Victims of the Juvenile Justice System - Essay Example

Victims of the Juvenile Justice System Victims of the Juvenile Justice System Children in America and California are found to be experiencing one major problem. The rate at which these children are mistreated has been alarming and the government of the United States has been forced to come up with a way to defend children from mistreatments. To perceive this problem, it took the nation some time to analyze the welfare of children in the country. It was found that many children are suffering from poverty in the sense that their family structures, family income, health, nutrition, early childhood development, education and many more welfare related issues were poorly progressing (Children’s Defense Fund, 2014). This therefore drew the attention of the government to take part in supervision of how children related with others and how favorable the environment was to them. The results showed that quite a good number of children were at risk. This is how the juvenile justice system was created in response to children that had been abused and that later carried out criminal activities. In most cases of child abuse, the victim children happen to be at the age 17 for both genders. Among these findings, it is included that girls happened to be victims at a higher rate than boys were, apart from the adolescent age of 9 to 12 years, where many reported cases showed a higher rate for boys as victims as compared to girls. Over the last five years, the rates of these reported crimes have remained stable. This shows that there is cause for alarm in how crimes against children are punished (Mahony, 2013). Many people tend to think that the most chronic problem children go through is sexual abuse, especially for girls. However, though it is true that this problem exists and at a high rate, the main problem is not sexual harassment but domestic violence. At some point, domestic violence could be the root cause for many other child related problems. It has in fact been found to be a deadly crime in the society that can eventually lead to death of many society members without being noticed. Though children are mostly affected, they are accompanied by women in this, though some men may fall victims at one point or another. Nevertheless, it rarely happens in the case of men. This therefore means that men in most cases are the cause of trouble as far as domestic violence is concerned. Domestic violence may greatly affect children and make them end up in criminal activities. Most of these activities include theft. Many children reported in juvenile centers were handed over due to theft. It has been proved that domestic violence can spring out anywhere any time and with any economic class. This explains why, with no exceptional, any child could fall victim of domestic violence. This therefore is one of the major reasons as to why children engage themselves in criminal activities trying to survive away from subjection to domestic violence related stress. Domestic violence related cases have been reported accusing people of different levels. Educated people too happen to be victims in these cases (Del & Trulson, 2006). Domestic violence can take place in the forms of threats, sexual harassment, battering, verbal abuse or even murder. Victims of domestic violence suffer much stress and may end up freeing from their homesteads to look for peace; maybe to the streets where they may join other street children and engage in criminal activities such as theft. This is the way juvenile ends up gaining some customers to take care of. Women too happen to fall victims of domestic violence. No woman is happy to see her children mistreated and no child is happy to see their mother suffering domestic violence. This therefore means that children are directly connected to their mothers and so what affects many women may in turn affect many children as well, and what affects many children may also be an issue that women are going through. This therefore is the main behavior that involves sexual, physical, and psychological assaults to current children and women in America. Medical research has shown that domestic violence is the cause for seeking medical attention in children and outdoes sexual harassments, accidents and muggings, all combined. Research shows that child abuse and domestic violence are directly linked, in that most men who batter their women abuse their children. When a woman is battered, they may not offer the required attention to their children, neglect them, abuse and even in some cases they may end up killing them (National Center for Victims of Crime, 2012). According to research carried out in California, over two thousand children end up suffering death as a result of burst out domestic violence. Funny enough, even after all the evidence put forward, research shows that many magistrates in courts of law tend not to consider battering of women as directly related to child abuse. It is under rare circumstance, by the help of advocates, that the court considers the impact of battering of women by men to the welfare of children. Charges on those that practice domestic violence happen not to be stable in these law courts. Causes of domestic violence are different. In most cases, the main causes happen to be financial instabilities with burdens of health care and other numerous bills torturing parents. This kind of situation ends up bringing about domestic harassment to members of these families. It happens that some fathers do not realize it when they are subjecting the rest of the family members to emotional torture. This makes it possible to state that domestic violence is not all time intentional. In the past, domestic violence in the United States was considered not very much offensive in the society as even the religion and traditional believes were not against its practice. Neither was the law. Although the law currently considers restricting domestic violence, it is at some point still considered as a private domestic issue and should be solved within the family members. With prolonged violence however and where the cases get out of hand, victims are allowed and accommodated to report in government crime offices. This therefore has led to criminalization of brutal behavior in efforts to secure safety for women (Making the Criminal Justice System more Responsive to Victims, 2015). The efforts of the public in fighting against child abuse and protecting children rights started showing up more than a century ago. By then, there were no cases of battering and domestic violence for women. Therefore the only issues that led to raising concerns on the protection of children and their welfare were child labor juvenile crimes and issues that involved widows and orphans. This was why domestic violence took quite some time in being involved in the protection measures for children welfare. Children that happen to be left with no parents have a tendency of suffering poverty and mistreatment by those that take over in taking care of them in the name of guardians. Subjection to these kinds of sufferings may end up leading to children giving up in life and associating themselves with bad companies where they learn criminal activities. Gradually, these children end up in juveniles being charged with theft cases especially (Patel et al., 2011). The research that I found connected to this issue was highly credible. This is because it provided statistical data indicating how prevalent this issue is as well as the key reasons behind it. For most of the sources, domestic violence is a chief aspect in creating victims of the juvenile justice system. Most of the information originated from credible sources that have been peer reviewed. This implies that the information is authentic and trustworthy. In addition, a lot of research is available explaining how individuals end up in the criminal justice systems as well as some recommendations and solutions for the same. Judging from the content of various research sources, there is a consensus about the major aspects related to this issue. Although some of the resources may bring some controversy, almost all of them are agreeing to the theories involved in this issue. In conclusion therefore, domestic violence stands out to be the most chronic problem that children especially in adolescent stage face. This problem is experienced across the United States and has great impact on children which cannot afford to be ignored in the society. In efforts to determine why most children end up in juveniles, the government of America came across this issue. It is a responsibility across the nation therefore for all societies to fight against domestic violence. Cases should be reported to police stations for law enforcement against domestic violence. References Children’s Defense Fund. (2014). The State of America’s Children. Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/state-of-americas-children/2014-soac.pdf?utm_source=2014-SOAC-PDF&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=2014-SOAC Del, C. R. V., & Trulson, C. R. (2006). Juvenile justice: The system, process, and the law. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. Mahony, T. H. (2013). Women and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11416-eng.htm Making the Criminal Justice System more Responsive to Victims. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cp-pm/cr-rc/dig/vict.html National Center for Victims of Crime. (2012). Criminal and Civil Justice. Retrieved from http://www.victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/criminal-and-civil-justice Patel, D., Institute of Medicine (U.S.), National Academies Press (U.S.), & Workshop on Preventing Violence Against Women and Children. (2011). Preventing violence against women and children: Workshop summary. Washington D. C: The National Academies Press. Read More