Rehabilitation in Juvenile Justice
“Rehabilitation in Juvenile Justice”
The decline of the rehabilitation system and reforms
Rehabilitation for juveniles has been on a decline for the last 20 years. This is because many people consider that juvenile crimes are getting worse and the kids need to be disciplined1. Unfortunately this has backfired in a bad way, because the juvenile crime problem has not been stemmed by this means. In fact it has increased and juvenile crimes are on the rise.
The whole purpose of rehabilitation for juveniles is based on the assumption that if these young offenders were treated with decency and respect they would be able to understand the merits of giving up their criminal intents and be able to live a normal crime free life. Debates in the 70’s decided that rehabilitation was not working. This was based on the Lipton report conducted in 1975.
Since the 19th century rehabilitation for juveniles usually consisted of sending them to institutions to learn better behavior, but this was not as effective as it could be because the institutions themselves were not really following humane principles. Attempts in the 60’s to decrease the number of institutions and introduce more community programs to teach these kids better behavior but these programs did not work. This was largely due to the fact that the system was not being applied correctly. In the same period, probation for the kids was tried to attempt to deinstitutionalize the juveniles, but institution continued to increase and probations decreased.
Communities on the other hand are getting more scared and outraged by the heinous crimes these young people were committing. They want to safeguard their communities and families from these criminals and ensure that their kids would not be tempted to do criminal acts like these juvenile delinquents. They felt that these youths should indeed be treated like adult criminals and they would then mend their ways. These failures in reform attempts led to the
The decline of the rehabilitation system and reforms
Rehabilitation for juveniles has been on a decline for the last 20 years. This is because many people consider that juvenile crimes are getting worse and the kids need to be disciplined1. Unfortunately this has backfired in a bad way, because the juvenile crime problem has not been stemmed by this means. In fact it has increased and juvenile crimes are on the rise.
The whole purpose of rehabilitation for juveniles is based on the assumption that if these young offenders were treated with decency and respect they would be able to understand the merits of giving up their criminal intents and be able to live a normal crime free life. Debates in the 70’s decided that rehabilitation was not working. This was based on the Lipton report conducted in 1975.
Since the 19th century rehabilitation for juveniles usually consisted of sending them to institutions to learn better behavior, but this was not as effective as it could be because the institutions themselves were not really following humane principles. Attempts in the 60’s to decrease the number of institutions and introduce more community programs to teach these kids better behavior but these programs did not work. This was largely due to the fact that the system was not being applied correctly. In the same period, probation for the kids was tried to attempt to deinstitutionalize the juveniles, but institution continued to increase and probations decreased.
Communities on the other hand are getting more scared and outraged by the heinous crimes these young people were committing. They want to safeguard their communities and families from these criminals and ensure that their kids would not be tempted to do criminal acts like these juvenile delinquents. They felt that these youths should indeed be treated like adult criminals and they would then mend their ways. These failures in reform attempts led to the
References: Macallair, D (1993). What does the system have to offer? Reaffirming Rehabilitation in Juvenile Justice. [Electronic version]. http://public.getlegal.com. Retrieved from http://public.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/juvenile-justice/juvenile-programs Piquero, A, & Steinber, L. Rehabilitation Versus Incarceration of Juvenile Offenders: Public Preferences in Four Models for Change States . [Electronic version]. Cose, E (2010). Children Are Not Too Old to Change. [Electronic version]. (n.d.) http://www.associatedcontent.com. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/333918/the_juvenile_justice_system_may_actually.html