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JUVENILE JUSTICE

JUVENILE JUSTICE. The Theories Behind the Evolution of the Contemporary Juvenile Justice System. WHAT IS JUSTICE ?. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. Also Known as Social Justice Provides that each person in a society share the same values, including power, prestige and possessions (PPP)

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JUVENILE JUSTICE

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  1. JUVENILE JUSTICE The Theories Behind the Evolution of the Contemporary Juvenile Justice System

  2. WHAT IS JUSTICE?

  3. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE • Also Known as Social Justice • Provides that each person in a society share the same values, including power, prestige and possessions (PPP) • Reality: Not all have equal PPP • Merton views crime as a reaction of the poor who are denied equal access • Underprivileged Youth need more • Focus is on Retribution “Eye for an Eye” • Retributive Justice seeks revenge for unlawful behavior

  4. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE • Focuses on repairing the harm done to victims & community by having offenders contribute to the repair of wrong • Compared to Retributive Justice, which seeks punishment, Restorative Justice seeks to restore the needs of victim, community and offender

  5. Mala in se Immoral acts such as murder and rape Origin in Mores Rules governing interaction of people Natural Law Common Law Stable over time Mala prohibita Prohibited wrongs Ex. Public drinking Origin in Folkways Governs socially acceptable behaviors Man-made laws Statutory Law Changes over time Mores and Folkways

  6. PURPOSES OF LAW • REGULATE HUMAN INTERACTIONS • SUPPORT SOCIAL ORDER • PROTECT THE INTEREST OF SOCIETY • GOVERN BEHAVIOR • DETER ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR • ENFORCE MORAL BELIEFS • SUPPORT THOSE IN POWER • UPHOLD INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS • IDENTIFY LAWBREAKERS • PUNISH LAWBREAKERS • SEEK RETRIBUTION FOR WRONGDOING

  7. CONSENSUS THEORY • INDIVIDUALS IN A SOCIETY AGREE ON BASIC VALUES, ON WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG • LAWS EXPRESS THESE VALUES • EMILE DURKHEIM (French Sociologist) • Punishment is a moral process to preserve shared values of society • Punishment is a sign that authorities in control • Crime is an aberration (not normal) • Sees punishment as a way to restore and solidify order

  8. CONSENSUS THEORY • DURKHEIM (Continued) • General population is involved in the act of punishing, giving it legitimacy • Marked by deeply emotional and passionate reactions to crime • Anomie: State of normlessness – breakdown of societal norms, ie. American Dream, Family Values

  9. CONFLICT THEORY • Rules are established to keep the dominant class in power. • Rooted in Marx and Engels • Focus on lawmaking and enforcement • Protecting the interests of the dominant groups in society • Explains the racial disparities in the AJ • Inequalities are the result of dominant White majority • Explains the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in arrest, prosecution and imprisonment • Capital punishment results of prejudice

  10. CONFLICT THEORY • Marx sees punishment as a way to control the lower class and preserve the power of the upper class • Conservative approach to the juvenile justice is “get tough on juveniles” • Liberal approach stresses treatment and rehabilitation

  11. CLASSICAL WORLD VIEW • Humans have free will and are responsible for their own actions (Cesare Baccaria, 1764 On Crime and Punishment) • Some choose to commit crime • Laws should bring happiness to the majority • Those who break the law should be punished according to penalties established by the law • The focus is on crime

  12. CLASSICAL WORLD VIEW • Society functions under a social contract, with individuals giving up certain freedoms • Delinquency is a result of freewill • Advocates harsh and immediate punishment • Deterrence: Threat of punishment will deter crime • Advocates incapacitation as consequence for criminal behavior • Just Deserts approach • Conflicts with Parens Patriae

  13. POSITIVIST WORLD VIEW • Cesare Lambroso (1835 -1909) Father of Criminology • Criminals are born with predisposition to crime • Need favorable conditions to avoid criminality • Primary cause is biological • Started people thinking that there were other causes to crime besides freewill

  14. POSITIVIST WORLD VIEW • Humans are shaped by their society and are products of their environmental and cultural influences. • Individual criminal actions are determined not by freewill but by biological and cultural factors • Purpose of law is to advert revolution and convince masses to accept social order • Focus is on the criminal

  15. POSITIVIST WORLD VIEW • Believe that juvenile delinquency is the result of the youth’s biological make-up and life experiences • Advocate community-based treatment to rehabilitate offenders instead of incarceration • Youth should not be labeled and punished as criminals • Determinism: Human behavior is the result of multiple environmental and cultural influences

  16. CAUSES OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCYOVERVIEW

  17. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES • Researchers find that some biological factors are found more frequently in criminal types than non-criminals • Theories include Physiognomy, Phrenology, Body Type, and Heredity

  18. Physiognomy Studies • Assigns character traits to physical features, especially facial features. • Middle Age Law regarded uglier people to be criminal types • Body Types of Criminals: • Large, predominate crooked noses • Abnormal ears • Lantern jaws • High cheekbones, Large Lips • Higher Sex Drives • Lower intelligences • Large Body Types • Abnormal amounts of body hair

  19. Phrenology • Studies the shape of the skull to predict intelligence and character • Approached used by Cesare Lombroso in recognizing anomalies at birth • Anomalies do not cause crime but indicate a predisposition to crime.

  20. Body Type Theories • Endomophic: soft, fat, easygoing • Mesomorphic: athletic, muscular, aggressive • Ectomorphic: thin, delicate, shy, introverted

  21. HEREDITY STUDIES • Twin studies show that identical twins tend to criminal records together • Twin that has been adopted has a tendency toward crime more if biological father had criminal record. • Influenced by genetics and environmental factors

  22. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES • Focus on intelligence and psychoanalysis • Criminals are morally insane • Do not perceive criminal behavior as wrong • Personality developed in early childhood • Future Behavior determined in early childhood • Later sociological and environmental associations do not change early behavioral development • Certain personality types have no impulse control • Criminal Families occur over generations • Mental and moral degeneration cause crime

  23. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES • Goddard (1866-1957) Criminals may not be biologically inferior, but tend to intellecturally inferior • Sigmund Freud (1859 -1939) Personality imbalances result from abnormal emotional development • Problems arise from fixation or regression to the phallic stage (3 – 6 years) • Unresolved oedipal or electra complex: superego unable to control the id.

  24. SOOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES • Lack of education • Poverty-level income • Poor Housing • Slum Conditions • Home and Family Conflict Increases Risk for Crime • Low Achievement Expectations • Continuous Lawbreaking causes individual to become part of a subculture that advocates crime and violence as a way to achieve goals or solve problems • Behavior is learned

  25. ECOLOGICAL MODEL • Robert Park, sociologist, U of Chicago • Compared growth of cities to nature • Several stages of growth • Biotic Balance where relations between different species of plants and necessary conditions for survival maintain equilibrium can survive and proper • Have mutual beneficial relationship = symbiosis • What happens when other species of plants enter this environment?

  26. Social Disorganization Theory • Shaw and McKay, sociologist conducted study on 25,000 youth between 1900-33 • Found intecity zones had highest rates of crime • Suggested that social conditions predicted juvenile delinquency • Gang membership was a normal response to social conditions • Contended that urban areas produced delinquency directly by weakening community controls and generating a subculture of delinquency passed on from one generation to another

  27. Low economic status Residential mobility Ethnic heterogenity Family Disruption LEAD TO Fewer Friendship Networks Lower Supervision of Youth Groups Lower Organizational Participation WHICH LEAD TO CRIME AND DELINQUENCY Social Disorganization Theory

  28. FUNCTIONALISM • Harvard Sociologist Parsons (1902-1979) • Crime is a natural part of society • Without Crime we would not need laws, lawyers, police officers, courts, judges, jails

  29. ANOMIE OR STRAIN THEORY • Building on Parson’s theory, Robert Merton (1910-2003) saw conflict between cultural goals of US and our social structure • Borrowed from Durkheim’s concept of anomie • Merton’s premise: Crime does not result from flaws, failures or free choices of individuals, but we must consider the sociocultural environments in which people are located • The American Dream

  30. LEARNING THEORIES • Sutherland and Cressy in Principles of Criminology • Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others • Learning occurs within intimate personal groups • Process of learning occurs by association • Person becomes deliquent because of excess of definitions that are favorable in breaking laws

  31. LEARNING THEORIES • Differential Association Theory • Explains learning theory and prevention concepts of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, punishment, and modeling or imitation

  32. LABELING THEORY • George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) • Humans act towards things on the basis of the meanings the things have for them • The meanings of things arises out of social interaction • Meanings are handled in and modified through an interpretive process people use to deal with things they encounter

  33. LABELING THEORY • Primary Deviance = Initial Criminal Act • Secondary Deviance = Accepting the criminal label and consequently committing other criminal acts

  34. Adult Court Arrest Trial Conviction Plea Bargaining Sentencing Jail Incarceration Prosecutor Defendant Probation Parole Juvenile Court Taken into Custody Adjudicatory Hearing Adjudication Adjustment Disposition Detention Commitment Petitioner Respondent Probation After Care Juvenile Justice Terminologyvs Adult Criminal Terminology

  35. FUNNEL EFFECT • Describes how fewer and fewer youths are processed through the JJS • Illustrates the crucial role of law enforcement, schools and parents in the JJS and process • Example page 65 • 500 Juvenile arrest to: • 354 referred to JC • 101 informally handled and released • 35 referred to Criminal Court • 6 referred to other police Depts. • 4 referred to Welfare

  36. FUNNEL EFFECT • Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program • Schools and police are fundamental to control of delinquency • Except for parents, schools and police have more contact w/ youth than anyone else • JJS is irrelevant to the prevention and diversion of delinquency because police are not a significant part of JJS • Contact and information could be shared between parents, school and police are key to effectiveness of JJS

  37. Agencies Coordinated by the U.S. Dept. of Justice

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