Assignment 1: The Current Juvenile Justice System

The Current Juvenile Justice System

Part A-
With the advent of adolescence, the criminal justice system in this country had to address the needs of the juvenile population and recognize that juveniles need to be treated differently than adults. Juvenile crime cannot only be understood in terms of rational behavior, but also the irrational because “full development of the frontal lobe, where rational judgments are made, does not occur until the early-to mid-20’s” (Stier 2009). The juvenile justice system was intended to reduce juvenile contact with system while also addressing the needs of the child and the community. The juvenile justice system differs from the adult criminal justice system in several
Being declared delinquent means that juveniles do not have to disclose being convicted of a crime to future employers because they technically were not convicted, but simply marked as delinquent. This policy is one of the few practices of the juvenile justice system that actually works in the children’s best interests because it limits the negative impact of a record in obtaining future employment, which is key in helping offenders successfully reintegrate into society and prevent further brushes with the law. However, when a juvenile is tried as an adult, the safeguard of protecting the juvenile record is lost and these young individuals are forever stigmatized with a criminal record that they must now disclose to potential employers, housing, or other community services. Carrying the stigma of being marked as a convicted criminal limits legitimate means of obtaining important services that can prevent recidivism. Thus, the current juvenile justice system is not working in the ways that it is intended, often working to increase juvenile contact with the system rather than decrease it. If the current system wants to work in ways that truly rehabilitate young offenders, we need to stop treating them as if they were adults and increase or implement “wraparound support
The overbearing presence of police and probation officers throughout the lives of young men in Oakland creates a net-widening effect whereby juveniles are at an increased risk of arrest through the sanctions imposed for non-criminal behavior in schools and the presumed criminality of these youths by the police, schools, and community members. Rios’ (2011) ethnography perfectly demonstrates how the well-intentioned ideas of the juvenile justice system, like probation, can become ways to control, stigmatize, and criminalize juveniles when put into practice. A more successful implementation of the probation system would aid juveniles in successfully completing the conditions of probation by imposing attainable goals as well as helping them achieve those goals. Probation officers have the opportunity to help juvenile delinquents make positive changes in their lives if only the probation program were to be restructured. Probation as an alternative to incarceration is the right ideal, but probation programs that successfully rehabilitate juvenile offenders need to offer “help looking for a job, a mentoring program, and somewhere to hang out where [they] [do] not have to feel forced to prove [themselves]” (Rios 2011:69). If the juvenile justice system can offer assistance in the areas mentioned above, there is likely to be an increase in