Since the inception of the juvenile justice system, there have been many segments of the society that have been incorporated into the management and running of the system to ensure its success. Each of these parties play a vital role, each with its own unique set of characteristics and responsibilities that make it most effective in accomplishing the given role. Some of these parties include the police, the courts and the department of justice. In this paper, I will seek to discuss and critically analyse the roles of these three parties within the juvenile justice system.
The Police
The police are considered the gatekeepers of the juvenile justice system, this is because the first contact that a juvenile offender has with the juvenile justice system is with the police officer. This contact, depending on its nature, determines the offender’s perception of the system and the law. The police perform three primary functions within the juvenile justice system.
First Contact: the police, as mentioned earlier, is the first point of contact between a juvenile offender and the juvenile justice system. In the event of an arrest of a juvenile offender, the arresting police officer writes up an incident report and all of the relevant notes pertaining to the offender in the given arrest incident. This officer determines whether the offender will be installed into the juvenile justice system or give a warning. In the case of an arrest leading up to juvenile detention, the arresting officer will be involved in the transportation of the offender to the relevant and suitable facility.
Referral: the police have a crucial role of referring a juvenile offender to any of the appropriate community programs within the community. This usually happens in the event of an arrest and detention by the police in a police station. For example, in the case of a drug possession arrest, the arresting police officer will detain the offender and afterwards, refer the offender to formal diversion services or to a drug court. This decision is solely left to the arresting officer’s discretion and the availability of services within the given community.
Parent Liaison: in the case where an officer arrests a juvenile offender and ascertains that the offender is not a significant risk, the officer will let the offender off on a warning. This is followed by the officer conferring with the parents before releasing the offender to them.
The Courts
The juvenile court is by far the most important facet of the juvenile justice system. This is where decisions affecting the juvenile offender’s future is made. The most important individual who determines this is the juvenile court judge and they have the following four primary roles.
Judicial: the judge makes decisions on the legal issues pertaining to each of the categories of cases before the juvenile court. Important factors such as the validity of the facts in the given case and whether the best decision (for the given child, given their own unique circumstances) is to remove the child from the parent’s custody into the system or placed into a community program that best safeguards the well-being of the child.
Administrative: the judge is expected to familiarise themselves with all the detention facilities, placements and institutions that the court uses to dispense its primary functional role.
Collaborative: the judge is supposed to develop and maintain permanent programs that involve coordination and cooperation between different agencies that safeguard the well-being of any and all children such as the different public agencies, the court and the at-risk families served by these agencies.
Advocacy: the judge is expected to investigate and advocate for specific services that a community requires in the dispensation of the court’s functional role including juvenile delinquency prevention techniques and programs.
The Department of Justice
The department of justice has the primary role of instituting and allocating resources and services pertaining to the dispensation of the juvenile justice system’s functional roles. This includes allocation of judges and resources they require to ensure the complete and full functionality and efficiency of the juvenile justice system.
In my opinion, the multisystemic therapy techniques is the most effective method that best addresses juvenile delinquency in terms of reducing future recidivism. This is backed by statistical fact, where by the rate of recidivism in the use of this technique has been at -31%, ranking it amongst the most effective techniques of handling juvenile delinquency. Furthermore, it is ranked as the most economic technique as the net gain per person on this program is about $30,000 to $80,000.
In conclusion, what makes MST as the most effective juvenile recidivism technique is the fact that it is community based as opposed to institution based, making its patients more responsive.
Works Cited
Bartollas, C., & Schmalleger, F. (2011). Juvenile Delinquency (8th ed.). Prentice Hall.
