The juvenile justice system is one of America’s biggest failures; in doing a research on juvenile recidivism there are certain questions, such as demography location, the number of parents in the home, that need to be answered, before one can give an unbiased report on juvenile recidivism. As much as I would like to ask more questions, this paper limits my investigation.
What is juvenile recidivism? Please go to your text and write the definition for the meaning of Juvenile recidivism, the will make three sources. In some cities, especially inner cities, juveniles can easily become repeated offenders because they are readily exposed to criminal activities. They also have the unrealistic conception that as long as they are juveniles they will receive lighter sentences if they are caught and charged with certain offences. Juvenile recidivism is becoming more common as young people are enticed with the lure of easy money.
Naturally a youth in a rural community is less predispose to crime than a youth who lives in the city, if he or she lives in an inner city he or she is even more inclined to become an offender. A ghetto or inner city youth is enticed to crime because everybody else is doing it, and he or she, as foolish as it may sound, does not want to be the odd one.
When neighborhood environments include a culture of violence, young people may be influenced to participate in violence as a means of survival or to protect themselves or their families. If we want to influence the future behavior of these young people who have already been in trouble with the law, it may be much more effective to try to change these neighborhoods rather than trying to change the mindset of individual youth (Abrams and Freisther, 2010, p.32).
The truth is the system did not concern itself with rehabilation but with punishment.
Parenting by two parents is hard; a single parent, usually a mother, trying to raise a child in a poor community filled with violence is twice as hard. It is most unusual for a woman in a poor environment to have just one child; and more often than not the older child has to help raise his or her other siblings. This child who has had responsibility thrust on him or her prematurely will find crime attractive. He or she wants designer clothe just like his pairs; therefore, delivering a few packages of drugs before or after school does not seem like a bad idea. This teenager might very well become a drug dealer before long and if caught and sent to a juvenile facility, is release after four or five months into the same society that put him or her in trouble. This person is still poor, sees the same friends, and walks the same streets. Five months in a juvenile facility is not going to deter any one from the temptation of easy money. According to Maiken Scott, from the News Network, in Pennsylvania, research shows that family life or the lack thereof impacts juvenile recidivism. As a result of this research, the state not only trains the offender, but the whole family (2010).
I choose these two questions because I think that they are the most important factors that perpetuate juvenile recidivism. The greatest number of juvenile recidivism is from broken homes and communities with high crime infestation; upon release these offenders has nowhere else to go but back to the environment where they developed their characteristics; consequently, it makes sense to fix their environments.
Juvenile recidivism is a plague that troubles the United States; and it is time the juvenile justice system stop focusing on punishing juveniles and rehabilitate them. The number of incinerated adult offenders is staggering and juvenile offenders will be added to the number if the system does not change.
Bibliography
Abrams, Laura S., Freisther, Bridget. “A Special Analysis of Risk and Resources for Reentry Youth in Los Angeles County.” Journal of Society for Social Work and Research. Vol 1, issue 1,
Maiken, Scott. News Network. “New report tracks recidivism for more than 18,000 juvenile offenders in Pennsylvania.” htttp://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/healthscience/55033-new-report- tracks-recidivism-for-more-than-18000-juvenile-offenders-in-pennsylvania
