Juvenile Offenders Research Proposal: Part I 1 Juvenile offenders are those who are generally under the age of eighteen and commit a crime. A juvenile offender is not generally placed in the population of adult offenders and will see a judge in a different court. The process of the justice system does remain similar; however, there are more allowances for a juvenile to receive rehabilitation. Today's juvenile justice system still maintains rehabilitation as its primary goal and distinguishes itself from the criminal justice system in important ways. With a few exceptions, in most states delinquency is defined as the commission of a criminal act by a child who was under the age of 18 at the time; most states also allow youth to remain under the supervision of the juvenile court until age 21. ("Juvenile Law Center", n.d.). It is important to study juvenile offender, and try to refocus them so they do not become adult offenders. Many juvenile offenders come from underprivileged neighborhoods; however this is not a prerequisite. The problems with trying to research juvenile offenders are plentiful, for example, backgrounds of the offenders, family dynamics of the juvenile, and the severity of the crime the juvenile committed. According to Office Of Juvenile Justice And Delinquency Prevention (n.d.), \"Social changes caused by moving populations, changing economic conditions, and changing social climate (i.e., education, health care, etc.) will also have an impact on delinquency and the juvenile justice system.\" (Juvenile Population Characteristics). During this research, the questions that will be asked are as follows: What are the specific crimes that are statistically higher with a juvenile offender? What are the types of family backgrounds that are most often seen with a juvenile offender? Juvenile Offenders What are the rates of rehabilitation compared to a juvenile becoming an adult 2 offender? How does a juvenile's community affect the crime and rehabilitation of a juvenile? The proposed study of a juvenile offender can help decrease the amount of adult offenders in our community. If we can do the proper research and try to find the reason why a juvenile offends, then we may be able to stop the cycle before they are adults; this can begin with the proper court system for the proper criminal act. The issues that can emerge from the problem of juvenile offenders are countless; however, the most important issue would be the juvenile becoming an adult offender, and not receiving the proper guidance and rehabilitation as a juvenile. The use of the due process model of the criminal justice system can help evaluate the juvenile justice system, as this will focus on the individual. The rights of an individual does include a juvenile, and during the course of the use process system, we may have the ability to focus on the reasons why this juvenile committed a crime in the first place. Having the knowledge as to the why, we can hypothesize that it can help steer them in the right direction of rehabilitation. If this hypothesis is confirmed, we would successfully rehabilitate many, if not most of the juvenile offenders and have less adult offenders in the system. However, the reverse can happen if this hypothesis is not confirmed, as we would still be unsure how to properly help the juvenile offender. The juvenile justice system is based on a philosophy different from the adult criminal justice system. In 1817, the society for the prevention was established in response to the problem of troubled and troublesome children. In 1824, it was renamed the Society for Reformation of Juvenile Delinquency. The house of refuge opened in New York in 1825 and was quickly followed by one in Boston in 1826 and another in Philadelphia in 1828. These institutions were provided housing and care for troublesome children who might otherwise be sent to jail or prison (Abandinsky, 2005). Although a juvenile might be sent to a house of refuge, an orphan asylum or Juvenile Offenders 3 reformatory, there was confusion over which children should be regulated to which institution- they could be arrested, detained, and tried as would any adult accused of a crime. Children older than 14 and sometimes you ger, were routinely prosecuted as adults and punished as adults. Although some modifications of the trial process with respect to juveniles occurred as early as 1869, it was the Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899 that established the first law creating special comprehensive court for juveniles (Abandinsky, 2005). The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were approximately 73.8 million youth under the age of 18 in the United States in 2012. State statutes define which youth are in the original jurisdiction of the juvenile court, and it varies from state to state; the upper age limit for this jurisdiction ranges from 15 to 17. In 2010, courts with juvenile jurisdiction disposed more than 1.3 million delinquency cases. Violent crime committed by juvenile offenders peaks during the after school hours. Nearly one-third (29%) of all violent crime committed by juvenile offenders occurs between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. In comparison, nearly the same proportion of violent crime committed by adults (26%) occurs between the hours of 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. (Crime Solutions). Scholars and laypeople alike debate what causes young people to commit crimes. Although most states mark the legal transition from adolescence to adulthood at age 18, researchers question whether the human brain is fully mature at that age. As part of the NIJ Study Group on the Transition from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime, several scholars examined the differences between juveniles who persist in offending and those who do not, and also looked at early adultonset offending (National Institute of Justice). Continuity of offending from the juvenile into the adult years is higher for people who start offending at an early age, chronic delinquents, and violent offenders. The Pittsburgh Youth Study found that 52 to 57 percent of juvenile delinquents continue to offend up to age 25. This number dropped by two-thirds to 16 to 19 percent in the next five years. However, there are large individual differences at play. Juveniles who start offending before age 12 are more likely to continue offending into early adulthood. Not all offense types have the Juvenile Offenders 4 same persistence. One study showed that drug dealing and possession of weapons had the highest likelihood of duration and persistence into early adulthood, while gang membership had a shorter duration. Marijuana use had the longest duration, two to four times longer than theft and violence (National Institute of Justice Studies agree that 40 to 60 percent of juvenile delinquents stop offending by early adulthood. For those who do persist, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is a period of increasing severity of offenses and an increase in lethal violence. Most of the violence is directed at victims of the same age, and the age period of 16-24 is a high-risk time for violent victimization. Many young people who offend at ages 18-20, which bring them into the adult justice system, would have been likely to desist naturally in the next few years. Justice system processing may make them worse, rather than better. Somewhere between 10 percent and 30 percent of offenders start offending during early adulthood (National Institute of Justice). The study results above gives us the ages juvenile start to offend; however, it does not give a reason as to why they commit crime. There are many reasons why they offend. Juvenile offenders commit crime because of the lack of resources that they do not have. No support from their parents, or family, school, peers and community. The behavior of a child starts in the home therefore if a child is not being well taken care of they can become delinquents. According to U.S Department of Justice, low levels of parental support and without any role model, lack of affection between family, little or no supervision and monitoring which allows children and young people to form associations with antisocial peers, parental antisocial behavior including substance abuse, violence and criminal activity, neighborhood crime, drugs and low income. Juvenile Offenders 5 References Juvenile law center. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jlc.org/news-room/media-resources/youthjustice-system-overview Office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/population/overview.html Abadinsky, Howard- probation and parole: theory and practice/ Howard Abandinsky - 9th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005 Crime Solutions retrieved from https://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=5#Overview National Institute of Justice retrieved from http://nij.gov/topics/crime/Pages/delinquency-to-adultoffending.aspx