The Issues in Juvenile Justice - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Analysis of Issues in Juvenile JusticeAnalysis of Issues in Juvenile JusticeIntroduction In contemporary society, there have been wide ranging issues and problems related to juvenile justice. The most notable issue is that of balancing between individualized sanctions and offender based treatment and impartial and consistent sanctions (Mears, 2002). It should be noted that these two approaches cannot be understood in general terms and therefore, it is essential to analyze in historical, social and demographic context.

This paper aims at analyzing individualized sanctions and impartial and consistent sanctions, which are used in juvenile justice, in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources.Overview In order to understand, the issue of balancing between individualized and formal sanctions, it is necessary to understand three fundamental points. Firstly, it should be noted that the juvenile criminal system is large and complex, internal and external systems are divided into several complex structures and the trends of this system changes.

Thus, the question whether it is possible to balance between individualized and formal sanctions? The balancing between individualized and formal sanctions is not possible for several reasons. Firstly, literature demonstrates that the entire juvenile sanction system is diverse and vast. This indicates that the guidelines for adoption of sanctions differ from one state to another. The aim of consistent and formal sanctions is to ensure that there is no disparity and discrimination in the juvenile system.

Stinchcomb, Bazemore and Riestenberg (2006 )asserts that “The widespread belief, evident in many sentencing guidelines, is that (a) judicial discretion causes disparity and inconsistency and (b) that offense-based systems can eliminate or reduce these problems. Both beliefs prevail despite the fact that little empirical evidence exists to support them.” Majority of the guidelines adopted by the states frequently “use offense-based criteria for determining which types of sanctions to apply” (Mears, 2002).

After the severity of the crime is determined, the juvenile court concentrates on identifying the basic needs and requirements of the lawbreaker. The question also arises whether guidelines for sentencing offer a unique and innovative way of dealing with offenders? As mention earlier, the juvenile system is dependent on trends and therefore, the sentencing guidelines also depend on them. The approach of balancing the goals concentrates on the needs and requirements of the juvenile offender(Lipsey,1999).

Furthermore, it seeks to offer special attention to different issues. Bottcher and Ezell, 2005) assert that “Specialized “community,”“teen,”“drug,”“mental health, “and other such courts have been developed to do what the original juvenile court was supposed to do—provide individualized and rehabilitative sanctioning”. Another approach is the zero tolerance policies approach, which have been adopted by in order to ensure that the principles and concepts of restorative justice are applied in the juvenile system.

From research, it was found out that the adoption and integration of restorative justice together with community based learning can assist in changing delinquent behavior of juveniles. Conclusion The contemporary juvenile justice system has the issue of balancing between individualized and formal sanctions. The complexity of the structure of system together with the wide array of internal and external systems and emergence of new trends, have contributed towards this issue. Each and every state has its own set of guidelines and approaches in order to deal with juvenile justice.

With such complexity, it can be concluded that the balance between the two sanctions is impossible. References:Mears, Daniel P. Sentencing Guidelines and the Transformation of Juvenile Justice in the 21st Century. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2002 18: 6Jeanne B. Stinchcomb, Gordon Bazemore and Nancy Riestenberg. Beyond Zero Tolerance : Restoring Justice in Secondary Schools. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 2006 4: 123Jean Bottcher and Michael E. Ezell. Examining the Effectiveness of Boot Camps: A Randomized Experiment with a Long-Term Follow Up.

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2005 42: 309Mark W. Lipsey .Can Intervention Rehabilitate Serious Delinquents? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1999 564: 142