Juvenile Crime (Essay Sample)

Crime
Name
Institution
Juvenile crime
The minor who commit crimes presents to the society the emotional, civic dilemma in examining the reasons for engaging in crime, the best punishment to give and how to stop the future deterrence. Juvenile crime is one of the social issues that continue to affect the people of the United States. However, for the last few decades, based on the reported incidences of youth crimes, juvenile crime rates have been reducing. According to the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS, 2015), the juvenile arrests declined by 11 percent, in the State of New York in 2014. However, in New York City, juvenile crimes had dropped by 20 percent in the same period. The State of New York had Juvenile detention admissions reducing by 10 percent while the population in detention was falling by 14 percent in 2014 compared to 2013. According to (DCJS, 2015), the probation intake was down by 24 percent, and petition filings declined by 27 percent in New York City in 2014. The initial family court dispositions, juvenile admissions to the Office of Children and Family Systems (OCFS), and the OCFS custody-in-care population dropped by 14 percent, 43 percent, and 27 percent respectively in New York City. Although the State of New York experienced a general decline in Juvenile crime case in 2014, the New York City recorded much lower incidences of crime.
Social significance gained by understanding this group
The trials and determination of crimes committed by the youth have experienced a fundamental change since the 1970s (May, Desmond & Billick, 2014). At the times of independence, juvenile criminals were tried in the adult criminal courts. The court system operated on the assumption that children under the age of fourteen could not commit capital offenses. However, the perspective changed in the 19th century when the New York House of Refuge was built to accommodate the juvenile criminals in 1825(May, Desmond & Billick, 2014). The juvenile courts had the objective of rehabilitating the offenders. The principle aim of the juvenile court systems, however, failed when the released criminals were not deterred from criminal activities. In the 1980s and 1990s, the United States experienced a high rate of juvenile crimes that led to change in legislation to lower threshold and expand the eligibility for transfer; juvenile criminals could be prosecuted for more violent crimes.
According to Barkan (2012), the United States has been using a "get-tough" approach involving long prison sentences and mandatory sentencing to fight juvenile crimes. The approach leads to the increased number of prisoners in prisons, high costs of operation, and increase in crime rates. However, the recent statistics indicate that juvenile crime rates have reduced in New York City. According to Menihan (2014), judges presiding over the juveniles who have deterred cases, their focus shift to protecting the community instead of rehabilitating the offenders. Does this imply that the change in objective from rehabilitating the offenders to protecting the society, led to the drop of juvenile crimes in New York City? The research can investigate this development. The Correctional Association (2010) posits that over 90 percent of the youths jailed in New York City major juvenile prisons are colored. The prisoners have been charged with the non-violent, low- level offenses that do not pose a threat to the public society. The trend has led to overcrowded juvenile prisons, high costs of operation and mistreatment of the prisoners. . The information can be collected from the juvenile correction centers to determine whether the withheld criminals have been arrested more than once. The research should also determine the nature of crimes committed and race of the offenders.
The three locations where the research could be conducted include the Crossroads secure Juvenile Center, the Horizon secure Juvenile Center, and the unsecured Abbott House NSD (OCFS, 2015). The best facility to visit among the three is the Crossroads secure Juvenile Center. According to the Correctional Association (2013), the majority of room confinements occur at the Crossroads prison compare...