Juvenile Offenders

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Juvenile Offenders

Steinberg states that there are some issues which are very challenging to the society concerning the nature of human development and justice when it comes to serious juvenile crimes (para , 1 . This is due to the fact that people do not expect crimes to be committed by children let alone children being criminals . The unexpected connection between childhood and criminality brings about a dilemma that is hard to resolve (Steinberg para , 1 . Some of the ways out of this dilemma are : trying

to redefine the offense as something of less magnitude than a crime and redefining the offender as somebody who is not actually a child

For almost a century now , the American society has chosen to redefine an offense as something less than a crime (Siegel and Welsh

, 211 Hoge , Guerra and Boxer states that most juvenile offenses have for long time been treated as delinquent acts that need adjudication within a separate justice system for juveniles (p , 154 . This system is designed in such a way as to recognize the exceptional needs as well as the immature condition of young persons and stresses more on rehabilitation over punishment . Steinberg asserts that the two guiding principles that have prevailed concerning young people are that : they have different competencies as compared to adults , which necessitates adjudication in a different type of system , and that they have different potential for change and therefore qualify for a second chance as well as an attempt...