american correctional system

Revisiting the Juvenile Offenders in Adult Criminal Justice System

The statistics are striking . In 2002 alone , one in twelve murders in the U .S . involved a juvenile offender (Snyder and Sickmund

.65 . Half of high school seniors (51 ) surveyed in 2003 said they had tried illicit drugs at least once (Snyder and Sickmund

.75 . About 9 of murders in the U .S . were committed by youth under 18 in 2000 and an estimated 1561 youth under the age of 18 were arrested for homicide in 2000 (Fox Youth under 18 accounted

for about 15 of violent crime arrests in 2001 (FBI . One national survey found that for every teen arrested , at least 10 were engaged in violence that could have seriously injured or killed another person (US Dept . of Health and Human Services . The alarming numbers continue but leave a question mark on the propensity and effectiveness of existing US juvenile laws , pushing for an inclination towards adopting adult justice systems in youth offender cases . Yet alongside these figures are far more alarming statistics . While juvenile crimes are persistent , it is also true that one of every four violent crime victims known to law enforcement is a juvenile (Snyder and Sickmund

. 31 . Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers . In fact , 1921 young people ages 10 to 19 died by suicide in the United States in 2000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention In fact , about 1 in 11 high-school students say they have made a suicide attempt in 1999 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

. 6 . And officials have reported that of the more than 2 ,800 sexual violence allegations in juvenile facilities in 2004 , 3 in 10 were substantiated (Snyder and Sickmund

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A juvenile offender is one who is considered too young to be tried as an adult . Typically , the age at which a person can be tried as an adult varies among states , but ordinarily , it is the age of seventeen or eighteen , although this age can go down for certain serious offenses such as homicide or sexual assault (Larson

When charged with a criminal offense , a juvenile is sent to a juvenile court where he may either waive his right and be tried under adult criminal systems . Ideally and ordinarily , the focus is on what will rehabilitate the juvenile , rather than on punishment . For juvenile offenses , the juvenile are often said to have committed a "delinquent act " as opposed to a "criminal offense (Larson . Although the juvenile court has broad discretion to tailor a sentence to the needs of a young offender this juveniles are still sentenced to prison . In fact many states have large juvenile prisons and treatment facilities . The principle is that that the present criminal justice system believes that some juvenile offenders are very dangerous , despite their age , that incarceration seemed to be appropriate

While most of the policymakers and the press claim that an increase in the youth population shall also result in...