Juvenile 6

Juvenile Delinquency Cases

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Juvenile delinquency cases involve a wide variety of elements in determining the outcome of the case especially in terms of the sanctions for the juvenile involved . More importantly , race , ethnicity , and social class relate to the disposition of juvenile delinquency cases . For the most part , individual races - which are determined a least in terms of skin color , features of the face , and the texture of the hair among others - have a value in

the disposition of juvenile delinquency cases Becky Tatum (1996 ) argues that there is a disproportionate involvement in criminal activity by people of color in comparison to their representation in the population (Tatum , 1996 ,

. 356 ' Juvenile delinquency cases are not excluded from this statistics

In relation to this , ethnicity - generally accepted as a group of human beings identifying with one another - plays a crucial role in much the same way as racial background in the disposition of juvenile delinquency cases . For the most part , almost every individual has committed a delinquent offense while still at a young age (Snyder , 1996 ,

. 53 , and this suggests that regardless of ethnicity nearly all individuals have committed a delinquent offense some time in the past whether or not they have been caught by law enforcing bodies . Although there are numerous countries with legislations against racial and ethnic discrimination evidence suggest that the institutional confinement rate for black juveniles was roughly five times that of white youth (Engen , Steen Bridges , 2002 ,

. 194

Lastly , social class is also another factor in the disposition of juvenile delinquency cases . In general , the financial status of an individual in the society determines one 's capability to finance legal court battles . For instance , a juvenile belonging to the lower social class will most likely be unable to completely finance one 's legal case and ensure a successful juvenile court defense . Gold (1967 ) states that higher delinquency rates among lower status youngsters are a fact of the police , court , and institutional data (Gold , 1967 ,

. 114

In terms of assessment and predictability of dangerousness , false positives and false negatives indicate statistical errors in determining the theoretical occurrence from the actual occurrence of the dangerousness of an individual . In essence , false negatives are the type of errors when there is the failure to observe a certain difference when in fact and in reality there is no existing difference . In the context of assessing and predicting dangerousness , the failure to observe the proposed differences even with the fact there are no existing differences would entail a false negative . On the other hand , a false positive occurs when there is the observation of a difference when in reality there is such as the case when a certain test may verify that a certain ethnic group is a group of juvenile delinquents when in fact there is (Hart , Webster , Menzies , 1993 ,

. 695

On the other hand , victim impact statements refer...