More Treatment, Better Treatment & Beyond Treatment

Many people are asking what the future holds for our juvenile justice system and our growing youth? As we are currently dealing with a system that for many years has placed a strong emphasis on reactive punishment for criminal delinquents such as incarcerating our youth in adult prisons and “scaring them straight” with harsh punishments. We have seen that these types of extreme measures do not work for adolescents who are out in the community committing crimes, or those who are already caught up in the criminal justice system. These teens are actually learning to become tougher in these institutions and are getting the chance to associate with more serious offenders. What we need to see in the future of the juvenile justice system is for the system as a whole to seek a brighter future and seek to change in all aspects of so that teens get the help they need and communities are safer.

 To do that, judges, probation officers, substance abuse treatment professionals, and community members have to work together to help out the children that have been consumed by this system. Developing a local leadership where all of these administrators can come together and work on establishing a common goal in which will retain a positive reaction to our delinquent youth is an idea that can, if properly and thoroughly executed, change the life of many within the community. Judges can promote change within the judicial system that can affect the way all teens seen by the court are handled and their standing in the community can change public attitudes towards youth in the trouble with the law. The treatment professionals such as counselors and probation officers are the ones who should be guiding young people through the juvenile justice system and provide assistance to families to set a healthy lifestyles, therefore serving as a central influence when it comes to setting these adolescents in the right path. Members of community also need to become involved in this process to assist as support and engage these adolescents in positive activities post treatment.

We know that many teens in America are experimenting with alcohol and drugs, and research shows that teens with substance abuse problems are more likely to break the law, behave violently, or drop out of school. According to national data, almost two million young people ages 12 to 17 need treatment for substance abuse or dependence, but only one in 10 will get treated (Reclaiming Futures, 2012). That's unfortunate, because effective adolescent substance abuse treatment can help teens stay out of trouble, make our communities safer, and save money. Young people need to be held accountable when they break the law, but unless they receive treatment when they have a substance abuse problem that helped them get in trouble in the first place, they will usually find themselves back in juvenile court again and again.

Practitioner recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system generally focused on providing adequate resources including qualified staff and financial resources for training, staff development, and programs and services.  Administering juvenile justice in a collaborative manner, using a range of sanctions to provide meaningful and effective consequences, focusing on prevention and interventions to address juveniles’ unique needs, and developing policies and practices based on evidence and practitioner input represented other notable respondent recommendations (Willison, Mears, & Butts, 2010).

So what do teens in the juvenile justice system need? They need more treatment, better treatment and beyond treatment. In order for America to produce law-abiding children and adolescents we must focus on prevention and early intervention with an emphasis on treatment and programs. The local juvenile justice systems must do a better job of identifying teens that need treatment, and assess their individual needs by helping them implement high-quality, validated screening and assessment tools and placing them in the proper treatment.

It's important to act quickly when a teen is ready to participate in treatment—those windows of opportunity close quickly. Interning with the local school district for the past three months has taught me that adolescents change their mind about treatment about three times in the same week so we must quickly take advantage of their desire to change. 

Almost every young person who appears in front of a juvenile court eventually returns home, and to be able to remain crime-free after probation these teens need mentors and care from the adults in their lives. Having a support system at home can encourage a teen to finish school, find a job and get involved with positive activities around their community. We must believe that our children can change and no matter what role someone plays in the community we should all be responsible for seeking change in the lives of our future.

References:

Investing in Reclaiming Futures: A Guide for Public Agencies, Policymakers, and Foundations. (2012). Reclaiming Futures. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/sites/default/files/main_documents/Investing_in_RF_FINAL.pdf

Willison, J. B., Mears, D. P., & Butts, J. A. (2010). Past, present, and future of juvenile justice assessing the policy options (APO): final report. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute.

Weissberg, Roger P., Karol L. Kumpfer, and Martin E. P. Seligman. "Prevention That Works For Children And Youth: An Introduction." American Psychologist 58.6-7 (2003): 425-432. PsycARTICLES. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.

Juvenile Rehabilitation

It is safe to say that most criminals or people who engage in criminal behavior are a product of their childhood development and upbringing. A person's early life years experiences such as parenting, peer attachments and community relations have a lot to do with whether or not a person will become deviant. Specifically, 30% to 40% of the antisocial behavior of early offenders—who are more likely to become violent offenders later—is linked to harsh, inconsistent parenting during the preschool years (Bogenschneider, K. 2006)

Once a juvenile is involved with delinquency and crime in a consecutive manner it takes a greater deal of work and efforts to rehabilitate the offender. In many cases, if the juvenile does not seek self-change at a young age, they fall under high risk of becoming a career criminal or a repeated offender as an adult.

The US Department of Justice: Office of Juvenile Programs reported that “During the period 1993-2003, juveniles ages 12-14 and juveniles ages 15-17 experienced average annual rates of nonfatal violence that were about 2½ times higher than the rate for adults (83 and 84 per 1,000 versus 32 per 1,000)” (OJJDP, Katrina Baum, 2005). This shows that juveniles are committing the same offenses as adults and in some cases juveniles are offending at a higher rate. It is not a good societal sign when children are committing more crimes that adults, this clearly marks a serious problem for the future of our kids.

An effective transformation of offenders is to start rehabilitation juveniles at an early stage. If the rehabilitation is done in the early years of a child offending then there is a greater chance that he will not do wrong again, if the rehabilitation works. Likewise the cases of juveniles as well as adult criminals will be decreased.

The process of getting a teen being involved with any rehabilitation program is highly recommended for the delinquent juvenile population to help stop the vicious cycle of youth crime. These kids are the future of our nation and they need to be handled and disciplined properly in order to educate them on the real value of life.

Legal authorities have the right to send these offenders to a juvenile correction center after they have apprehended them. These correction institutions are the parallel of the adult prison system and are established to create a deterrence for adolescents. Ideally, these institutions should be environments where the adolescent can contemplate about his or her wrong doings and choose to change his or her behavior. That is society’s hope for institutions to be but in reality they are harsh living conditions in which these juveniles learn more criminal techniques from their peers rather than turning their lives around.

Our ultimate goal with rehabilitation is to use cognitive and behavioral treatment interventions to teach youth skills needed to manage behavior and meet their needs in ways that are not harmful to self or others. Also to encourage our youth to leave their criminal background behind and pursue a better life in which they can take up a job or higher education to secure a long and healthy life for the individual and his or her family. In order to provide the proper type of help we must take into consideration the time and a method for each individual. The type of rehabilitation a child receives should depend on the age, gender, type of offenses committed and psychological and emotional state of the juvenile. The majority of youth receive intervention and treatment services such as Aggression Replacement Training, Family Integrated Transitions, and Functional Family Therapy (Department of Social and Health Services, 2010).  This type of intervention with an adolescent helps replace the negative factors in their daily lives such as aggression, poor parenting, and peers with innovative approaches used to teach juvenile offenders cognitive and behavioral skills to manage and control their behavior and relationships.

The approach that seems to work the best is family based programs and early prevention of delinquency. Early childhood delinquency prevention programs aim at positively influencing the early risk factors or “root causes” of delinquency or criminal offending that may continue into the adult years. Theses interventions are often multidimensional and targeted at more than one risk factor because they take a variety of different forms, including cognitive development, child skills training, and family support (Siegel and Welsh, 2012).  According to the textbook Juvenile Delinquency,  Nurse-Family Partnership is the best known home visitation program. This programs involves first time single mothers-to-be which receive home visits from nurses during pregnancy and the first two years of the childs life. These nurses provide advice to the mothers about the care of the child, infant development, and the importance of proper nutrition. 15 years after this program started it was found that the children involved in this home based program had fewer convictions and violations and were less likely to run away from home (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). This type of programs not only teaches the mother to become a responsible mother but it also reduces the chances of child abuse and neglect, which is proven to lead to criminal behavior.

When it comes to preventing juvenile delinquency, “there’s no place like home.”  It’s been said that families are “. . . the most powerful, the most humane, and by far the most economical system for building competence and character” (Mendel, 2001), therefore if we want to see a change with our youth delinquents we must place a strong emphasis on family relations.  Even after the adolescent has received the proper intervention, the support of the family is highly recommended to remind the child that the positive things in life outweigh crime.

References:

Baum, Katrina. "Juvenile Victimization And Offending, 1993-2003." Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: National Crime Victimization Survey (2005): U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/jvo03.pdf>.

Bogenschneider, K. (2006). Family policy matters: How policymaking affects families and what professionals can do.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Associates, Inc.
Mendel, D. (2001, December-January). Combating delinquency: No place like home. Youth Today, p. 59. Washington, DC: Youth Today

"Rehabilitation for juvenile offenders."Washington State Department of Social and Health    Services Feb. 2010:  Web. 5 Nov. 2012.

Siegel, Larry J., and Brandon Welsh. Juvenile delinquency: theory, practice, and law. 11th ed. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Juvenile Delinquency Theories

“Once a criminal, always a criminal”, this is a famous saying that is common to the American household and which most finds to be true. Once an individual associates him or herself with criminal behavior they are labeled by their community and expected to reoffend. Society now looks at these juveniles and wonder why it is that these children are behaving in such matter.

              It has been clear by now what Juvenile Delinquency is and how it affects society. A juvenile is a youth teen ranging from as young as 9 years old till the age of 18 who engage in illegal criminal behavior. Defining delinquency is not the hard part, figuring out the reasons why adolescents commit crimes is. The study of juvenile delinquency is important because it provides us with trustworthy and reliable theories that can help with understanding the motives of juveniles. These theories fall under three categories, biological, sociological and psychological
Biological Theory considers delinquent behavior as predisposed and revolves around the idea that children are born to be criminals. Cesear Lambrosso is credited for creating the major biological theory called Positivism. His theory states that individuals whom grow up committing crimes have inherited biochemical and genetic factors. Lombroso also states that criminals tend to have certain facial features that are considered a predisposition to commit crime such as a flattened nose and supernumerary teeth. Another criminalist, Sheldon, found that different body types made individuals behave differently. For example, he believed that mesomorphs were more likely to commit crimes because they were athletic, as opposed to the physic of an endomorph, a fat person (Champion, 2004).

               Trait theory relies on the idea that delinquents show biological and physiological similarities to our primitive ancestors, the textbook The Juvenile Delinquency written by Siegel and Welsh describe it as “savage throwbacks of an earlier stage of human evolution. These views had a strong impact on criminology in the 19th century but eventually these views evoked criticism for their “sound methodology and lack of proper scientific controls” (Siegel and Welsh, 2012), and by the middle of the twentieth century biological theories fell out of favor as an explanation of delinquency.

Contemporary biological theories include the Biosocial Theory which states that both adolescent thought and behavior have biological and social bases (Siegel and Welsh, 2012). This theory uses genetics and social environment to determine whether or not a child will become delinquent. While childhood behavior has a lot to do with a poor environment, disrupted socialization or inadequate parenting the biosocial theory presents the fact that we must also take into consideration their genes, because that is what ultimately makes everyone unique and makes all individuals react to their environment differently. For example, a kid with a pathological trait such as a disability, an abnormal personality, brain damage or low IQ may be at high risk for committing crime. This risk is then increased by environmental stressors such as failure in school, bad parenting, substance abuse and delinquent peers.

              There are many major social factors that are believed to cause or affect delinquent behavior such as social relations, community conditions, and level of violence, poverty, and racial disparity. All of these factors play a huge role in the way adolescents see their lives and help them turn to delinquent behavior. There are numerous amounts of sociological theories that can describe different ways a child can become delinquent. Here are some of the ones that are most important.

Social Disorganization theory is when a community reduces the chances of advancement for the children. For example, schools have high dropout rates, high levels of graffiti, high poverty levels and so on. Residents in these areas experience conflict and despair and as a result they turn to antisocial behavior. Strain theory states that when an individual has goals or has wants that the economic mainstream creates desirable and is unable to achieve the goals set before them in a legitimate way, the individual will find alternative ways of achieving his/her goals, usually turning to criminal behavior. Cultural Deviance theories explain that due to the draining lifestyle of kids living in deteriorated neighborhoods they turn to social isolation and delinquent behavior. These behavior explained in cultural deviance create subcultures such as gangs and cults in which these adolescents join to feel accepted, loved and a part of a group. When a society is creating conflict for a youth to achieve success, these teen experience status frustrations because they are not allowed to reach goals set by the larger society. (Siegel and Welsh, 2012).

Psychological theories help understand juvenile delinquency and “like religion, more than like sociology or law, psychology is essentially concerned with the individual himself and is addressed centrally to the processes within and around the individual which give rise to specific forms of behavior” (McDavid and McCandles, 1962).

Two major types of theories include Psychodynamic theory and Social Learning theory. The Psychodynamic theory places it emphasis on the notion that one of the main causes of juvenile delinquency is children’s abnormal personalities that were created and developed in earlier life. Since then these “unconscious mental processes” (Siegel and Welsh, 2012) have been controlling the adolescents criminal behavior. The Id is the drive for immediate gratification and can explain delinquency acts such as shoplifting or burglary. The ego is the realization of real life and helps control the Id. Superego develops through interactions with parents and other responsible adults and develops the conscience of moral rules. This psychodynamic approach states that traumatic experiences during early childhood can prevent the ego and superego from developing properly, therefore leaving the Id with greater power (Champion, 2004).

Social Learning theory is also a major theory that implies that criminal behavior is learned through close relations with others, it asserts that children are born good but learned to be bad. This theory states that all people have the potential to become criminals because modern society presents many opportunities for illegal activity but one has the choice to not engage. If a child is raised in a clean community that has strong morals and if that child has positive role models at home and in the community, he or she is more likely to grow up achieving her goals. Opposing that scenario, when you have a child growing up in a poor neighborhood where he or she is surrounded by gangs, drugs and violence every day, it is very likely that this child will grow up committing crimes. (McDavid and McCandless, 1962).

There is not one set answer on why our youth turn to criminal behavior, but there are plenty of biological, sociological and psychological theories that can help acquire reasoning’s and knowledge to better understand our juveniles. Once these theories have been carefully analyzed, applying them to our juveniles in a case by case scenario can help deter and keep our children from choosing a life of criminal behavior.

References:
Boyd R. McCandles, John McDavid. “Psychological Theory, Research, and Juvenile Delinquency.” The Journal of Criminal and Police Science 54.1 (1962):1-14. JSTOR. Web. 24 Oct 2012.

Champion, D.J. (2004). The Juvenile Justice System: Delinquency, Processing, and the Law. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall Inc.

Ellwood, Charles A. "Lombroso's Theory of Crime." Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and 2.5 (1912): 716-723. JSTOR. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.


Siegel, Larry J., and Brandon Welsh. Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. Cengage Learning, 2012.

The Development of Delinquency as a Historical Phenomenon

The treatment of children as a distinct social group with special needs and behavior is a product of modern urbanization and a relatively new concept. This is not saying that the youth prior to the 19 Century were perfect law-abiding citizens, however their criminality was classified and statistically viewed as a whole population, never having to deal with high demands of personal attention and treatment. So how did this great concern for children develop?

            During the middle ages in England the concept of childhood as we know it did not exist. In paternalistic families of that time, the father was “the final authority on all family matters and exercised complete control over the social, economical, and physical well-being of his wife and children” (The Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law by Siegel and Welsh, Childhood and Delinquency).  Any children in these households who would rebel against their father or did not do as he said would have to deal with a severe physical punishment and in some occasions even death. Since these children were harshly punished at home and at school, it is no surprise that they were treated the same when they broke the law.

            During the first half of the 19th century the United States experienced a rapid population growth due to the increase of immigrants. Most of these immigrants wanted to live in urban commercial areas where they were close to their promised manufacturing jobs. As more and more people crowded the cities, the younger working males began to lose their jobs leaving a high amount of youth at risk of committing criminal behavior with in the area. At this point, the children were becoming victims of the environmental decay around them and parents began to lose control of their children.

Ex. Higher crime within the inner cities. 

          
The activist movement known as the Child Savers served as a significant turning point for delinquency. People were joining forces to assist those in need in cities all around the nation. They put together community programs to serve those adolescents at risk, and lobbied for a separate legal status for children. The Child Saver developed the facility House of Refuge, which can now be related to as a group home. The progressives of this era provided protection to the potentially criminal youth by providing them with a family-like environment. (Anthony Platt, 1969).

            Change for this reform came slow in 1912 when the U.S Children’s Bureau was formed; it was the very first federal child welfare agency. Since its origin the juvenile court system denied children procedural rights that were available to adults, such as due process, since the juvenile court system’s primary purpose was not to punish, but to rehabilitate. Even though this took a step forward it didn’t do much for juveniles, until 1962 when New York created the first family court system. This new court assumed responsibility for all matters involving family life with an emphasis on delinquent and neglected children, but these reforms were soon followed by a due process revolution. In the 1970’s the U.S. Supreme Court altered the juvenile justice system by establishing due process for adolescents and giving them the same rights as adults in courts.

            The last important turning point in history that shaped delinquency today was the creation of the federal commission. In the late 1960’s the government helped shaped the juvenile justice by establishing the Commission of Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, which suggested and provided help with developing effective law enforcement procedures to control serious offenders. Thanks to this implication other administrations such as Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention Administration and Law Enforcement Assistance Administration where funded to help with guidance of crime control and prevention.

            These significant events in history are what paved the way for our juvenile justice system today. A revitalized juvenile justice system now incorporates both a comprehensive strategy to prevent and control delinquency and a consistent program of federal funding.

References:

Juvenile Justice History | Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Juvenile Justice History.                                                                        Retrieved  October 5, 2012, from http://www.cjcj.org/juvenile/justice/juvenile/justice/history/0

Platt, A. (1969). The Rise of the Child-Saving Movement: A Study in Social Policy and    Correctional             Reform. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social          Science, 389(1), 21-38.

Siegel, L. J., & Welsh, B. (2012). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law (11th ed.).      Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

The Social Problem with Delinquency

            Juvenile delinquency is one of the most serious problems within society, which is a byproduct of modern urbanization and industrialization. This issue requires a great amount of attention because it involves various causes and effects. Family influences such as broken homes, malnutrition of parenting, economic instability, drug and alcohol abuse or domestic violence are all causes that may lead to juvenile delinquency. Other social influences such as school, peer pressure or neighborhood influences are also main causes of such issues.

            According to the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), there were a total of 32,655,677 10-18 year old adolescents alive in the year 2009. In that same year there were 1,906,600 arrests made that involved juveniles in that same age range. These statistics show that juvenile delinquency is a problem to society due to the high number of arrest and crimes being committed.

            Not only does delinquency affect the youth population but also the whole family and entire neighborhoods.  The juvenile delinquent is the person who suffers the most from his or her actions; he/she may lose their freedom due to incarceration or probation while also losing ground academically. They risk their future of obtaining a higher education when involved in crime. Although placement in detention centers may be the proper consequence it might also get the juvenile acquainted with more serious offenders and leads them to be influenced into future recidivism. The trauma of having a family member involved in delinquent behavior can create instability within the family. Not only does the family have to deal with ethical issues such as creating more responsibility for the parents but must also deal with economic hardships. Drug use, gang involvement, and vandalism correlate with delinquency, therefore leaving the neighborhood unsafe and costing the city large amounts to protect.

            Estimating the cost of juvenile crime is difficult; accumulating the total amount of all direct and indirect crime (including adults and juveniles) has cost the whole nation tens to hundred billions of dollars annually.  This includes cost to the government, medical cost to individuals, stolen or damaged property, loss of productivity to society, loss of work time and loss of property value (Legislative Analysis’s Office, 2005). The LAO statistics show that the state incarceration of juveniles has the highest per capita cost. Youth authority corrections cost the state of California $32,000 per capita annually while K-12 education only receives $4,200.

            No one truly benefits from juvenile delinquency. In a time of economic upturn, the people seeking employment within juvenile corrections and prevention programs are the only ones who benefit from adolescents committing crime.

            Any adult that allows or encourages illegal behavior by a person under the age of 18 is contributing to that youth’s delinquency. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor can be as simple as allowing them to skip school or as complex as having a child around a home where domestic violence is taking place. Not only are adults responsible for contributing to the problem of juvenile delinquency, but also youth peers. Peer pressure is a huge contributor to reasoning of why kids commit crimes.

            Traditionally the juvenile justice system has employed sanctions, treatments and rehabilitation to change problematic youth behavior after it has occurred, but it has been proven that it is more difficult to turn them around once they are fully engaged in criminal behavior. According to the National Institute of Justice Journal: Violence by Young People, “prevention is more effective and less costly than treatment after the fact” (1995). Therefore, more prevention programs have been created within schools to keep children away from drugs and violence. This method has proven to be more effective in keeping teens out of trouble than treatment after the fact.

                There is a long road for reform within the juvenile justice system, programs and treatments that include such large population take a while to adjust to change. We can see a brighter tomorrow for America’s youth with programs such as Positive Youth Development (PYD) and Trauma Informed Intervention (TII). Programs such as PYD focus on building the strengths and assets of juveniles rather than punishment. We see more programs such as TII that are interested in fixing psychological problems within our youth community. If we are interested in a successful juvenile justice system we must focus on Positive Youth Development, Trauma Informed Intervention, detention reduction, humane and rehabilitative juvenile facilities, evidenced based practices, a focus on high risk youth, and strong partnership with the community (New America Media, 2012).

            The communities role in this problem is to provide more adequate prevention and rehabilitation programs for our at risk youth and delinquents as well as partnering up with the federal and state government to create a better plan on allocating funds to these programs. 

Resources:                                  

"Juvenile Crime-Costs and Policy Implications." California Legislative Analyst's Office. Web. 11 Sept. 2012. <http://www.lao.ca.gov/1995/050195_juv>.

Nature, Youth Need Second Chances, and Not Incarceration. "A Roadmap to the Future of Juvenile Justice-New America Media." New America Media. Web. 11 Sept. 2012.    <http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/a-roadmap-to-the-future-of-juvenile-justice.php>.

"Statistical Briefing Book." Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/default.as>.