Youth Incaceration

The number of incarcerated youths is growing more and more every day. Not all youths incarcerated have committed big offenses. A lot of youth can avoid the system only if they had someone around to guide them. Most children need someone to show them some attention and the incarceration rate for youths would not be so high. There are so many risk factors including individual, family, community, peer and school factors.“Researches have identified specific school based policies and practices that may exacerbrate the risks for behavior and incarceration among youths. Many incarcerated youths have failed to learn to read. The fact that youths who have deficits in reading are disprotionately represented in correctional institution suggests that the juvenile justice system has become the default system for many youths who have reading problems”(Christle & Yell 2008). So there are many risk factors youths come across that puts them behind bars. There could be a family history of drugs, changes in the family structure, lack of strong bond within the family, school failure, and aggression.

Half of the youth who are incarcerated have changes in their family that they are not happy about. Sometimes the parent or guardian does not necessary hear the child out until it’s too late. For example, John is 12 years old and his mother and father been married for 17 years. John is a good student in school and both his parents spend time with him. One day John comes home from school and sees his father cheating on his mom with another lady. John tells his mother and his parents get a divorce. John mother is working all the time now and never have time for him anymore. John grades slowly starts fall and he starts hanging around the wrong crowd. John started to notice that his mother was struggling with the bills. According to ehow.com, “some youth are incarcerated because they turn to crime for economic survival. If a teenager sees his mom struggling to work two stressful jobs for...