Juvenile Justice System

As someone in part of today's society it is important to see that the young juvenile offenders can be rehabilitated to help make better choices as they grow to be young adults. When a child commits a crime there is normally underlying problems that the child is trying to deal with and process it out through crime. With that being said, if they can be taught to change their actions, they will live a life of peace instead of crime.

The main thing the juvenile justice system should focus on is rehabilitating young offenders is so they have another chance at life. When you are a child and you decide to commit a crime, there is normally a reason behind why you did it. Many of the reasons why a juvenile is getting into trouble and committing crimes is: failure in school, family violence and problems, drug abuse, and peer pressure. When a child has to deal with even one of these problems, all this does is increase the risk of such behaviors. If a juvenile is getting into trouble and all that happens is punishment, does it really teach them a lesson? A report in 2009 by psychologist Laurence Steinberg at Temple University stated that "of all juvenile offenders, only between 5 percent and 10 percent "become chronic offenders." Most juvenile offenders, Steinberg wrote "mature out of crime." Even though that number is only 5 to t10 percent that is still too many, and if they can be taught to make better choices so they do not end up back and forth from society to a facility those numbers will drop.

If law enforcement is involved with delinquent youth, it could be a good thing and this is because the youth can talk with them and build a relationship. If a relationship is built between juveniles, then they will trust them and know that police are good to have on your side. If the police stay involved with the community and go to schools and talk to young children about crime and the consequences of crime, there is a greater chance it will scare them while they are young and not commit crimes. On the other hand, when a juvenile commits the crime it is up to the police to investigate and then they are responsible for turning them over to the juvenile court. Since the police have two roles with juveniles, it is important that they show the juveniles there is no room for error, or consequences will be dealt.

When a juvenile gets into trouble for committing a crime they are taken into custody and this starts the whole court process. Since the juvenile courts are so overcrowded there are many jurisdictions across the country trying out teen courts. Depending on the severity of the crime will depend on what type of court hearing they will go through. If the crime is something little such as shoplifting, vandalism, and disorderly conduct they will be asked to have their case heard in a teen court. Once this has all happened, an intake officer will look at the case facts and determine whether it be dismissed or formally addressed. If there for any reason is not enough evidence then the case will be dismissed, but if there is sufficient evidence the juvenile could be held in a facility or placed with the parents until court. Approximately 50 percent of all juvenile justice cases are heard informally, and among these, most are dismissed. Cases receive an "informal disposition" by a judge when a youth admits guilt and agrees to settle the charges by meeting the requirements of the court, which are laid out in a "consent decree."(©2008 Einstein Law)

When a juvenile is placed on probation it keeps them from being incarcerated and gives them time to rehabilitate while being monitored. There are three different types of community service which are unsupervised, standard, and intensive. This means that there is going to be a lot more juveniles to monitor for the already overloaded probation officers that are working hard on the cases they have. However, this also means that the juvenile has the chance to be in society and participate in every kind of rehabilitation class that is possible. Since probations primary duties are to monitor the juvenile's behavior while they are carrying out the sentence of probation, they are going to have to spend more time with each juvenile to ensure that rehabilitation is getting done. With fewer juveniles being incarcerated it also opens up space for the adult offenders that need to be behind bars, but just happen to be getting released because of the fact that facilities are overcrowded.

Normally when a juvenile is placed on probation, they have to do some sort of community services. The juvenile has obligations when sentenced to community service, and this is to pay back the debt to society. When given community service the judge or probation officer will demand a certain number of hours that need to be completed within a certain time limit. Community service is a great form of punishment and rehabilitation and that is because it teaches them a lesson for doing something wrong but they do not have to be incarcerated. The reason why most juveniles get community service is because they have to pay a debt back to society for the crime they have caused and it has to be a harmless crime.

After reading this information there are many people who are not going to agree with the fact that rehabilitation is better than punishment. However, the best way to look at that is the fact that if a child is brought up in a home with horrible circumstances and knows nothing but violence and trouble, then yes the juvenile is more likely to follow in the same footsteps. There is no point for that to happen, if tax payer's money can get waited daily for a juvenile to just sit in a facility and never learn anything except punishment then what will that really teaches them? Absolutely nothing, it does not teach them that there are ways to deal with anger or abuse that might have happened in the past. So if the juvenile is placed on probation and they are required to take classes that will help them learn and show them that there are other ways and they do not have to end up behind bars, then society might change. Instead of tax payers paying for these young kids to just sit in a facility, the money can be used to properly treat mental illness, counseling, drug