Police Authority to Detain Minors
Police should be given the authority to detain minors in order to take them to a secure location or back to their parents, in accordance with the goals of the "Child & Family Services Act" (CFSA). According to Decker and Marteache (2017), who apply the deterrence theory, being apprehended can act as a type of punishment that encourages young people to engage in less criminal behavior. When people are afraid, they may avoid engaging in or being exposed to possibly dangerous behaviors or even dangers like car accidents caused by drunk driving, which would have increased their safety. Carr and Doleac (2014) reported that most of the deaths among juveniles are as a result of unintentional injury, to which, motor vehicle accidents especially during the late hours of the night, accounted for the most fatalities.
Zero Tolerance Policing and Sense of Responsibility
Besides, Wilson, Olaghere, and Gill (2016) noted that apprehension could serve as a kind of zero tolerance policing whereby the juveniles comprehend of the community's compulsion not to tolerate lawlessness. It instills in them a sense of responsibility in that they'll desire to be law-abiding citizens who'll challenge the negative culture of lawlessness (Gilbert, 2012). Their accountability is also enhanced as they will not want to get arrested while out late at night.
Identifying Throwaway Children and Addressing Issues
Apprehending them may help to identify cases of throwaway children to which, the child may be taken to a place of safety or back to their parents if it is safe to do so (Jenson, 2013). In other cases, the negligent/abusive parents can be brought to book. Equivalently, other effective response strategies may be undertaken to establish the underlying problem and develop solutions. It may, for example, involve collaboration with social services agencies to address the issues regarding throwaway behaviors (Gilbert, 2012).
References
Carr, J. B., & Doleac, J. L. (2014). Keep the kids inside: Juvenile curfews, bad weather, and urban gun violence. Batten Working Paper 2014-003.
Jenson, J. (2013). Against the Current: Child Care and Family Policy in Quebec. Child care policy at the crossroads: Gender and welfare state restructuring, 309.
Decker, S. H., & Marteache, N. (Eds.). (2017). International handbook of juvenile justice. Springer International Pu.
Gilbert, N. (2012). A comparative study of child welfare systems: Abstract orientations and concrete results. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(3), 532-536.
Wilson, D. B., Olaghere, A., & Gill, C. (2016). Juvenile curfew effects on criminal behavior and victimization: a Campbell Collaboration systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 12(2), 167.
