Delinquency Deterrence Response Sociological Theories and Social Process Theories

Juvenile Delinquency and Deterrents

Explain how the threat of punishment does or does not deter juvenile delinquency.

Punishment of juvenile delinquents has been a hot button issue in many jurisdictions because of the need to prosecute crime but also the desire to shield young people from harm. Usually when a young person commits a crime, he or she is sentenced to detention in either a juvenile facility or perhaps even an adult prison facility for a length of time appropriate to their crime. General deterrence is a theory that states that the fear of punishment will be enough to prevent crime. For those that are not deterred by the thought of punishment, there is always detention. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nearly 70% of juvenile delinquency cases will end in a juvenile court (Shoemaker 2009,-page 39). This means that the offender will receive a lesser punishment than if they were in an adult courtroom. In older days, juvenile crimes were often dismissed and the perpetrator let off with a slap on the wrist. This often led to the commission of more crimes rather than the perpetrator going straight. Many states are now taking an opposite stance on this, since it has been proven that crimes that go unpunished will not lead to a reformed criminal (Greenwood 2011,-page 99). The fear of prison time will often lead young people to avoid criminal behaviors, particularly if they have already had some time behind bars, an idea known as specific deterrence. According to Randi Hjalmarsson (2009), increasing the amount of time that juveniles spend in prison is not encouraging them to reform, but rather having an inverted affect that they are leaving prison less empathetic to their fellow men and more likely to commit more serious crimes after they are released (page 779). There is a limited window where youthful offenders can be reformed and potentially turned into law-abiding citizens who will remain on the side of the law for the rest of their lives, including the putting into place of situation crime prevention strategies which might alleviate the juvenile crime rate. It becomes obvious that some sort of reform needs to be undertaken to fix the fractured juvenile justice system.

Part 2: Locate programs with elements that exemplify the application of each of the sociological theories listed.

a. Social Structure Theories

The National Guard Youth Foundation is an organization which helps disadvantaged youth (National 2013). According to the social structure theory, young people who are financially disadvantaged will be more likely to commit crimes and to get into legal trouble. Many people in financially disadvantaged communities feel that they cannot overcome this difference and so turn to trouble out of anger and frustration as much as necessity. This program takes kids, most of whom have already been in some manner of legal difficulties and uses military knowledge to provide the young people with discipline and determination. They also encourage involvement in the military and in pursuing a college education.