Youth Justice
Juvenile delinquency has become a major issue in modern society,causing our society to revisit the foundations of our current juvenilejustice, system, and thereby search for a new understanding of themotivations behind juvenile crime. Today's juvenile court system was builton the assumption that juvenile offenders needed to be rehabilitated,helped and assisted in order to escape the life of crime that oftenencircles the inner city streets. Juvenile offenders were conceptualized asa special case of criminals for any of the following reasons, or morecreatively put together by juvenile lawyers, a victim of all these societal * Juvenile offenders are considered to not possess the moral capacity to understand the depth of their crimes. * They are victims of the social conditions of the neighborhoods which * They are likely to 'outgrow' their criminal behavior. * If placed with the adult criminal population they would have little chance of developing into proactive members of society.Based on these assumptions, the juvenile justice system has focused on thecare and rehabilitation of the child rather than on punishment a
At the same timeprogressive thought also became a part of criminology. In the case of delinquent children, policy makerslooked toward addressing the root caused of the delinquent behaviors, andnot just punishing the perpetrator. Reformers in the criminal justice system were appalled byadult procedures and penalties. Their concern for 'purity', 'salvation,'innocence,' 'corruption,' and 'protection' (of the children) reflected aresolute belief in the righteousness of their mission. The JCA was considered "one of the greatestadvances in child welfare that has ever occurred, and the juvenile courtwas an integral part of total welfare planning. In orderto have a healthy society tomorrow, children needed to be well cared fortoday. Youth offenderswere no longer criminals to be punished, but ill-fated, and neglected youthwho needed care. " (Chute, 1949) With the JCA, the great society had unofficially begun, offeringassistance to those who could not work. They opposed the practice and likelihoodthat children could be given long prison sentences and mixed in jails withhardened criminals. When an incident occurred,were there hidden or visible influences behind the behavior, and did thejuvenile recognize his actions as a crime' When an incident was reported,was it serious, or trivial' Was the act significant enough to warrantpolice intervention' (Muncie, 1999) Once the act, and the evidence, and the police reports wereinvestigate, before a charge or sentence was issued, questions were askedas to whether legislation reform could have a positive effect on theconditions which were involved in the action. The goal was to create a rehabilitative social system which could redeemthe child rather than further criminalize him in an adult system. In 1899, Chicagopasses the Juvenile Court Act (JCA) which was soon used as a model for theentire nation. Destitute men and women wereperceived as victims of the social order, and treated to governmental aidin order to gain momentum to change their lives. " The ideologicaltransformation which was taking place included the well being of the childwithin its grasp, because the child was the up and coming citizen. 3)At the time of this movement, the context of the city was changing.
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Acceptance Essays
