Juvenile Justice Module 8 Online - Essay Example

JUVENILE JUSTICE Approaches and Techniques for best Practice in Juvenile Justice By of Name of StudentName of ProfessorLaw23rd of April, 2012Juvenile Justice: Approaches and TechniquesIn modern legal systems, the crimes committed by children are not treated in the way as treated in adults. A juvenile court is a court or tribunal having authority to make judgment about crimes done by children or young people not gained adult age. Juvenile courts deal with defendants under age of 18 who are engaged in crimes or not in the control of their parents.

The age of these defendants is under 18 but there are cases in which juvenile courts do not intervene. These are cases of murders and gang crimes. In such cases the defendants are dealt as adults. In juvenile justice system parents, social workers and probation officers are involved in the process to achieve positive results and avoid any further crimes by children. Best Practices in Juvenile System: The juvenile probation is the centre of juvenile justice system. Probation is the tool used by juvenile justice agencies.

It is an informal monitoring of youth and avoiding their involvement in serious crimes. The main responsibility of juvenile probation is safety and protection of public from crimes. The juvenile probation practices must be mission-oriented, performance based and result-oriented. Many probation skills and approaches are used.School based Probation: In this probation practice, the offenders are supervised in their schools. This practice is useful in the sense that the children spend the majority of their time in school.

The probation officer finds himself in the position of better monitoring of the juvenile offenders. In this practice he has more contact with the youth and able to see behavior of the offender with his fellows. This practice also will help the youth to become more attentive in school making a good student. A study revealed that school based probation results in better academic performance, less crimes and increase in school attendance. This study was carried on 75 randomly selected offenders.

Skill Building Probation:The most important goal of the juvenile justice system is to change the young people. The purpose of this practice is to make the offenders good citizens following laws and regulations. The probation officers play an important role in rehabilitation of the youth. For this purpose the probation officers help in develop the working skills and learning skills. The skills which are needed to make peaceful and useful citizens. The offenders also need to change the way they think and make decisions.

Their way of thinking is changed by cognitive interventions. The need is assessed and goals are set accordingly and then the skill building programs are made. It is important for the offenders to take part in the community activities to practice skills. This raises their self esteem and makes them better citizens. School based probation and skill building probation both are very useful juvenile technique. School based probation provides the probation officer more time to supervise the offender and examine behavior.

This is a close supervision resulting in good results. Skills based probation develops the skills that are crucial for the youth. Without changing the way of thinking a person cannot change, so cognitive intervention is prerequisite. Probation officers monitor offenders so there must be physical, academic and professional training. They are community supervision officers; they write reports and gather information about the individual from family members, employers and various community members.

Hence, special training must be given to them from 40 to 80 hours as suggested by National standards. Many states in America require probation officers to complete a certificate course or training program. School based supervision is needed for an individual to observe his or her behavior. Skill development cannot be ignored in the offenders for making them useful citizens. I think these skills should be given priority by juvenile workers. School based probation and skill development are the primary methods or approaches.

ReferencesAnderson. Craig, Crowe. Anne, Gamble, David etal. (2002). Desktop guide to good Juvenile Probation Practice. National Centre for Juvenile Justice. Pp 85-104