Alternative Punishment for Juveniles

Think some teenagers are getting out of hand these days, or heading down the wrong path? There are many different types of alternative punishment; the amount of juvenile crime would dramatically drop if any of these were more greatly enforced. The most effective way to help these teenagers and to get them started down the correct path is enforcing alternative punishment upon them. This form of punishment is sometimes also known as juvenile justice, restorative justice, and community justice (Karp, 2004). One of the most important characteristics of this punishment is "the idea of discussion, dialogue, and negotiation between the parties involved in and affected by a given crime" (Karp, 2004, ph. 2). This not only forms a connection between the offender and the victim, but also helps to determine what types of steps the offender should take to repair the harm done to the community and the victim. Involvement from the communities and the victims in safe settings almost always provide the best process to determine restorative obligations. This is why it is important to investigate the participation of all parties; how willing they are to engage in such a dialogue, and how much of an effect these discussions have on both parties. A good example of this is a particular program used in the state of Vermont in the United States. In this program, trained community volunteers serve on a panel that meets with juveniles, their parents, their victims, and probationers to come to develop a restorative agreement (Karp, 2004). There are many different ways of enforcing alternative punishment among juveniles. These can ranger from workforce development programs; which provide job training to incarcerated juveniles in an attempt to prepare them for employment, to a more controversial program such as a military style boot camp; which subject the juvenile to rigorous physical activity, verbal abuse, and high amount of stress as an attempt to "break" them so they can be more

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