Chapter One
& Two
ADJU 8-Juvenile Crime and Delinquency
Childhood & Delinquency
The Nature and Extent of Delinquency
Key Terms
Ego Identity: According to Erik Erikson, ego identity is formed when person’s develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for.
Role Diffusion: According to Erik Erikson, role diffusion occurs when youths spread themselves too thin, experiencing personal uncertainty, and place themselves at the mercy of leaders who promise to give them a sense of identity they cannot develop them-selves.
At-Risk Youths: Young people who are extremely vulnerable to the negative consequences of school failure, substance abuse, and early sexuality.
Juvenile Delinquency: Participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit.
Chronic Delinquency: Youths who have been arrested five or more times during their minority; this small group of offenders is believed to engage in a significant ratio of all delinquent behaviors.
Aging-Out Process: The tendency for youths to reduce the frequency of their offending behavior as they age (also called spontaneous remission); aging out is thought to occur among all groups of offenders.
Juvenile Justice System: The segment of the justice system including law enforcement officers, the courts, and correctional agencies, designed to treat youthful offenders.
Paternalistic Family: A family style wherein the father is the final authority on all family matters and exercises complete control over his wife and children.
Primogeniture: Middle Ages practice of allowing only the father’s eldest son to inherit lands and titles.
Dower System: Middle Ages custom of the bride’s family giving the groom monetary compensation before a marriage could take place.
Poor Laws: English status that allowed the courts to appoint overseers over destitute and neglected children, who then placed them in families, workhouses, or apprentices.
Chancery Courts: Court proceedings created in fifteenth-century England to oversee the lives of highborn minors who were orphaned or otherwise could not care for themselves.
Parens Patriae: Power of the state to act in behalf of the child and provide care and protection equivalent to that of a parent.
Child Savers: Nineteenth-century reformers who developed programs for troubled youth and influenced legislation creating the juvenile justice system; today some critics view them as being more concerned with control of the poor than with their welfare.
Delinquent: A Juvenile who has been adjudicated by a judicial officer of a juvenile court as having committed a delinquent act.
Best Interests of the Child; A philosophical viewpoint that encouraged the state to take control of wayward children and provide care, custody, and treatment to remedy delinquent behaviors.
Waiver Process: Transferring legal jurisdiction over the most serious and experienced juvenile offenders to the adult court for criminal prosecution.
Status Offense: Conduct is illegal only because the child is under age.
Wayward Minors: Early legal designation of youths whose violations of the law related to their minority status; now, referred to as status offenders.
Official of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): Branch of the United States Justice Department charged with shaping national juvenile justice policy through disbursement of federal aid and research funds.
Age of Consent: Age at which youths are legally adults and may be independent of parental control. When an adolescent reaches the age of consent, he/she may engage in sexual behavior prohibited to youths.
Please read the following site materials:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/laokktoc.html
"KIDS WITH NO HOPE, NO FEAR, NO RULES, AND NO LIFE EXPECTANCY"...
http://www.emergency.com/juvycrim.htm
One jail fits all: new crime bill would lock up kids with adults
http://www.ce.org/topnews/jail.htm
Facts About Children and the Law - Question 11 Are juveniles entitled to any due process protections in juvenile delinquency hearings?
http://www.abanet.org/media/factbooks/ch11.html
JUVENILE VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION
Violence Prevention and Intervention
1. Principles of Effective Delinquency Prevention and Early Intervention: 1
Address the highest priority problem areas and identify strengths (risk factors and protective factors) to which children in a particular community are exposed.
Focus most strongly on populations exposed to a number of risk factors.
Address problem areas and identify strengths early and at appropriate developmental stages.
Address multiple risk factors in multiple settings such as family, schools and peer groups.
Offer comprehensive interventions across many systems, including health and education, and deal simultaneously with many aspects of juveniles' lives.
Provide intensive contact with at-risk juveniles, often involving multiple contacts per week or even daily.
Build on juveniles' strengths rather than focus on their deficiencies.
Deal with juveniles in the context of their relationship to and with others rather than focus solely on the individual.
Encourage cooperation among the various community members.
Be knowledgeable regarding the nature and availability of community intervention programs.
It is important that juvenile delinquency prevention and intervention programs are integrated with local police, social services, child welfare, school, family preservation, and domestic violence programs and that these programs reflect local community determinations of the most pressing problems and program priorities. 2
The most effective programs are those that address key areas of risk in the youth's life, those that seek to strengthen the personal and institutional factors that contribute to healthy adolescent development, those that provide adequate support and supervision, and those that offer youth a long-term stake in the community. 3
2.Ages/Stages of Child Development and Appropriate Prevention and Intervention 4
Prevention involves a continuum of care that starts at the beginning of a child's life and continues through late adolescence.
Risks affecting children from conception through age 6 are related to the individual, the family, and the community. Increased exposure or exposure to more risk factors, especially early in childhood, increases risk of crime and violence exponentially. 5
Effective prevention and intervention strategies for the early developmental stages focus heavily on the family. Effective strategies for children ages seven and older include family services, but also recognize the increasing influence of schools, peers, and community.
Prenatal/Perinatal Prevention and Intervention: focusing on health families and healthy babies 6
Prebirth and newborn prenatal and perinatal difficulties are statistically related to increases in crime in later life.
Difficulties include: preterm delivery; low birth weight and anoxia; brain damage from infectious diseases; traumatic head injury; prenatal or post natal exposure to toxins such as heavy metals, alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.
Strategies:
Effective Programs: 7
Prenatal and perinatal medical care has been shown to reduce delinquency related risk factors such as head injuries, exposure to toxins, maternal substance use, and perinatal difficulties.
Intensive health education for pregnant mothers and mothers with young children has been associated with significant reductions in risk factors. Prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation has been shown to decrease child abuse and enhance effective parenting. 8
Prevention and Intervention from Birth to Age 4: focus on family and child bonding, parenting skills, learning readiness, and social skills development. 9
Prevention programs for this age group have a potentially enormous effect on adolescent delinquency and predelinquent behavior among younger children. Interventions targeting families and children in the first 5 years of life may be the most powerful delinquency prevention strategies that exist. 10
Family environment is the most important factor for this age group. A healthy family environment promotes attachment, effective family functioning, and social and academic readiness. Poor family practices can result in children being at an increased risk for crime and delinquency.
Poor practices include:
Strategies:
Addressing Risk Factors:
Health Risks: health education for mothers of young children may reduce mothers' substance abuse, resulting in healthier, less-impaired babies; immunization protects children against many of the diseases that can result in associated brain damage and death.
Parenting Skills: home visitors' promotion of social service use and assistance to mothers in achieving their educational and occupational goals can help counter families' economic deprivation; violent or aggressive family conflict increases risk for crime and violence; parental attitudes and involvement in crime affect the attitudes and behavior of children.
Learning Readiness: cognitive development activities (which emphasize language development and conceptual skills) that help children prepare to enter school can be carried out with a home visitor or with a parent; providing children toys or books through an early education program can help improve learning readiness.
Effective Programs: 11
Early antisocial behavior predicts later criminal behavior and violence in adolescence. Children who display antisocial behavior, including aggression, negative moods, and temper tantrums have a higher risk of criminal and violent behavior. Norms favorable to crime and substance abuse; availability of weapons, alcohol, and other drugs; transitions and mobility; and exposure to media violence can also have an adverse effect on children in this age group.
Academic failure is another predictor of delinquency. Efforts to promote cognitive development from ages 4-6 have a lasting effect on academic performance.
Effective Programs: 13
Prevention and Intervention from Ages 7 to 12: focus on education and strong family support. 14
Transitions from elementary school to middle school are difficult and can influence delinquency for youth aged 7 to 12. The availability of firearms increases the chances that youth in this age range will become involved in homicide rather than fist fights and verbal arguments. Young people failing academically and lacking commitment to school are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior than those seeing academic success as valued and viable. Alienation and rebelliousness, association with peers who engage in delinquency and violence, favorable attitudes toward delinquency, early initiation of delinquency and violence, alcohol intoxication, and constitutional factors can all be precursors to delinquent behavior.
Strategies:
Promising Programs: 16
Cooperative Learning: students help each other learn and assess one another's progress in
Tutoring: one-on-one remedial and preventive tutoring of elementary and middle school children.
Substance Abuse Education
Prevention and Intervention from Adolescence, Ages 13 to 18: focus on continuing school, positive peer models, and opportunities for work for older adolescents. 17 Adolescents who have been victims of child maltreatment are more likely to report involvement in youth violence than are non-maltreated adolescents. 18 Adolescents growing up in homes with violence between partners, generalized hostility, or child
maltreatment also has higher rates of self-reported violence. The highest rates of violence were reported by youth from multiple violent families. Research points to a strong correlation between delinquency and drug use and associating with delinquent, drug-using peers. 19
There is little evidence that interventions focused on peer relations in this age group are effective in decreasing antisocial or violent behavior. The efficacy of peer mediation and conflict resolution has not been determined due to lack of research. 20
Strategies:
Effective Programs 21
Community policing affects delinquency. Higher levels of drug problems and juvenile delinquency and violence occur in communities where people feel little attachment to the community and where there is low surveillance of public places. Community police officers can bridge this gap by connecting high-risk youth to delinquency prevention programs.
Safe and effective schools prevent delinquency. Strategies that encourage commitment to school and academic success reduce delinquency among high-risk students. Promoting reading skills helps reduce delinquency because reading failure as early as first grade has been found to increase the likelihood of delinquent behavior. Enhancing school safety by eliminating guns and other weapons that create a climate of fear is fundamental to creating an effective learning environment.
Youth development programs prevent delinquency. Nine out of ten juveniles involved in gangs for 3 or more years reported committing serious crimes, compared with only 3 out of 10 non-gang youth in positive peer pressure environments. Programs that introduce at-risk youth to positive peer pressure environments can have a significant impact on their lives.
III. Intervention Points for the Court: The Juvenile Justice System 22
The traditional role of the juvenile and family court is to treat and rehabilitate the dependent or wayward minor, using an individualized approach and tailoring its response to the particular needs of the child and family with the goals of:
While juvenile and family court judges have been successful in responding to the bulk of youth problems to meet these goals, new ways of organizing and focusing the resources of the juvenile justice system are required to effectively address serious, violent, and chronic juvenile crime. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) describes the critical role of the court: The courts must protect children and families when private and other public institutions are unable or fail to meet their obligations. The protection of society by correcting children who break the law, the preservation and reformation of families, and the protection of children from abuse and neglect are missions of the Court. When the family falters, when the basic needs of the children go unmet, when the behavior of children is destructive and goes unchecked, juvenile and family courts must respond. The court is society's official means of holding itself accountable for the well-being of its children and family unit. 23
A juvenile correction has the responsibility to provide treatment services that will rehabilitate the juvenile and minimize the chances of reoffending. Juvenile courts and corrections will benefit from a system that makes a continuum of services available that respond to each juvenile's needs.
The Work of the Juvenile Courts
U.S. juvenile courts handle 4,000 delinquency cases each day 24
Juvenile courts are faced with an increasing and changing workload 25
Over the 5-year period from 1988 to 1992, the juvenile courts saw a disproportionate increase in violent offense cases and weapon law violations, while alcohol and other drug offense cases have declined. Male and female caseloads increased similarly, though males continued to be involved in 8 in 10 delinquency cases. A study of the juvenile court careers of 69,000 youth revealed that 6 in 10 did not return to juvenile court again after the first referral. 26 Half of all delinquency cases are handled informally by the justice court, without the filing of a petition. 27
Informal processing involves the voluntary acceptance of sanctions and interventions.
Females, whites, and younger juveniles are more likely to have their cases handled informally. Cases are more likely to be handled informally in rural areas than in large cities. Informal handling of cases has benefits for both the community and the offender.
Diversion programs reduce the administrative burdens and the costs of prosecution while allowing the justice system to intervene in relatively minor cases. Offenders benefit by avoiding trial and the stigma of formal conviction. Formal petitions were filed requesting an adjudicatory or waiver hearing in half of the delinquency cases processed in 1992. 28
Compared to cases that are handled informally, formally processed delinquency cases tend to involve more serious offenses and juveniles who are older and have longer court histories. Although the volume of delinquency cases increased 26% between 1988 and 1992, the proportion of cases that were formally handled did not decrease but remained about the same. Youth in nearly 3 in 5 delinquency cases handled formally by juvenile courts in 1992 were adjudicated delinquent.
In 28% of adjudicated delinquency cases, the court ordered the youth to residential placement such as training school, camp, ranch, privately operated placement facility, or group home. 29 52% of adjudicated delinquency cases involved detention at some point during the processing of the case. 30 Probation caseloads increased between 1988 and 1992. Probation was the most severe disposition used by juvenile courts in nearly 2 in 5 delinquency cases. 31
Transferring Juveniles to Criminal Court
A juvenile's delinquency case can be transferred to criminal court for trial in one of three ways: 32
The number of juvenile transfers to criminal court has grown in recent years, but little is known about the impact of this policy. 33
Between 1989 and 1993, the number of cases judicially waived from juvenile court to criminal court increased 41%.
The large increase in the number of cases judicially waived to criminal court cannot be completely explained by an increase in the court's caseload. The greater increase in waived cases implies other factors were involved, such as: 34
An increase between 1989 and 1993 in the level of violence found in offenses against persons.
A general decline in the amenability of youth for treatment within the juvenile justice system.
An increase in the willingness of juvenile courts to transfer eligible cases.
A decline in available treatment options within the juvenile justice system.
An expansion of the pool of juveniles eligible for judicial transfer (e.g., a reduction in the minimum age at which a juvenile is eligible to transfer).
Data collected from 6 states by the Government Accounting Office in 1992 suggests that: 35
Courts must recognize the need to focus prevention and intervention resources on those families and children at risk of involvement within the system.
Special approaches must continue to be developed and funded for the serious violent offenders. Although serious, violent, and chronic offenders constitute 15% of the juvenile population, they commit about 75% of all juvenile crime. 36
Read the following site information:
Key Crime & Justice Facts at a Glance
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm
Crime Trends /Juveniles
http://www.cya.ca.gov/facts/trends/index.htm
Gender and Delinquency
http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/digests/dig143.html
Preventing School Violence
http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/monographs/uds107/preventing_contents.html
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ENDNOTES:
1. Delinquency : Prevention Works. OJJDP Program Summary, U.S. Department of Justice, November 1995, pg 5. Programs that embody these characteristics are discussed in Howell, J.C. (1995). Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, OJJDP, U.S. Department of Justice, June.
2. Howell, supra note 1.
3. Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 7.
4. Ibid., pgs. 12-18.
5. Ibid., pg. 12, also Tolan, P. & Guerra, N. (1994). "What Works in Reducing Adolescent Violence: An Empirical Review of the Field." Commissioned Monograph. Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder.
6. Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pgs. 12-13.
7. Ibid., pg. 13. Promising Programs include: Healthy Start in Hawaii, reduces child abuse by offering prenatal and post-birth counseling to high-risk parents (Research by NIJ); Anti-Drug Initiative in Chicago Housing Authority, reduces drug use and related violence in public housing (Research by NIJ); Project New Beginnings in Los Angeles, Ca, offers substance abuse counseling to pregnant women and early intervention services to children (Appears in PAVNET)
8. Olds, D.L., Henderson, C.R., Phelps, C., Kitzman, H., & Hanks, C. (1993). "Effect of Prenatal and Infancy Nurse Home Visitation on Government Spending." Medical Care, Vol. 31, pg. 2. Cited in Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 13.
9. Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 14-15.
10. Mendel, R.A., (1995). "Prevention or Pork? A Hard-Headed Look at Youth-Oriented Anti-Crime Programs." Washington, D.C.: American Youth Policy Forum. Cited in Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 14.
11. Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 15. Effective Programs include: High/Scope Perry Preschool Program Model, fosters social and intellectual development to children ages 3 to 4 (High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 1993); Behavioral Training, decreases negative parenting and the coercive style of interacting that promotes child aggression and delinquent behavior later in life (Tolan & Guerra, 1994, supra, note 3); The Home Visiting Program in Elmira, New York, provides a wide range of maternal and child health services to poor, unmarried teenage women bearing first children in a semi-rural county.
12. Ibid., pgs. 15-16.
13. Ibid., pgs. 15-16. Effective Programs include: Reductions in Class Size for Kindergarten and First Grade, helps improve school performance; Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Curriculum, reduces early antisocial behavior by integrating emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skill development in young children.
14. Ibid., pgs. 16-17.
15. Brewer, D.A., Hawkins, J.D. Catalano, R.F., & Neckerman, H.J. (1995. "Preventing Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offending: A Review of Evaluations of Selected Strategies in Childhood, Adolescence and the Community." Cited in Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 1.
16. Supra note 1, pgs. 16-17. Promising Programs include: Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), substance abuse education taught through police departments; Family Ties, strengthens family functions by offering intensive services to youth in their homes; Cambodian Family Youth Program, develops self-esteem and life skills among youth ages 5 to 12 (Reviewed by OJJDP); Child Development Project,
fosters competencies and commitment in children that they will need to eventually live out adult roles; Second Step Curriculum, teaches skills and empathy, appropriate social behavior, interpersonal problem solving, and anger management through discussion, modeling, and role playing of particular skills.
17. Ibid., pgs. 17-18.
18. Thornberry, T.P. (1994). "Violent Families and Youth Violence."Fact Sheet #21. Washington D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. Cited in Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 17.
19. Huizinga, D., Loeber, R., & Thornberry, T.P. (1994). Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse. Washington D.C.: OJJDP, U.S. Department of Justice. Cited Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1, pg. 18.
20. Tolan & Guerra, supra note 5. 1.
21. Delinquency: Prevention Works, supra note 1. See Appendix A of that publication for program descriptions of effective prevention and intervention programs.
22. Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy, supra note 1, pgs. 10-11.
23. NCJFCJ, "Children and Families First, A Mandate for Change," 1993.
24. Snyder, H.N. & Sickmund, M. (1995). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report. Washington, D.C.: OJJDP, pg. 126.
25. Ibid., pg. 126.
26. Supra note 24, pg. 49.
27. Ibid., pg. 131.
28. Ibid., pgs. 132-133.
29. Ibid., pg. 133.
30. Ibid., pg. 133.
31. Ibid., pgs. 135.
32. Snyder, H.N. & Sickmund, M. (1995). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A Focus on Violence (Statistics Summary). Washington, D.C.: OJJDP, pg. 26.
33. Snyder, H.N., Sickmund, M., & Poe-Yamagata, E. (1996). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence. Washington D.C.: OJJDP, pg. 18. 35. General Accounting Office. (1995). Juveniles Processed in Criminal Court Case Dispositions. Washington, D.C.: General Accounting Office. Ibid, pg. 28. States included in the study were Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Utah.
34. Ibid., pg. 28.
36. Howell, supra note 1, pg. 6.
