Juvenile Justice

1. Juvenile Justice

2. Juvenile Justice • Crime is an age-specific phenomenon (16 – 25) • Limited preventative and curative capabilities, and justice intervention tends to make it worse • Takes a community raise a child, but sometimes even the communities fail

3. Juvenile Justice The children today love luxury. They show bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when their enter the room. They contradict Their parents and tyrannize their teachers. Socrates

4. Juvenile Justice • Steady crime/delinquency rates in some realms • Violent crime surge in the post-World War II era: • Past feeling case studies (Columbine, Virginia Tech) • Oppositional culture of the streets/Code of the Streets • Fullerton High study • Gang activity (male and female)

5. What should be the appropriate response be? • Protect society • Arrest • Prosecute • Incarcerate • The interest of the child • Halfway houses • Attention Centers • Counseling • Volunteer programs

6. Child Saver Movement • ParensPatriae • Status Offenses (laws that apply only to juveniles) • Juvenile Court • Hearing v Trial • Adjudicated v Convicted • Juvenile Prisons/Training Schools • Juvenile Probation and Parole • Juvenile/Youth-based police bureaus • Treatment in the best interest of the child (future tense orientation)

7. Juvenile, by definition • Formerly until 21 years old • Currently, until the 18th birthday • Minimum age is generally 8 • Juvenile can be tried in adult court: • Every state has different rules/procedures • Relatively rare occurrence (7,500/year or about .3% of the cases)

8. Major Juvenile Justice Court Cases In re Gault: juvenile court proceedings must possess the elements of basic fundamental fairness; juveniles have the right: • to a proper hearing • to advance notification of that hearing and its purpose • to be present at the hearing • to confront/cross examine the accuser • to be represented by legal counsel at the hearing • to present evidence • against self-incrimination • to a formal ruling based on information presented in court • to an appeal

9. Major Juvenile Justice Court Cases • In re Winship:  the standard proof in a juvenile court adjudication is beyond a reasonable doubt • McKeiver v Pennsylvania: there is no right to a jury trial for juveniles being adjudicated in juvenile court

10. Factors that effect police decision making in the context of juveniles • Seriousness of the offense • Prior record • Demeanor • Social class • Basic demographics: • Age • Race • Gender

11. Pediatric Criminology • Wolfgang – cohort of 10,000 boys born in Philadelphia in 1945: • 1/3 moderate levels of delinquency • 6% responsible for ½ of the crimes and 2/3 of the violent crime • Current research: • 6 to 10 % are persistent life course offenders • 50% moderate levels (sporadic youthful ventures) • 90% mild levels • Why the persistence, why the desistence?

12. Causes of Delinquency • Lack legitimate roles • Non-conformity • Peer pressure • Lack of self control/hedonism • Biological factors • Educational disparity • Blank time issues • Entertainment exposure • Poverty

13. Causes of Delinquency…continued • Insufficient positive family impacts: • Parental indifference • Parental violence • Divorce • Illegitimacy • Single parent homes • Blank time (again) • Oppositional culture of the streets • Chance game • Immigration

14. Aggregate Juvenile Offending Risk Factors 1. Individual factors - low intelligence, low employability coefficient, poor school performance, limited involvement in positive extracurricular activities, hyperactivity, impulsiveness and risk taking, early antisocial behavior (including aggression and bullying), few bonds to conventional society (friends, girlfriends, parents, teachers, ministers, coaches). 2. Family factors - poor parental supervision, harsh and/or inconsistent discipline, physical abuse, child neglect, low parental involvement, parental conflict, broken/divorced families, single parent families, criminal parents, delinquent siblings. 3. Socio-economic factors - low family income, lack of roots/stability (high mobility coefficient), rent vs. own home, high aggregate socio-economic inequity coefficient in the community, limited opportunity structures

15. Aggregate Juvenile Offending Risk Factors…continued 4. Peer factors - delinquent peers, peer rejection, low popularity 5. Neighborhood factors - high crime neighborhoods, high delinquency/high crime schools, high aggregate socio-economic inequity coefficient in the community, limited community-wide opportunity structures 6. Biological factors - poor nutrition, hormonal imbalance

16. Aggregate Juvenile Offending Risk Factors…continued Decrease the impacts of the risk factors While simultaneously increasing the impacts of the protective factors in all of these areas (bonds to society, extracurricular involvement, improve academics, improve nutrition, improve parenting, provide opportunities, reduce the aggregate socio-economic inequity coefficient), and the seriousness of crime will be reduced/diminished.

17. Juvenile Justice Reforms • Eliminate the entire juvenile justice sub-system and try kids in adult court: • Abolish status offenses • Abolish juvenile court • Abolish the parens patriae orientation • Adopt the Blended Sentencing model • Transform juvenile prisons into education and training centers with an employment focus • Increased socio-economic opportunity structures

18. Juvenile Justice Reforms…continued • Increase support for Project Head Start • Increase support for Outward Bound: • Develops confidence, self-assurance, teamwork, selflessness • Expensive, some discrimination issues, transferability concerns • Do NOT adopt Scared Straight programs • Boot camps (mixed findings) • Diet/nutrition/bio-criminological interventions • Home Detention

19. Juvenile Justice Reforms…continued • Self sentencing • Volunteer programs • No mixed incarceration • Youth oriented public relations law enforcement officer programs (Officer Friendly) • Greater use of probation • Greater use of Community Courts/Teen Courts (victim-offender mediation modeling)

20. Juvenile Justice Reforms…continued • Curfews are ineffective and are empirically invalid • Bus ticket model • Punishment for parents • Face criminal charges • Fines • Community service • Shaming

21. Rehabilitation Program Implementation Needs 1. Internal conversion of the treated (fertile ground) 2. Proper timing/zeitgeist (palatable environment) 3. Good program (good seed) 4. Capable program personnel (knowledgeable and skilled farmer) 5. Dedicated and persistent program personnel If any one of these is missing, the program fails/the crops fail.

22. Juvenile Justice Conclusions • Answers lie outside the justice system (religion, schools, families) • Justice systems are designed to buy time, not to serve as the foundations of a society • More is being asked of the justice system than it was designed to do, and it is swaying under that weight • The justice system functions due to the diligence and dedication of the professionals who fill its ranks

23. Juvenile Justice Conclusions, broader sense Justice systems are in place to protect the powerful vs. Justice systems are in place to bring order, justice, equity and fairness to communities and individuals

24. Justice Conundrum • Things are hopeless, but we must be determined to make them otherwise • The answer is in endurance/persistence • The task is eternal and requires • Crime – Death analogy: • Cannot eliminate death but can enhance quality of life and reduce the level of pain and suffering • Cannot eliminate crime but can minimize its severity

25. Persistence Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence is singularly omnipotent.