An Analysis on the Juvenile Justice System - Dissertation Example

Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) in their report to the National Crime Council for the period 1950 - 1998 stated that, first and foremost, it had been difficult finding conclusive data for the majority of the period covered reflecting the lack of coordination on maintaining data on juvenile justice for the majority of the period of time covered in the report. Additionally, during the time period analyzed the age groupings fluctuated which made data gathering even more difficult. Several of the periods had overlapping age groups represented in several categories and during a 20 year period data was categorized for the age group 17 to 21 which did not reflect if the crimes were even committed by juveniles per se.

Upon completion of the report, however, and with the limitations set forth previously addressed Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) presented their findings noting several general trends. Since 1958 the trend of juvenile offenses has been very erratic with marked differences from year to year in some cases. Figure 1 below shows the number of juvenile cases by year for the 40 year period. As seen from the above graph the highest recorded period of juvenile crime was in 1961 when 3,333 cases were reported.

1976 saw a dramatic drop in juvenile crime which may actually be a reflection of the change of reporting practices as opposed to an actual drop. As seen in the above chart since 1990 with the exception of 1996 juvenile crime has been decreasing at a steady rate. 1997 showed the all time low of only 465 cases while the following year the number juvenile offences increased slightly to 573. During the entire period of the study Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) reported that juveniles accounted for 23% of all reported crime in Ireland.

The rate has not increased above 30% since 1961 and since the early 1990's has been 15% or less which reflects in the total number of youth being arrested for criminal offences. By 1997 only 9% of all crimes were committed by juveniles. This rose