At Risk Youth & Juvenile Deliquency in the Inner City
At Risk Youth & Juvenile Deliquency in the Inner City
Who’s at risk, who’s to blame and what’s being done to help them?
Its 9 o 'clock on a Saturday night and 15-year-old Andrew is lying on his bed staring at the blank stone wall next to him. Andrew looks around and sees that the four boys with whom he shares the tiny room are asleep. He thinks of all the things he could be doing instead of lying there. He could be hanging out with his friends, listening to his music, having a good time. But those days ended last summer when Andrew got into a fight and shot two teens. Andrew has two years ahead of him of spending his Saturday nights lying on his bed and listening through the door to the steps of the guards walking past outside (Juvenile Crime and Punishment). Juvenile crime has been a rapidly growing problem in the United States. Each year as the juvenile crime rate increases, so does the amount of youth serving drastic sentences in prison. Because the percentage of youth who commit crimes has dramatically increased over years, the judicial system must find alternative ways of punishing juveniles and find better ways to help youth who are at risk before they reach the point of incarceration. Who is most at risk and what is being done to help them before they are marked as juvenile delinquents? In order to find solutions we must first explore what it means to be an At Risk youth and the circumstances that put these youth at risk.
The definition of youth varies across countries and continents alike which makes the term difficult to decipher because there is no universally accepted definition of youth. Defining youth in the United States in the easy part, it is simply a male or female in their teen years that is of high school or college age, but the complex part is defining what it is to be at risk because there are many way in defining at risk. The legal definition of at risk youth is an individual under the chronological age of eighteen who is absent from
Who’s at risk, who’s to blame and what’s being done to help them?
Its 9 o 'clock on a Saturday night and 15-year-old Andrew is lying on his bed staring at the blank stone wall next to him. Andrew looks around and sees that the four boys with whom he shares the tiny room are asleep. He thinks of all the things he could be doing instead of lying there. He could be hanging out with his friends, listening to his music, having a good time. But those days ended last summer when Andrew got into a fight and shot two teens. Andrew has two years ahead of him of spending his Saturday nights lying on his bed and listening through the door to the steps of the guards walking past outside (Juvenile Crime and Punishment). Juvenile crime has been a rapidly growing problem in the United States. Each year as the juvenile crime rate increases, so does the amount of youth serving drastic sentences in prison. Because the percentage of youth who commit crimes has dramatically increased over years, the judicial system must find alternative ways of punishing juveniles and find better ways to help youth who are at risk before they reach the point of incarceration. Who is most at risk and what is being done to help them before they are marked as juvenile delinquents? In order to find solutions we must first explore what it means to be an At Risk youth and the circumstances that put these youth at risk.
The definition of youth varies across countries and continents alike which makes the term difficult to decipher because there is no universally accepted definition of youth. Defining youth in the United States in the easy part, it is simply a male or female in their teen years that is of high school or college age, but the complex part is defining what it is to be at risk because there are many way in defining at risk. The legal definition of at risk youth is an individual under the chronological age of eighteen who is absent from
Cited: Ferro, Jeffrey. Juvenile Crime. 1st. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2003. "Juvenile Crime and Punishment." Look Smart December 4, 1998 1. February 6, 2007 . McCord, Joan, Cathy Spatz Wisdom, and Nancy A. Crowell. Juvenile Crime Juvenile Justice. 1st. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 2001. Thompson, William, and Jack E. Bynum. Juvenile Delinquency. 1st. Needhan Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1991.