Laws8105 | Juvenile Justice | Assessment Answers

Analyze three challenges and unique issues that the juvenile justice system face in the 21st Century.

Analyze the impact the increasing number of child abuse and neglect cases has on the juvenile justice system.

Provide specific data on the increase of child abuse and neglect cases.

Discuss the future challenges facing the juvenile justice system.

Prior to 21^st century, the juvenile justice system treated adults and children distinctively. Age was not considered to be a limitation as juveniles were eligible for the same punishment as adults. However, during the 21^st century, the term “criminal” in case of child offenders were replaced with “delinquent child”. Separate juvenile courts were established and as a result of this, the treatments of juveniles were allowed differently by the judicial system. In this regard, emphasis can be laid upon the challenges and issues of the juvenile justice system during the 21^st century (Barrett, Katsiyannis & Zhang, 2015).  Firstly, the major challenge faced by the juvenile justice system is regarding the implementation of various policies in regard to the youth communities. The juvenile justice system failed to ensure that the youths are treated fairly and equitably. Secondly, there developed inappropriate limits on the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts (Burke et al., 2014). The aim was to bring an end to the practice of prosecuting individuals aged between 16-17 years old. Therefore, juvenile justice system could be improved by increasing the age limit of the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice court. Thirdly, the challenges are faced in the areas of heath care as well (Kretschmar et al., 2015). It is evident that the youths involved with the juvenile justice system experiences problems regarding mental health which can be efficiently treated in the community rather than within the juvenile justice system.

The increasing number of child abuse and neglect cases has created great influence upon the juvenile justice system. From the very beginning, the government authorities are committed in improving the response on the part of the juvenile justice system in response the crimes against the juveniles. In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention here that, not only children are victimized (Mathur & Clark, 2014). In some cases, adults are victimized as well. These adults were subjected to child abuse and neglect from the early days of their childhood. It is noteworthy to mention here that, in present era, the children are at an increased risk for crime victimization. The natures of the crimes are such that it has created unfavorable impact upon the young victims which are devastating at times. The sexual victimization of children in most of the cases leads to violence and abuse in the coming years. It is important on the part of the government authorities and organizations to improve and expand the efforts on the part of the nation to serve the child victims in a better way. In this context, it is important to present recent information about the victimization of child by evaluating statistics of crime victimization. It is worth mentioning that, the juvenile victim justice system is not widely recognizable because it represents a fragmented system (Walker, Muno & Sullivan-Colglazier, 2015). In some cases, it can be observed that parents assault and abuse their children. These children, when they grow up involve themselves in all kinds of criminal activities. However’ the nature of these criminal activities is such that it forms a substantial portion of child abuse and neglect cases. These cases are generally investigated and adjudicated by the criminal justice system.

Figure 1: Total number of children abused and neglected according to NIS estimates from 2016-2017.

The juvenile justice system is facing major challenges that have actually resulted in a failure while achieving their original goal. The main objective was to change the nature of the deviant behavior of the juvenile delinquent by emphasizing on the concept of rehabilitation. In this way, juveniles would be given an opportunity to live a life of a respectable citizen. However, the juvenile justice system failed to provide a process of fair and equal justice system for the juveniles; which is evident from the present racial disparities in the United States (Zimring, Langer & Tanenhaus, 2017). It is worth noting that, as a result of these failures, it contributed negatively towards the criminal behavior of the delinquents. In this regard, various criticisms were raised which attributed towards racial discrimination and biasness in most of the juvenile Courts. The juvenile justice system has experienced many failures which resulted in various challenges.

References:

Barrett, D. E., Ju, S., Katsiyannis, A., & Zhang, D. (2015). Females in the juvenile justice system: Influences on delinquency and recidivism. Journal of child and family studies, 24(2), 427-433.

Burke, J. D., Mulvey, E. P., Schubert, C. A., & Garbin, S. R. (2014). The challenge and opportunity of parental involvement in juvenile justice services. Children and youth services review, 39, 39-47.

Kretschmar, J. M., Butcher, F., Kanary, P. J., & Devens, R. (2015). Responding to the mental health and substance abuse needs of youth in the juvenile justice system: Ohio’s Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice Initiative. American journal of orthopsychiatry, 85(6), 515.

Mathur, S. R., & Clark, H. G. (2014). Community engagement for reentry success of youth from juvenile justice: Challenges and opportunities. Education and Treatment of Children, 37(4), 713-734.

Walker, S. C., Muno, A., & Sullivan-Colglazier, C. (2015). Principles in practice: A multistate study of gender-responsive reforms in the juvenile justice system. Crime & Delinquency, 61(5), 742-766.

Zimring, F. E., Langer, M., & Tanenhaus, D. S. (Eds.). (2017). Juvenile justice in global perspective. NYU Press.