Debate of Whether Juveniles are to be Tried Like Adults

Chapter 1

Pro: When looking at the significance of the jurisdiction of teenagers, it provides a better judgment and a proper representation. The adult treatment is only good in taking a person to jail.

Con: A program called community treatment is one that should provide protection, care as well as to conduct for treatments to the juveniles. This is the program that should be implemented to make the young offenders not to go back to jail (Siegel & Welsh, 2010). This helps youths and society.

When the children make mistakes several times, and parents can do nothing about it, laws have been put in place to discipline such parents. States have made it clear that parents pay part of the support cost for those children out of their homes. Laws were made to make parents responsible for their children’s behavior. In Maryland, Oklahoma, and Missouri, parents are supposed to pay for the damages caused by their children in schools. Parents can be charged with what is called civil negligence in a situation where they knew of the crime that was done by their child.

Chapter 2

The trend has increased and fallen for the past few years. The causes of this trend are population makeup, social problems, immigration, jobs and economy, media, gangs, drug use, as well as abortion. Experts are predicting an increase in youth violence if the population trend, which is there currently, persists. There are about fifty million children in school, of which some do not have stable families and lack supervision. These will consequently end up in crime.

Some of the social problems are teenage parenting, racial conflict, and migration. These factors affect the rate of juvenile crimes in that once there is an increase in social factors; it leads to an increase in juvenile crimes and vice versa. In addition, the social factors in their communities like poverty, unemployment, divorce rates, racial conflict, and school crimes affect the rate of juvenile crimes.

Teenagers are very likely to become victims of crime than adults. Since some teenagers may victimize others, like younger teenagers, identify older ones as their attackers. It may also be interracial, where white teens oppress other white teens, and African Americans are victimized by other African American teenagers. The solution to this, therefore, should be to educate them to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters of the same community. The community should also be creating avenues where the teenagers meet and share so as to create an atmosphere of togetherness.

Chapter 3

The choice theory argues that young offenders have chosen to engage themselves in antisocial activities as they argue that their actions will be profitable and beneficial.

Trait theory argues that the misbehavior of youths is a result of psychological and/or biological abnormalities. They both suggest that the bad behavior is an individual’s problem and not social. However, personally, I tend to agree with choice theory, because it tries to explain that teenagers are motivated by individual needs like greed, survival, and revenge to violate the law. The first weigh the benefits incurred in their criminal behaviors.

Behaviorists argue that social experiences and learning together with values as well as expectations will determine the behavior. The theorists argue that children create their behavior from what they see in adults, as well as what they view from televisions and movies. If they watch a program like wrestling, they will tend to use the techniques viewed to their peers. This affects their behavior as they try to perfect the skills learned in the program.

The body chemistry may govern personality, behavior, levels of depression, and aggression. Exposing kids to certain environmental contaminants leads to antisocial behavior. Hormone levels may also influence behavior. Youths with such problems are taken to the camps where they are taught discipline and social orders.

The developmental theory looks at the beginning continuity and end of a delinquent career.

The life course is a theory that believes that delinquent behavior is a dynamic process that is influenced by social experiences and individual characteristics. These factors change throughout a person’s life.

The latent trait is a theory that believes that a characteristic, stable feature, property, or a condition like impulsive personality or defective intelligence makes people delinquency over their entire life.

Chapter 5

Delinquency is best understood as a part of the social problems, which the youths face. It is called PBS. Physical and sexual abuse, family dysfunction, and precocious sex lead to early pregnancy, smoking, substance abuse, suicide attempts, unemployment and sensation seeking.

Authority conflict starts early with a child having stubborn behavior, it leads the child being defiant and later avoid authority.

The covert pathway starts with underhanded behavior, this goes on to damaging property and later end up to one becoming a criminal.

The overt pathway starts with aggression that goes to fighting leading to violence.

It argues that propensity to do antisocial acts is as a result of one’s level of personal control. Those with less self-control are not sensitive to other people’s feelings either physical, risk takers, nonverbal or shortsighted. Less self-control starts early and continues throughout life. However, it is criticized that it has circular reasoning, as it does not explain how impulsive persons are known and when they commit a crime. It also assumes that the delinquent propensity never changes (Siegel & Welsh, 2010).

It argues that those women who commit crimes have psychological and biological traits that are the same to those found in men. Laticia is said was engaged in crimes like prostitution, premarital sex and running away.

Chapter 6

Gender differences arise due to the interaction of socialization, cognitive as well as personality differences. In socialization, females are able to sustain relationships, less aggressive and blame self; while males are independent, aggressive and externalize anger. According to cognitive ability, females have the high verbal ability, speak early, good pronunciation and read better. Males have a high spatial ability and are good in math. Under personality characteristics, females have low self-esteem, good attention and are self-aware. Males are materialistic, have high self-esteem, and less attentive.

Early biological and early psychological explanations of female delinquency

Females who committed offenses are differentiated from the rest by physical characteristics like wrinkles, abnormal cranium, and excess body hair. Psychologists argue that the different physical characteristics in females and males make the base for behavior differences.

Liberal feminists argue that males are more delinquent than females. Therefore, females have social responsibilities that reduce their opportunities to commit a crime. Critical feminists argue that the inequality in gender starts from the exploitation of women by men and also their power is not equal.

Critics argue that girls are disadvantaged than boys if their character is said to be incorrect morally by the officials. Girls are subjected to very harsh punishments if they are found to be dangerously immoral (Siegel & Welsh, 2010)

There is more likely to have behavior problems with the children after the parents’ divorce. Children whose parents are sent to prison also have a risk of delinquency.

Chapter 7

Some of the children are abused physically or neglected by parents. This may happen through sexual abuse that leads to anxiety and stress. Stepchildren have a high risk of being abused than biological ones. If the child does not receive reasonable care, the state intervenes, removes the child from home, and put him or her in a non-threatening environment.

If a case is reported to children protection agency, it is investigated and if there is evidence of any abuse, the agency involves involuntary treatment. Services are also provided voluntarily by child welfare agencies to ensure the children are safe. The child may be put in safe custody if the accusation of abuse is confirmed.

As children undergo adolescent, they become gangs and share certain activities and confidences with others. Those who have delinquent friends could easily engage in drug abuse as well as antisocial behavior. The youths from gangs groups to be able to deal with their turbulent lives; it also provides a sense of brotherliness and is also an avenue of criminal activity.

Chapter 8

On the program to educate the kids on the disadvantages of joining gangs, I would show examples of those who have been involved in such gangs earlier and have had problems that go with it. This would make the children have the real-life experience hence make wise decisions.

The youths from gangs in order to be able to deal with their turbulent lives; it also provides a sense of brotherliness and is also an avenue of criminal activity. The community should be able to fight these gangs, due to their negative effects for the community. This can be done by organizing educational centers where the kids could be taught on the dangers of joining the gang’s groups and create avenues for the kids to meet and share out their life problems especially in schools. Parents should also find time to listen to their children so that they do not feel lonely.

Laws have been designed to control the gang’s activity, police departments have created gang control units, which are specially designed, and have outreach programs and using the schools to control the gangs

School-Based Prevention Strategies

Education officials came up with programs that make the school more effective in delinquency prevention. Some of the strategies are:

· Cognitive- Increases the awareness of students on the dangers of delinquency and drug abuse.

· Affective- Increases the self-image and psychological asset of the student to be able to handle antisocial behavior.

· Behavioral- Equips the student with techniques to refuse peer pressure.

· Environmental- Establishes disciplinary programs and school management to deter crime. Therapeutic- Helps to treat youths who already have manifested problems.

Chapter 9

These incidences occur at the beginning of school day, lunch hour or in the evening. The attacks are neither impulsive nor spontaneous. The shooters develop a strategy to attack early. They have a history of being depressed or feel desperate, as they have been bullied. The students fully agree with this, as they are very familiar with them. Schools should restrict visitors from entering the school without signing visitors’ book, use metal detectors and cameras for security purposes. Employing police officers on the school compound would also help to prevent the problem.

The parents, education officials, administrators have the responsibility of ensuring that there are no crimes in the school.

It is important to identify students who have little or no parent attention and therefore, are lonely. It is crucial to make them feel comfortable by not feeling like they are isolated. In addition, schools should have programs that educate kids about the dangers of using drugs. Attitudes and behaviors towards drugs could be changed by engaging youths in activities such as games and various discussions.

Chapter 10

PRO: If it is used moderately, the drug is not harmful than legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco.

CON: It may cause physical damage to the user such as lung damage and other dangers like mental effects.

Parents should monitor and supervise the activities of their children and constantly communicate with their children. This reduces the children’s usage of drugs in their lives. Parents should also be open to their kids on the dangers of using drugs so that the kids can get to learn from them.

Pros and Cons of Juvenile Court Versus Criminal Court

Juvenile courts involve treating other than punishing the young ones. Criminal courts prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes, aggression crimes and crimes against humanity. The future of the juvenile justice systems is still debated.

Chapter 11

The prevention efforts of the onset of delinquency of children and teenagers are being made. The efforts are considered to the children and teenagers who have a high risk of delinquency. The public support and incorporating research initiatives to guide the juvenile justice program is highly recommended.

It appears like there is no refuting that the public does not see any value in having tough policies for tackling juvenile crimes.

The officers should have adequate knowledge of the law and constitutional protections to juveniles. Moreover, they should be very innovative to deal with the strategies employed by the juveniles

Chapter 12

When the police officers come across a case that involves juvenile offenders, they rely on police discretion to take the appropriate action. Factors that shape police discretion are environmental factors, their policy, and situational factors.

This involves aggressive law enforcement, the presence of police in the schools, and community-based policing.

PRO: This serves as a deterrent to many who would think of doing the same act.

CON: It is bad, especially, when executing the wrong individual.

The decision of the Supreme Court is right because it does not come out clearly how the law says murder is wrong and then do the same to a person they get has murdered somebody else.

Chapter 13

Deterring adolescents from crime is not possible. They think about themselves as not visible and tend to live in the present life. Furthermore, they also do not look at the consequences of their behavior. Rehabilitation is now attainable by using improved assessing tools, treating psychiatric disorders and using intervention programs in the community.

The process is referred to as waiver and entails getting rid of serious offenders in the juvenile process to the adult system. Experts argue that it clashes with the idea of rehabilitation, but it also helps in removing juvenile offenders from the street. The public should understand that it is not all juvenile offenders being taken to adult court, but only the most serious cases.

There have been reports that staff in the juvenile facilities have beaten, sprayed, given medicine or even used electric shock to children under their care. They are also said to confine the kids, which is inhuman and cruel as it may compromise the kid’s mental health. It is recommended that isolation punishment should be abolished, and the staff practicing it must be punished. The government should provide adequate resources to avoid overcrowding and have trained staff to deal with the problems of the children

Chapter 14

Talking about individual treatment, the issues of the patient are brought forth with the staff responding to concerns. This allows a specific focus on the problem that is presented. This is the best and effective method to be used. Group treatment involves interaction with people outside the social network of the client. These people might have the same or different issues hence might be difficult to deal with.

Juveniles released are put in aftercare programs. There is little evidence as to whether this is beneficial or not. The government should make partnerships that support juvenile programs and have networks to monitor juvenile offenders to evaluate their progress.