The Role of Police, Courts and Department of Corrections in Juvenile Justice System
The Role of Police, Courts and Department of Corrections in the Juvenile Justice System
James Francis
Juvenile Delinquency
American Military University
Professor Robert Arruda The Role of Police, Courts and Department of Corrections in the Juvenile Justice System
The juvenile justice system brings the juvenile delinquent in contact with the local police, the court system and if found guilty, the Department of Corrections. This paper will discuss the role of the police, the courts and the Department of Corrections in the juvenile justice system, and which method best reduces future recidivism of juvenile delinquency.
The role of the police in cases concerning juvenile delinquency is influenced by factors such as individual, sociocultural, and organizational, allowing the officer to choose a more or less restrictive response to an individual offender. This allows the police officer responding to use discretion, which is important since the officer will act as a court of first instance in initially categorizing the juvenile (Bartollas, C. 2001). The amount of discretion the responding officer shows depends on the officer’s disposition of the juvenile offender determined by eleven factors which are: offense, citizen complaints, gender, race, socioeconomic status, individual characteristics of the juvenile, police-juvenile interactions, demeanor, police officer’s personality, departmental policy, and external pressure (Bartollas, C. 2011). Each factor will play into how the responding officer handles the situation. This policy of allowing the officer to use his/her discretion has come under attack with some of the populace believing that the police abuse this discretion. Although a study conducted in 2004 by Stephanie M. Myers reporting on data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), a study of police in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, only eighty-four (13%) of the six hundred fifty-four juveniles were arrested
James Francis
Juvenile Delinquency
American Military University
Professor Robert Arruda The Role of Police, Courts and Department of Corrections in the Juvenile Justice System
The juvenile justice system brings the juvenile delinquent in contact with the local police, the court system and if found guilty, the Department of Corrections. This paper will discuss the role of the police, the courts and the Department of Corrections in the juvenile justice system, and which method best reduces future recidivism of juvenile delinquency.
The role of the police in cases concerning juvenile delinquency is influenced by factors such as individual, sociocultural, and organizational, allowing the officer to choose a more or less restrictive response to an individual offender. This allows the police officer responding to use discretion, which is important since the officer will act as a court of first instance in initially categorizing the juvenile (Bartollas, C. 2001). The amount of discretion the responding officer shows depends on the officer’s disposition of the juvenile offender determined by eleven factors which are: offense, citizen complaints, gender, race, socioeconomic status, individual characteristics of the juvenile, police-juvenile interactions, demeanor, police officer’s personality, departmental policy, and external pressure (Bartollas, C. 2011). Each factor will play into how the responding officer handles the situation. This policy of allowing the officer to use his/her discretion has come under attack with some of the populace believing that the police abuse this discretion. Although a study conducted in 2004 by Stephanie M. Myers reporting on data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), a study of police in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, only eighty-four (13%) of the six hundred fifty-four juveniles were arrested
References: Bartollas, C & Schmalleger, F. (2011). Juvenile Delinquency. (8th ed.). Prentice Hall. Retrieved from http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/pls_21271706716/1256858544.pdf