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Example research essay topic: Juvenile Justice System State Of California - 2,092 words

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Juveniles in the Court System Contemporary judicial system is becoming more and more concerned with juveniles committing serious crimes that violate the overall society's calmness. The American juvenile justice system was established over 100 years ago to alter the kids who were found guilty of minor crimes such as petty theft and truancy. Nowadays, crimes of violence committed by juveniles are overwhelming the system. Stealing and skipping school have been replaced by violent crimes, such as rape and murder.

The juvenile justice system was never meant to deal with these kinds of problems. In the past the juvenile justice system sought to rehabilitate youthful offenders by taking a protective stance over juvenile delinquents. However, the protect instead of punish ideology of yesterday, better dealt with yesterdays crimes. Today as juvenile crime has become more common and violent and our system will be forced to make changes.

The justice system will become a ground of harsher punishment, and will limit its rehabilitative efforts only to those who deem themselves worthy of re-entry into todays society. The biggest problem facing law enforcement today may be the very structure of the juvenile justice system. A system that neither punishes nor rehabilitates is useless. Examples of juvenile justice system failures are found everywhere throughout the United States. In Richard Lacayos article, Super Predators Arrive, he discusses Craig Price, a fifteen-year-old Rhode Island boy who deliberately murdered a mother and her two young daughters. Yet, this wasnt his first offense, nor his first murder.

Two years earlier he had murdered another woman. He also had a long record of assaults, burglaries and other crimes. Why hadnt the system caught this offender before he had taken three more lives? Violent juvenile crime is increasing at twice the rate of violent crimes made by adults (Lacayo, 60).

In order for this epidemic of violence to be controlled, the justice system must undergo many changes. First and foremost is education. Education is most important because its goal is prevention rather than rehabilitation. Children must learn that they are accountable for their actions. Our system is lacking when we do not teach them that their actions do have significant consequences.

A young child who runs across a busy street will most certainly face immediate punishment at the hands of his mother. The same should go for a juvenile offender the first time he breaks the law. The juvenile justice system should step in and mandate programs that will education these children and prevent them from steering into a life of crime. In the future, the justice system will invest strongly into crime prevention efforts. After-school programs, mentoring, teen outreach programs, truancy abatement, anti-gang programs, and family resource centers are all vital stepping-stones in reconstructing the juvenile justice system. In The Cycle of Justice, the author concludes that educational programming in communities has had a significant impact on groups of teens labeled at risk. (Bernard, 56. ) Future investments in programs, education, and mentoring will aid in preventing juveniles from becoming delinquent and also provide them with the insight necessary to cultivate goals and aspirations for their lives.

Along with education the juvenile justice system will begin to take a more disciplinary approach to rehabilitation. Many judges and elected officials are now sending juvenile offender to military-like boot camps. The boot camps are very similar to Marine Corps basic training, where there is a strict code of discipline. Boot camps provide a modern alternative to previous juvenile detention centers because they aim to instill structure, pride, and respect, as well as education and rehabilitation in juveniles. The Boot-Camp concept has a definite place in the future of the juvenile justice system, During the early years the majority of the juvenile justice community did not accept this idea with only four institutions existing by 1987. That trend did not last long.

With the rise in juvenile violence and increased media coverage of juvenile violence that number exploded to 46 institutions operating in thirty states just five years after the idea was introduced. (Hayslip, 33. ) During an offenders stay at boot camp, various forms of rehabilitation occur. For instance, a variety of uncomfortable duties would be assigned and the attention to detail and completion of these duties would be rewarded. Cleaning and scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush was one of these common duties (Hayslip, 30. ) Yelling is also a tactic utilized in boot camps to get an offender to respect authority. Educational and instructional drug and alcohol awareness as well as counseling is conducted on a daily basis. Physical labor, strict obedience and an emphasis on ones importance in life are also a vital part in the boot camp system. To explore a less rehabilitative track, the future of the juvenile justice system also lies in a growing trend of transferring offenders into adult court.

This subjects juvenile offenders to adult sentencing guidelines, a smaller chance of receiving education and rehabilitation, and the death penalty. Upon transferring juveniles into the adult system, the idea of prevention and intervention is minimized to incarceration. Juveniles transferred into the adult system have limited probation eligibility, stricter rules for those who are eligible for probation, and it is more likely that these youth will be moved from probation to prison (Rush, 26. ) Hence, there is little effort in truly rehabilitating these juveniles or making them fit for adult lives. Instead, their crimes have trapped them into living hopeless lives. With the changing justice system, there is little concern for serious youthful offender, the system attempts to rid society of these dangerous elements and focus on those worthy of rehabilitation.

By putting the serious offenders in adult prison the juvenile court will be able to use their resources on less serious, non-violent offenders. In addition to adult prison sentences, when transferred into the adult system, juveniles become eligible to receive the death penalty for their crimes. While the death penalty remains a controversial issue in the sentencing of adults, the mindset of the American public seems drastically opposed to its administration when dealing with juveniles. According to Allan Kale, he estimates that about 76 % of the American public support the use of the death penalty as a deterrent, however that support drops to less than 9 % when referring specifically to juveniles. (Kale, 35) However, despite these statistics, many juveniles sit on death row today. There is a large amount of debate about whether or not the death penalty serves as a deterrent when applied to juveniles. It is argued that the death penalty is an ineffective tool for Law Enforcement when dealing with children.

Juvenile offenders are usually dealt with under juvenile statutes because they lack a certain amount of maturity that adults have when committing crimes. Adolescents are more likely to act impulsively and it is argued that on that same account they cannot be held responsible to the same standard as adults. Additionally, many feel that imposing the death penalty on juveniles acts more as a white supremacist reaction to juvenile crime. Time and time again it is argued that capitol cases are the modern equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan. 10 out of 16 juveniles executed since 1976 were done in the southern states and 37 % if the offenders on death row are white, the rest are minorities, mostly blacks and Hispanics (Kale. ) The death penalty for juveniles may have a long way to go before it is ever accepted in a court of public opinion, but there is no doubt that as violent crime rates among teens rises, so will those who fall victim to capitol punishment. The juvenile justice system is at a time of great changes. The millennium marks a time of change from old to modern.

More education, more rehabilitation, or more incarceration, there are many routes that the justice system can take when redefining itself. Ultimately, the justice system will shape itself upon criminal cases, and sadly many victims will be analyzed as statistics in order to better the system. The only way to determine which corrections work and which fail is to put them to the test. To continue our research upon the issue of juveniles in court system we may take a look at an example of the solution for the problem proposed at the State of California and is called Proposition 21. There are many various possible solutions to the problem of juvenile crimes but it is very difficult to find the ones that would be effective, cost efficient and that would not brake off the public opinion on the issue. There are about 100, 000 juvenile offenders annually who are on probation in California.

The majority of these offenders are on formal probation, which means that they appear in front of court to resolve their cases. In most informal case, they not need to appear in front of the court, because the probation department is able to directly impose needed sanctions. After the completion of informal probation, juveniles have their records wiped clean. For proposition 21 the government has come up with an initiative, which would try offenders as adults rather than juvenile. Proposition 21 would require juvenile offenders 14 years or older to be charged as adults.

It would eliminate informal probation, and further limit confidentiality for juveniles who are charged with or convicted of specified felonies. Proposition would require that certain juvenile crime offenders be held in a local or state correctional facilities rather than in juvenile facilities. Prop. 21 would designate certain crimes as violent and serious, thereby making offenders subject to longer sentences. These are the ideas of Proposition 21, but as with many propositions, it does not come cheap.

Prop. 21 would give the State of California an ongoing cost of more than 330 millions dollars annually, due to higher cost of the adult court and prison system. Also the state would have to pay a one-time cost of about 750 million dollars due to construction of new facilities. This is one reason why opponents say Prop. 21 should not pass, because of the cost. Further on we will talk more about the pros and cons that we have mentioned already as well as a few more issues. (Redding) Proposition 21 was proposed so that fourteen year olds and older would be tried as adults for serious crimes. If proposition 21 passes it is going to send thousands of fourteen to sixteen year olds to state prison.

Right now the cost of vandalism, in order to be considered a felony, is fifty thousand dollars, and if proposition 21 passes the cost is going to be reduced to four hundred dollars. Proposition 21 does nothing to protect our communities, and all it does is incarcerate children. Rather than decrease, if proposition 21 passes, crime rates are going to increase. If passed, prop 21 will incarcerate many juveniles with top-notch criminals. These children will not be given the opportunity for rehabilitation like in the juvenile system. Without treatment and education, the only thing a juvenile can learn while incarcerated with adult criminals, is how to become a better criminal.

These teenagers will not be given the opportunity of rehabilitation and will come out of jail only tougher. Our nation also has a tragic record of sexual and physical assaults on juveniles incarcerated with adult criminals. Adult criminals will then take advantage of these teenagers. What proposition 21 is also going to do is reduce the cost of vandalism as a felony to four hundred dollars. Right now the cost of vandalism, in order for it to be a felony is fifty thousand dollars. So this means that if a person just happens to write, I love Judy on a tree, it will be considered a felony offense and the teenager will be taken to jail.

This also means that the three strikes law is going to be in more use because of the fact that more felonies are going to be committed. If a person steels a pack of gum and gets caught that will be considered a strike because it would be a felony. Proposition 21 was also established to supposedly make communities safer, but in reality it is doing nothing for them. This proposition is not going to stop kids from joining gangs or even committing crimes. Its a fact that, as a child, a person does many immature things that he / she regrets in the future. Some of these kids go a little overboard but recuperate through rehabilitation.

If Proposition 21 passes...


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Research essay sample on Juvenile Justice System State Of California

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