Juvenile Rehabilitation

Juvenile Rehabilitation

In the previous few decades, the United States justice policy has become more punitive. In particular, in the 1990s legislatures all over the county passed laws under which an increasing number of young people can be charged in criminal courts and incarcerated in adult prisons. Certainly, in nearly every state today, youths between 13 and 14 can be prosecuted and penalized as adults for an array of crimes including non-violent offenses (Kristin, 2009). Punishments have become more severe even in the juvenile system. Generally, it is believed that the rising anxiety among citizens concerning the threat of juvenile crime has propelled this tendency and that members of the public favor this legislative tendency toward severe punishment. However, it is unclear whether this opinion about the right solutions to youth crime is precise. On the other hand, different surveys have found the public favors tougher policies regarding youth crime and punishing juveniles as severely as adults. However, a thorough review of sources of information about public views indicates that the perception that the public favors punishment for youths is largely based on either opinion surveys that pose few simplistic questions or publicized crimes like school shootings. It is possible that analysis of public views about youth crime and the right solutions tend to vary immensely as a function of how and how public views are gauged.

Whether an incarcerated juvenile enters a rehabilitative or punitive system has implications on the future of the juvenile. Rehabilitative programs include community involvement, education, and work. The aim is to help the juvenile. According to Shih (2008), these programs take into consideration abusive or troubled backgrounds and threats juveniles as young people who have an opportunity to grow and learn. Juveniles, who are punished, are not so lucky. For them, a single deviant act at a tender age can forever...