Crime Causation

Crime Causation and Diversion

Dulcemi

University of Life

Criminal Justice

August 4, 2014

Instructor

Crime Causation and Diversion

A majority of the delinquents within the United States are teenagers who committed their first crimes at the age of twelve or later. A large amount of these teenagers engage in some minor delinquent acts, occasionally commit a serious crime, and most stop all crime by the time he or she reaches adulthood. Diversion, intervention, or prevention programs have become important alternatives to the initiation of formal court proceedings for juvenile offenders, their families, and victims. These programs have been proven to be effective in reducing delinquency and recidivism among youthful offenders. Two of these programs within the state of Virginia are being implemented and will be discussed in this paper.

A critical time and moment for a juvenile offender within the criminal justice process, is when he or she returns from being incarcerated, then being placed into a residential facility, and he or she attempts to reintegrate back into the home and/or community. Often, the most beneficial way to accomplish this is through a controlled, structured environment. Providing these youth the ability to acquire the skills and use those skills to resolve conflict within real-life situations builds the character of that juvenile. It allows for youth to comprehend that he or she is worth the effort that an aftercare, diversion, etc., program which provided extended periods of being watched, guidance, and service to the juvenile during this transition which has reached the goal. It is also preventing and reducing recidivism.

Virginia has an Intensive Aftercare Program (IAP) that is known as the Intensive Parole Program (IPP). The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) operates this systems and uses it to serves those youth that are determined by the court system to be high risk within the city of Norfolk,...