Contemporary youth justice is not about welfare or justice but managing risk

Contemporary youth justice is not about welfare or justice but managing risk

Introduction

The state of juvenile justice system in the Western world is at a crossroad. It is important that the states take more of an imitative at the local level to ensure the important components of the juvenile justice system are being met. Researchers have proposed that it is viable for the juvenile justice system to adopt some of the aspects of the adult system by building a state of the art facility that houses probation, home confinement, work release, and community service all in one place. The necessity for these services is crucial to the commitment to rehabilitation of youthful offenders. The three areas of deficiency that have to be addressed in relation to delinquency are family life and financial need, diagnosis of mental disabilities, and the likelihood of offending based on ethnic background.

Discussion

Foundational Causes of Juvenile Delinquency: Family and Living Situations of Youth

Living situation and environment are important factors in the determination of how a youth grows up and what is learned. The behavior of the parental figures in the life of a child play and important part on what type of regard a child has for acceptable behavior and the abeyance of the law. Some aggravating factors of home life that have a detrimental effect on clear thinking and the development of social skills deals are financial inadequacies of parents, drug and alcohol abuse, and undeveloped social skills of the parent (Slobogin et al., 2011).

The fact that child has to deal with the inadequacies of social learning skills from home life, mental health issues, and depression is a recipe for disaster. Our government funds programs like no child left behind but if a child is suffering from poverty or parents who have inadequate parenting skills this is an area where something must be done by committee. Rehabilitation facilities are known to provide enough space and funding to house GED classes for juveniles and parents. The services include basic parenting classes that can be taught with the child present to build a stronger bond at home.

This leaves the opportunity for the staff of the facility to conduct studies regarding juvenile offenders that can yield results that can be beneficial to the juvenile justice system. Financial and economic conditions have long been linked with crime in relation to adult offender. Increasingly, children have been committing crimes out of necessity and not because of behavioral situation. As children grow up in the community and are processed through the juvenile system they essentially end up as adults with lack of education, social skills, and marketable skills in relation to work (Muncie and Goldson 2006)

Mental Health of Juvenile Offenders

The most effective way to diagnose the problems associated with juveniles who offend or continue to offend is to make sure that all offenders, at one point or another, have had a mental health ...