 6:1 (Poe-Yamagata and Butts, 1996). This represented a 22 percent increase in female arrests for property crime compared to a decrease of 3 percent of male arrests on property crime. The report points out that the number of juvenile females arrested increased more than that of males in most of the non-index offense categories, however, the number of males arrested was more than females in offenses like fraud, and drug trafficking (Poe-Yamagata and Butts, 1996). This report shows that female juvenile delinquency is increasing as compared to males in all offenses and overall arrests. Importance of the study on juvenile delinquency and justice The study has highlighted different aspect on juvenile delinquency and justice ranging from causes, prevention, history and statistics. Knowing the causes of juvenile delinquency is important because, knowing the cause of a problem helps in looking for the solution. The statistics brought by different reports is vital in helping to gauge the progress on juvenile delinquency and plan for what should be done. It also helps on looking for better ways of administering juvenile justice. Conclusion What should be done? The statistics on juvenile delinquency, according to the American Law Enforcement Agencies, show a serious increment of juvenile delinquency cases, which turn a threat to the world, and this calls for plans to cater for it. The risen economic demand in the world is a major challenge that affects the unemployed and puts pressure on the employed. These are issues that need to be addressed because failure to address them means that the idle persons will look for means of survival, which mostly lead to crimes (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). Employment development activities Employment development programs should be formed to engage the unemployed so as to prevent them from joining gangs that engage in anti-social behaviors. Example of these activities can be income generating activities that the government funds or works in conjunction with non-governmental organizations to fund to support the youth. These programs will engage them in activities that help get income and avoid idling, which is a contributing exercise to delinquency. Legislative Action Strict laws should be implemented and enacted on lawbreakers so that those who plan to engage in crimes can be warned. This calls for the government to work with the legislative assembly and all the other involved ministries such as Gender and Social Services Ministry, the administration ministry, and every other ministry that has an involvement with the juveniles. This will help set laws that will consider all sides on the administration of justice to any victim of juvenile delinquency. Community and Government’s involvement Community based programs and government initiatives like those formed in America according to Siegel and Welsh should be formed in other countries where crime is prone. Programs like those, which fight drug and substance abuse, will help the youth because they will keep them engaged in activities like ball games, and they would not get time to be idle. This will prevent juvenile delinquency because the youths are busy. Guidance and counseling Activities These programs seek to help those who have engaged in behaviors that lead to antisocial activities. They help in discouraging the youth who have not engaged themselves from getting into them, and help them to set their personal future goals and work towards achieving them. They also help those who have gotten used to crimes on how to cope with it. The programs will minimize and later if effectively utilized, do away with juvenile delinquency issues. Urbanization Control Urbanization is a process that is continuous, and all the towns in urban centers face enormous population increment, which cause strain on urban lands. Proper development plans to cater for development of houses and other infrastructure are essential. This calls for governments’ efforts to work together with town planners to minimize the involvement of slums, most of which encourage the dwellers into crimes. Importance to the society Although most of the remedies above are time and financially involving, they should be administered to curb the problem of juvenile delinquency. They will help in rehabilitating those whom the society had rejected to come back to the society and become responsible citizens. The programs, although need professionals to handle them, will help in solving the problem of crimes involving underage persons. All these programs will succeed in creating a community that is free from juvenile delinquents, and other related crimes. References Binder, A., Geis, G., & Bruce, J. D. D. (2001). Juvenile Delinquency: Historical, Cultural & Legal Perspectives. Burlington: Elsevier Science. Hess, K. M., Orthmann, C. M. H., & Drowns, R. W. (2010). Juvenile justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Krisberg, B. (2005). Juvenile justice: Redeeming our children. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Pub. Poe-Yamagata, E., Butts, J. A., U.S. Department of Justice., & Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1996). Female offenders in the juvenile justice system: Statistics summary. Washington, D.C: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Siegel, L. J., & Welsh, B. (2012). Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Cole, George F., & Smith, Christopher. (2009). The American System of Criminal Justice. Gardners Books. Read More