Juvenile Justice Florida the Rate

Juvenile Justice Florida

The rate of crime committed by juvenile offenders have reached unacceptable heights not only in the United States, but also in the rest of the Western world. This problematic phenomenon has necessitated an increase in the steps taken by the juvenile justice system against such offenders. However, concomitantly serious problems have arisen from the increasingly stern measures used by the system. The recidivism rate of young criminals has for example shown no decrease, and indeed even increased as a result of juvenile criminals tried as adults. Furthermore, some states have suggested bills that would, according to some, exacerbate rather than alleviate the problem.

One of the most common threads arising from research into the topic is that more research needs to be done in order to reach conclusive results. Jones and Connely (2001), for example, state that different rehabilitation programs are difficult to compare in terms of recidivism because of the differences between specific offenders and the nature of their crimes. Specifically, these researches have focused on attempting to compare prisoners with criminals who have participated in alternative sanction programs.

According to the Frontline Web site (2000), assumptions rather than empirical research results drive the current juvenile justice system in many states. The main controversy in this system is that juvenile offenders are treated as adults for certain crimes. Two are particularly highlighted: the first is that harsher sentences will be the result of certain crimes. Specifically this assumption entails that the harsher punishment will be more fitting for particularly heinous crimes. The second assumption is that such harsher punishments will serve as a deterrent for other offenders. Once again, many articles and writings on the topic assert that more research is needed for conclusive results. Still, the irony appears to be that the states imposing the harshest punishments and consequences for juvenile crimes also have the highest crime and recidivism rates for the very juvenile offenders that they are attempting to rehabilitate.

Florida is an example of such a state. In fact, according to Macallair (2000), the overall violent crime rate in Florida is the second highest in the country, while the juvenile crime rate is 48% higher than the national average. According to the same report, these statistics have shown little change throughout the 1990s.

In an attempt to curb the crime problem, the Florida juvenile justice system has been reformed to transfer more juveniles to adult courts and prisons (Macallair, 2000). Statistics have however proved this to be a highly ineffective system. Indeed, if sent to Florida's adult court system, criminal youth are a third more likely than those retained in the juvenile justice system to be rearrested. They are also arrested almost twice as quickly as their juvenile justice counterparts. Finally, the youth transferred to the adult system commit serious crimes at twice the rate of those in retained in the juvenile justice system. These statistics appear to suggest overwhelmingly the ineffectiveness of transferring youthful offenders to adult courts.

Another state-specific problem relating to the juvenile justice situation in Florida is the seriousness of offenses for which juveniles are transferred to the adult justice system. According to Macallair (2000), 28% of these youths were charged with violent offenses. The rest were charged only with minor offenses. The harshness of punishment in such cases appears to be disproportional to the crime. Indeed, Macallair states that the system was originally implemented to target the "worst of the worst." This does not appear to be the case in reality.

A further problem specific to Florida entails the disproportionate representation of race in cases transferred to the adult court system. According to Macallair's report, African-American youths are 2.3 times more likely than their white counterparts to be transferred to the adult court system.

A consequence of the disproportionate manner of punishment and racial representation, is the prison system and its effect on juvenile offenders. According to several reports, including those of Macallair (2000), Schiraldi, and Griffin, the danger that young people face in adult prisons is more extreme than that faced by normal adults. The vulnerability of a young person often makes him or her the victim of violence in adult prisons. The effect of this in turn is, ironically, not rehabilitation, but an increased tendency towards violence and further crime. Indeed, this affects not only those actually convicted, but also the youths awaiting trial for crimes from which they may be exonerated.

The current system is such that many different kinds of crimes and youths are tried and convicted through the same system. More youths are transferred to adult court systems than should be, and authorities in whose care these youths are placed are not sufficiently schooled in education to adequately help rehabilitating these youth. Indeed, available statistics show that this system is in fact hopeless in such a mission. While it has little effect in terms of deterring other youth from committing similar crimes, the recidivism rate of current youthful criminals is exacerbated by the situation they face in adult prisons. They emerge from the prison system not rehabilitated, but worse than they were before, and in this state they reenter the youth society of the state.