Justice System Position

Justice System Position

Mora, Crystal

CJS/240

October13, 2013

Nicole James

Justice System Position

When examining the juvenile justice system, one can easily debate whether the juvenile justice system should focus on the rehabilitation of juveniles or if they should be more concerned with punishing juvenile offenders. This paper will provide an explanation as to why the juvenile justice system should focus its efforts on punishment instead of rehabilitation. This paper will also explain how focusing on punishment directly affects law enforcement, court process, probation, corrections, community services, and intervention programs. Not everyone agrees with punishment, so this paper will provide you with some arguments of others who believe that the juvenile justice system should not focus their efforts on punishment but instead rehabilitation. Finally, this paper will explain how the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages if the juvenile justice system were to adopt and focus on punishment.

Juvenile delinquency can be described as "participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit" (Siegel & Welsh, 2005). The juvenile justice system includes law enforcement officers, the court system, correctional agencies and is designed to treat juvenile offenders. One controversial issue regarding the juvenile justice system is whether the juvenile justice system should focus on rehabilitation or if they should focus their efforts on punishment. While there are many different arguments concerning this issue the juvenile justice system should focus on punishment. Juvenile crime is on the rise and "The arrest rate for violent crime among juveniles has risen 62% between 1988 and 1994" (Chamberlin, 2001). In addition to juvenile crime being on the rise, the crimes that are being committed by juvenile offenders have become more violent. These criminal acts should result in stricter penalties that way the juvenile...