Crime and Juvenile Victims

The research study attempts to look closely at and investigate the reasons that lead teenagers to become involved in criminal situations. Furthermore, the research will look at the depths to which these adolescents go when they commit crimes, as well as how rehabilitation institutes are dealing with the situation. This study is heavily influenced by the youths at Crossroads Christian Youth Center in Indiana, Usafa Youth Center in Nebraska, and Oak Hill Youth Center in Laurel.  The compiled data emerged after an interview with the key people concerned with manning the youth centers listed above and also consultation of the transcript and data saved in the databases of the same youth centers. The consulted documents and people made it possible to come up with the issues that drive the youth into committing crimes and the problems that rehabilitation centers undergo in the due process of rehabilitating the juvenile victims. From the latter issues, I came up with the suitable methodologies that could be used to control juvenile victims situations and grant the juvenile the justice that they so require. The latter being in mind, I was also able to come up with the best means to improve that states of rehabilitation centers that could greatly help in reducing juvenile victim crime instances or at least help the victimized to reform.

Key Words: juvenile, delinquency, rehabilitation



Juvenile Victims of Crime

Introduction

Juvenile crime also juvenile delinquency is a social problem that is pervasive in the United States of America (USA). In relation to all the crimes that correlate to arrests made, juvenile delinquency accounts for almost 43% ( Warley, 2011). Burglary, murder, and rape, just to mention but a few, are some of the crimes that link juveniles to arrests in the USA. Wholly, the population of the US stands disadvantaged owing to the increase in the incarceration rates among the juveniles which in turn mirror what the country’s adult population would reflect. The worst part of juvenile delinquency is that the society and written law largely tends to ignore this predominant population that is quite disadvantaged.

In order to totally eradicate the juvenile delinquency issue, the identification of the cause needs to occur. The institution concerned should then allocate funds that may receive utilization in devising a rehabilitation approach that may be effective. Lastly, the rehabilitation program needs to be made available and accessible to the part of the population that lacks the technical know-how on when and where to seek assistance (Laurikkala, 2011). It is also quite vital to include the affected juveniles in the research for purposes of coming up with better rehabilitation approaches and solution methodologies that can be devised without any doubt of the outcome it may bring.

Legal experts believe that it is evident that the justice system which relates to juvenile detention centers has undergone changes that can the whole nation can witness. The changes give a deep reflection into the trends in juvenile delinquency. It is thus easy for researchers and the country inhabitants to trace juvenile delinquency instances to such trends. Owing to the simplicity of the trace possibility, policymakers have been working round the clock to institute punishments that seem more severe than the ones that the juvenile detention centers already utilize to control their bonafide members. The move by the policymakers gives a reflection based on the lack of enough financial resources that pave the way towards promoting an approach that is rehabilitative and conservative.

Reason(s) for Increase in Juvenile Delinquency

Sub-Standard Rehabilitation Centers

The research outcome shows that the states of the rehabilitation centers in the United Sates are critically wanting. The latter makes it quite difficult for individuals that undergo their rehabilitation processes in such places to receive quality services. As a consequence of poor rehabilitation, the juveniles do not fully reform even after the completion of their stay within the walls of these juvenile centers. The latter makes it easy for them to recall their participation in criminal activities before their detention in the juvenile delinquent centers. The recalling process thus possesses an increase in the rates of juvenile delinquent cases in the United States. There are various research outcomes that help group a rehabilitation center as either a standard or a sub-standard;

Overcrowded Centers

The overcrowding of rehabilitation centers is attributed to the rapid increase in the incarceration rates within the United States of America. The recent research as conducted in these detention facilities showed that 37% of the total number of public facilities in the US had been very overpopulated in 1997 ( Warley, 2011). The statistic simply does imply that these juvenile detention facilities were hosting populations that largely exceeded the capacity that they had been designed for at all times. Over the last two decades, the problem of overcrowding has seen massive increase creating far more serious issues that hinder effective rehabilitations in these centers.

Most of the consulted researchers affirm that the ineffectiveness that characterizes the juvenile detention facilities in the US has greatly resulted to overcrowding the centers. They also solely voiced that overcrowding is a dangerous component and a serious menace in the making as it increases the risk of an outbreak of violence, and a serious lack of services that are far more individualized. All these issues prune away the rehabilitative environment. Because the rehabilitation rooms become overly reduced due to overcrowding, the non-violent and violent offenders become housed together. It is thus easy for the violent offenders to pick on their non-violent offenders thus driving the issues to complex levels (Laurikkala, 2011).

Over-representation of the Minority

Aside from overcrowding, the research outcomes show that there are disparities, discrimination and over-representation issues in detention centers. In order to perfectly comprehend over-representation, it is important to know what it entails; over-representation occurs when an existent population within the juvenile detention center lacks proportionality to the general population that is at the same detention center. There may be the instance where 7 out of 10 of the juveniles that are incarcerated fall under minorities (Warley, 2011). This is the opportune point where disparity chips in; the dire probability that one population receives an outcome that totally differs from the others. In the key consideration part is when the population in the detention centers receives varied treatments in relation to their skin pigmentation; race. In other words, treatment may be rendered considering socio-economic status, gender or even ethnicity which shouldn’t be the case.

Poor Healthcare

Research does show that health services in detention centers are very insufficient and are at times woefully administered. Evidently, many of the youth who find their way into detention centers are from disadvantaged or impoverished backgrounds; thus they were never subjected to proper health care in their early lives and as they were growing up. The period within which the juveniles are confined in the detention centers is enough to earn them good health care services which are also inadequately provided to them.

Historical Context

Victimology

As far as the history of juvenile delinquency is concerned, there had been a rise in victimology that followed shortly after World War II (Laurikkala, 2011). The rise was primarily meant to learn and understand the relationship between the criminal and the victim of a particular crime. The study on this relation and theoretical correlation shows that the victims’ conducts and attitudes made the list of the most prevalent causes of criminal behavior.

The Criminal Justice System

The help that had been used to buttress what had been quite obvious to the public in the early 1970’s was drawn from victimology (Hasselm, 2011). It was occasioned by the fact that there were victims of crimes that were neglected yet they had fallen victims of crimes that were highly unacceptable. Scholars believe that this was the reason as to why there had been an increase in the rates of riots and demonstrations pertaining to the better provision of notifications and both witness and victim support. There was a great improvement when both the witness and victim initiative programs began borrowing prior service ideas from the newly instituted law enforcement programs and others that were from the grassroots.

Field Interview

Among those that had been interviewed during the research, most had similar opinions even though others had to differ. The interview showed that in the last two decades, victims, backed up by their advocates, championed for an increase in victim participation within the criminal justice system (Hasselm, 2011). The response that came from the nation wasn’t quite prompt as had been anticipated by the victims. Despite the evident monumental strides that had been made by the victims’ movements in several local and state jurisdictions, the victims still had no rights whatsoever to be present, be heard during the parole process and to voice their reason in the due course of the sentencing process or informed (South Australia & South Australia, 2011). These were nowhere next to fair justice system. The increase in both the incarceration and crime rates leads to an increase in the number of victims that require criminal justice. In turn, the policymakers are forced to make a critical review of the policies, legislation, and policies pertaining to rights of the victims (Justice, n.d).

Conclusion

As a consequence of a keen review of the historical context, research, and field review, it is conclusively apparent that the juvenile detention system in the US has various inadequacies that seek to be addressed as fast as it may be possible. The assertion destabilizes the correlative balance between finding solutions to the individual rights relating to the youth and protecting the safety of the general public to provide rehabilitative services. As far as the historical context and the research findings are concerned, there has been a very minimal change in the way juvenile delinquents are handled in rehabilitation facilities. Most of the problems that had been witnessed so many years back are still the core problems that are associated with the juvenile detention facilities. Sufficient funds need to be allocated to see to it that the facilities are improved. It is high time that juvenile detention centers stop being called awful names as, “hidden closets of juvenile justice” and not only that but they also have to earn a better name before the initial is forgotten.



References

Hasselm, A. E. (2011). Crime: Causes, types and victims. Hauppauge, N.Y: Nova Science Publishers. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/nr2014/html/chp2.html

Justice, N. C. (n.d). Juvenile Victims. Retrieved April 06, 2017, from

Laurikkala, M. K. (2011). Juvenile Homicides: A Social Disorganization Perspective. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Pub. LLC.

South Australia., & South Australia. (2011). Information for victims of crime: Treatment, impact and access to the justice system. Adelaide: Attorney-General's Dept.

Warley, R. M. (2011). Juvenile Homicide: Fatal Assault or Lethal Intent? El Paso: LFB Scholarly Pub. LLC.