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Reducing Juvenile Delinquency

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Reducing Juvenile Delinquency
Unit 5 Individual Project
ENGL107-1201B-27
Nicholas Wiggins
American Intercontinental University Online
03/08/2012
Amanda Reynolds

Abstract
This paper will argue the need to reduce juvenile delinquency. It will consider ways to help reduce juvenile delinquency and why it is so important. This paper will give the reader insight about what needs to happen in order to help juveniles be successful and stay out of the juvenile justice system. There will be key agreements that will require the reader’s attention.

Effective Ways to Reduce Juvenile Delinquency

A 16-year-old teenager was arrested after a veteran police officer was gunned down in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Fox News, 2011). According to an article by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) called “Punishing Teen Criminal Like Criminals,” “juveniles were accounting for more than 500,000 serious violent crimes by 1984.” It is expected that while the adults committing homicides is to decline almost by twenty percent the juveniles committing homicides will increase by almost one-fourth. How can the American society mitigate the occurrences of juvenile delinquency? Many approaches have been taken to institutionalize juvenile delinquents and rehabilitate them. As the Mayor of St. Petersburg, Bill Foster said “we as a community need to standup and do a better job.” These occurrences will not stop unless there is a plan and execution established to make it happen. That is why juvenile delinquency must be tackled through the use of prevention programs, recreational programs, and educational programs. To start off, there needs to be approaches towards more juvenile prevention programs to help reduce juvenile delinquency. These prevention programs could be the factor of keeping the juvenile delinquency problem from escalating further. As Kip Toduka stated in The Seattle Times, “if we ‘prevent’ kids from committing crimes, we will reduce the need for prisons, overburdened courts, school dropouts and



References: Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool education and its lasting effects: Research and policy implications. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved from http://epicpolicy.org/publication/preschool- education Department of Parks and Recreation. (2003). Business leader’s opinions of parks and recreation: A survey of California chambers of commerce–2002. Sacramento, CA: California State Parks. Farrington, D., Loeber, R. & Petechuk, D. (2003, May). Child delinquency: Early intervention and prevention [Editorial]. Child Delinquency, pp. 1-19. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/186162.pdf Juvenile delinquency prevention. (2008). In Lawyershop.com. Retrieved February 26, 2012, from Einstein Industries website: http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/juvenile-law/prevention Tokuda, K. (1998, February 17). Taking smart steps to stop juvenile crime [Editorial]. The Seattle Times, pp. 1-2. Retrieved from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980217&slug=2734886

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