Preview

Youth Offenders Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
523 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Youth Offenders Essay
I chose this study because it provided a balanced look at the reality that youth offenders no matter their race can stop offending as adults. This study involved 25 males who had a history of juvenile delinquency (Ruhland, Witham, Daily & Johnson, 2006). There were Black, White, Asian, Native American and Other male participants. The participants were chosen because they had no serious crimes since becoming adults (Ruhland et al., 2006). In addition, it investigated the perspectives of the male participants to understand what they identified as having helped them to avoid recidivism. The study revealed all the juveniles interviewed (Ruhland et al., 2006) felt disheartened by their treatment plan and the juvenile justice system. The now adults expressed during their interviews that the role of the rehabilitation program played in their decision to cease criminal activities was minimal. However, they identified other factors that played a significant role in providing them the support needed. For example, extended family support, religious affiliation, parenthood, and new peers (Ruhland et al., 2006). The study concluded that these youth (that did not become adult offenders) were less likely as juveniles to have abused drugs or committed violent crimes involving weapons (Ruhland, et al., 2006). Additionally, there were similarities in the background of all youth interviewed, they had fathers who didn’t have criminal records and fathers were involved in …show more content…
Data for this study was collected from the Court system and the Probation case files. The case files were used to draw a clearer perspective of the identity (i.e. backgrounds) of the participants. Quantitative analysis was further expanded upon in a qualitative manner (Ruhland, et al., 2006) using in-depth interviews consisting of open-ended questions (Ruhland, et al., 2006) about their family dynamics and juvenile system

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    As Stacia Tauscher once said “we worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” For my opinion is true, young offender population has increased of the years. Parents may be worried about their children's future instead of watching them while they’re are in their sights.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Under fire from the date of its creation, the debate over the validity of the Young Offender's Act continues. Should the YOA remain in its current form as a part of the Canadian legal system? An examination of the reasons it is seen as being ineffective, the need for change, and the suggested amendments and substitutes will provide an accurate picture of the situation from which a conclusion can be drawn. The young offenders act in its current form is nearly optimal. However, there enough reasons for its alteration that a serious consideration of amendments should be considered.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    “According to Black Star Project Executive Director, Phillip Jackson, in 2007 there were 321 African American men enrolled at Northwestern University (1.7 percent of the student body) but four times that number – 1,207- imprisoned at Western Illinois Correctional Center (60 percent of the prison population)” (Walker, Spohn & Delone, 2012). This is only one example of the astounding percentage of young black men currently serving jail time as opposed to pursuing a college education. Something must be vitally wrong with our criminal justice system, since it allows these staggering numbers to hold truth. Overall the total percentage of young African American males is almost five times more than that of their young white or Hispanic male counterparts. I find this statistic very disturbing and chose to research the why and how this is occurring. There are many possible reasons such as limited access to public health clinics, racial profiling, unfair judicial systems, racial differences in judges, lawyers, and law makers, poverty, and parental upbringing; to name a few. How do these young men get sucked into a life of crime, do they have an alternative or a role model to seek counsel form? The numbers do not lie and there must be sound reasons behind them. In this paper I will research and discuss the various reasons why young African American males are grossly over represented in the criminal justice and corrections facilities. While the overall white population is higher than the African American population, 10.4 percent of African American men between the ages of 25-29 can expect to spend time in jail, compared with 2.4 percent of Hispanics and 1.2 percent of white men. Throughout this paper I will discuss not only the staggering numbers but also the reasoning behind them and possible solutions or at the very least a starting point to help fix the problem at hand. “…People of color are disproportionately involved in…

    • 2668 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    This study uses 341 delinquent youth from a Midwestern urban county at random to participate in the research (p. 229). The county was selected by having the highest number of juvenile offenders in that Midwestern urban area. This study was over a three year time period during the years of 2006 through 2008. There was about 6,900 probation cases used in the study (p. 232). The court in this county provided the court files to further research the study. They used the juveniles’ “court history, probation supervision cases files and the mental health assessments for the youth that was selected to be studied” (p. 232). Three different independent variables were being studied such as race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Main purpose of this act is to respectfully get the youth back into society where they can finish off the years they have to adulthood, where they commence to understand the new rules of society as a matured individual…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The only effective way to reduce and prevent juvenile crime is to balance tough enforcement measures with targeted, effective and intervention initiatives.” Juveniles are children and children don’t know any better and obviously make mistakes. They don’t expect to be caught after committing a serious crime. Juveniles brains are not fully developed until they are 25, but young people recognize them as adults at the age of 18. About 25,000 children a year have their cases sent to adult courts instead of being tried in juvenile courts, whose convicted defendants are usually set free by the time they turn 21. Trying juveniles as adults is not beneficial for them. But it also is a crime. And crimes are crimes whether…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juveniles deserve a second chance at succeeding. The people have to remember that the children need our help and get them focus in positive things and give them the right guidance they need to succeed. There is various ways that a kid can get back on the right path, counseling, after school programs, rehabilitation, and, a positive role model. Each of these things have they own way to get the child involved.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Youth are a unique group when involved in the legal system of today, as their laws differ significantly than those laws that are set for adults. Jason's Day shows a prime example of a young misguided teen breaking the law - specifically, the act of underage drinking and child labour.…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Determining whether a juvenile is identified as a child or an adult is quite simple. If a juvenile is under the age of 18 then he or she is not an adult and if a juvenile has graduated from high school then he or she is identified as an adult. I believe that if a juvenile has not developed a certain level of intelligence or has not emotionally developed then they can’t be identified as an adult. In addition to that, although juveniles may have developed the sense of knowing right from wrong they may not know what’s right from wrong in the “adult world.” There have been laws passed to permitting juveniles to be transferred to adult court. The process with transferring juveniles to adult courts starts with the seriousness of the offense committed by the juvenile. If a juvenile has committed an offense such as armed robbery or murder then without a doubt there aren’t any excuses for…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Crime - young offenders

    • 2519 Words
    • 11 Pages

    It is widely acknowledged in Australia and around the world that young people under the age of 18 should be subject to a system of criminal justice that is separate from the adult system. This is because young people often have lower levels of maturity, as well as knowledge when it comes to the law. Although morals and ethics form an important part of school education (helping young people to make sensible decisions), most aspects of the law do not become clear until they reach adulthood. In NSW young people are legally separated from adults when it comes to rights such as questioning, identification, forensic procedures, having the right to a support person and automatic legal aid. Young people also have a separate court to deal with their and separate legislation offences. The effectiveness of these judicial and legislative provisions inevitably has mixed results. This merits an ongoing monitoring and review process that aims to identify the legal issues faced by young offenders within the criminal justice system, and support and protect young people in the legal system.…

    • 2519 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Recently many people who are concern about the juvenile delinquent justice systems, started to promoting restorative juvenile justice system. The restorative justice system is a system where its focuses are on the needs of the victims, the offenders and the communities. Its aim is to be fair to all the stakeholders (the victims, the offenders, and the communities). Even though it is not a 100% effective for everyone, however by many research it has been proven that restorative justice programs to be more effective for the youth offenders to realize their mistake, not to reoffends, and mend the relationship back between the youth delinquents, the victims and also with the communities.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    prepared to live in an environment with adults? 'They may be sentenced as adults but…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Juveniles who commit first or second degree murder should not receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole. The majority of supreme court justices believes that it should not be mandatory to sentence juveniles to life without parole because violates the eighth amendment. The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. What's the point of the United States Constitution if its not being used in the supreme court system. Teens should not be charged with a life sentence because teens do not have the same rights as an adult and a teenager's brain is not fully developed until age twenty-nine, additional research has found that adult and teen brains work differently.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This occurs at both the youth and adult level. In a study conducted with youth of various ethnicities who were participating in substance use treatment, the participants were asked to report out on both their commission of criminal acts and their involvement with the criminal justice system. Hispanic and mixed-race adolescents reported committing property and drug crimes than Whites and a higher proportion of all minority groups reported committing interpersonal crimes. The Black youth in this study were the least likely to have committed a felony, yet their involvement with the criminal justice system was significantly higher than the white youth. Involvement in the system as a youth is a risk factor for being incarcerated as an adult, as well. In 2009, the incarceration rate for Black males was found to be 6.7 times higher than White males (Mukku, Benson, Alam, Richie, and Bailey, 2012). One of the leading causes of incarceration is criminal behavior related to a substance use disorder.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cothern, L., Hawkins, D., Laub, J., and Lauritsen, J. (2000). Race, Ethnicity, and Serious and…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays