What Works Reducing Recidivism for Juveniles Essays - Penology

Jennifer L Richards November 12, 2010 What Works: Reducing Recidivism for Juveniles Introduction Juvenile crimes are usually represented as a large proportion in a community. To minimize the situation, the juvenile justice system created different types of rehabilitation programs eager to assist juveniles in becoming more susceptible to future criminal activities. Patience and hope is the forefront of our juvenile justice system. As a community come together to help prevent juvenile crime, our juvenile justice system had an astonishing decrease in juvenile crime since 1999. Unfortunately, many juvenile offenses go unreported and thus do not become a part of the national statistical picture (OJJDP). Even though in 1999, U.S. juvenile courts processed an estimated 1,673,000 delinquency cases that involved juveniles charged with criminal law violations (Stahl, pg. 1, 2001). The reason for this trend is estimated to be the risk factors that affect juveniles such as drugs, mental defects, extreme poverty, over exposure to violence, an easy access to firearms, violence in media (mo vies, etc), an unstable family life with family violence, gang violence, and other delinquent peers to which they subject themselves. Today, nineteen percent of all juveniles arrested in 2007 were handled within the police department and then released. Seventy percent of arrested juveniles were referred to juvenile court (OJJDP). Most crimes committed by juveniles are caused by males. More than three of every four (76%) delinquency cases in 1999 involved a male, a decline from 81% in 1990. In 1999, males accounted for 84% (160,800) of drug law violation cases, 76% (537,900) of property offense cases, 75% (293,000) of public order offense cases, and 73% (282,800) of person offense cases. So the question being asked here is, ?How can the juvenile justice system prevent such trends and what programs work to reduce recidivism amongst juveniles Reducing Juvenile Recidivism with Sanctions According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, (also known as OJJDP) report and Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report, ?There is no national recidivism rate for juveniles. Such a rate would not have much meaning since juvenile justice systems vary so much across states (OJJDP). High profile?often very violent?incidents tend to shape public perceptions of juvenile offending. Juvenile justice systems have widely adopted risk assessment instruments to support judicial and administrative decisions about sanctioning severity and restrictiveness of care (Juvenile Assessments). It is important for the public, the media, elected officials, and juvenile justice professionals to have an accurate view of (1) the crimes committed by juveniles, (2) the proportion and characteristics of youth involved in law-violating behaviors, and (3) trends in these behaviors. This understanding can come from studying victim reports, juvenile self-reports of offending behavior, and official records (Snyder, Sickmund, pg. 63). The main aim of community corrections is to make it possible for juvenile offenders to receive additional help via local, city, or county level programs for treatment and assistance rather than prison. The main goals of community sanctions include facilitating juvenile offender reintegration, fostering juvenile offender rehabilitation, providing an alternative range of juvenile offender punishments, and heightening juvenile offender accountability. The general purpose of an officer working to assist in a community sanction is: to establish criteria for selecting work sites for offenders ordered to perform community service; to design an intensive supervision program; to devise a means of reducing crowding in a local jail; or to propose a set of sentencing guidelines for the use of community sanctions. ?Sanctions? are the official responses levied or imposed by the criminal justice system on persons convicted of crimes (Harri s, Pgs 3-4). Rehabilitation is one of the major goals of any community sanctioned program. Sanctions may be assigned for the purposes of punishment, treatment, public protection, deterrence, or a variety of other aims. The types of rehabilitations can be separated by age groups, diverse backgrounds, addictions such as drugs and alcohol, or learning disabilities (including educational deficiencies). Community sanctions have major functions to assist in juvenile offender punishments which include client monitoring and supervision, ensuring public safety, employment assistance, individual/group counseling, education training and literacy services, networking with other community agencies and businesses, and alleviating jail and prison overcrowding. The means to have an alternative outlet for a non-violent offender is better than sending them