Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Crime Article

Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Crime Article

Kareem Dorsey

CJA 204

December 05, 2012

Keone Thomas

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Juvenile justice system has its place in the overall the legal system. There has to be some accountability for underage offenders of crime no matter what the situation. Due the fact that some of the crimes that these underage kids are committing are becoming fiercer in nature they are getting tried as adults. Juveniles being held in public facilities has increased tremendously, along with overcrowding (Schmalleger, 2010). There is also a great presence of minority juveniles that are in the custody population.

According to "The Free Dictionary" (2012), delinquency is defined as " Juvenile delinquency. Failure to do what law or duty requires. An offense or a misdemeanor; a misdeed” (para. 1). Early juvenile delinquency was developed to take the stigma away of crimes committed by young people being called criminal acts. It was the Illinois Juvenile law that became the model for most juvenile courts in the U.S. in 1899. They created a separate court for young people who committed crimes. Schmalleger (2010) stated, “the law applied the term delinquent rather than criminal to young adjudicated offenders. The act specified that the best interests of the child were to guide juvenile court judges in their deliberations” (2010, pg 18). Delinquency with females has risen by 76% within the last 10 years (Schmalleger, 2010). The Juvenile Court Act was created by the federal government in 1938. It adopted many of the Illinois statues.

Schmalleger (2010) stated, “The juvenile court movement was based on five philosophical principles that can be summarized as follows: The state is the “higher or ultimate parent” of all the children within its borders. Children are worth saving, and nonpunitive procedures should be used to save the child. Children should be nurtured. While the nurturing process is under way, they should be protected from the...