Juvenile Court System Was Created

¶ … juvenile court system was created as an alternative to the current adult system for processing delinquents. It was built upon the premise that rehabilitation was a much better fundamental strategy for dealing with juvenile delinquents than the retribution model. However, recent statistics have shown an increase in juvenile violence as well as other forms of crime. In addition, there have been overwhelming statistics which point to the fact that juvenile delinquents are more than likely to commit crimes upon their release from prison. These crime waves have brought more and more juvenile offenders back to adult courts, and a greater public debate has been ongoing about the success of the rehabilitation model.

Despite some evidence pointing towards a greater need to "lock down" juveniles, the rehabilitation strategy is much more effective and is morally righteous. The rehabilitation model is based upon the concept of "curing" an offender of his or her criminal mindset and behavior. Its focus is not to punish an individual for their crime as much as to prevent them from reoffending by taking away the fundamental desire to offend. The retribution or "lock down" model is based upon the concept that the punishment of a crime should be chiefly determined by the seriousness of the crime itself.

From an ideological perspective, rehabilitation is a much better model for adjudicating the problems of juvenile delinquents for several reasons. First, young adults have not matured beyond a certain age where they are morally and legally responsible for their actions. They are often clouded by severe judgment errors and maturity problems. As Professor Carter Rees explains, "Inherent in the concept of rehabilitative justice for juveniles is that they lack the maturity and moral culpability to appreciate the full scope of their actions. Under these circumstances the adult judiciary system can be both severe and unfulfilling to the juvenile offending" (Rees, 2006). The concept of rehabilitation rests upon its humanizing perspective that offenders can be saved and not punished. Juveniles have not developed the capacity to be morally culpable for their actions and therefore, it is necessary to give them the opportunity to start over. Juveniles who are

"locked down" are often punished for crimes that they do not fully understand and appreciate themselves. They are in effect being punished when they did not anticipate nor acknowledge the consequences of those actions. Retributive justice for juveniles is counter intuitive because it punishes when the individual does not acknowledge the punishment. From an ideological perspective rehabilitation is a necessity for juvenile delinquents.

Rehabilitation is necessary for juveniles to counterbalance the social disadvantage that they majority of juvenile delinquents are accustomed to. Statistics show that over 80% of all juvenile delinquents within the current system come from underprivileged or abusive backgrounds. These are the individuals who have the greatest social disadvantages that have constrained them to a life of crime. By punishing them, society only reinforces the concept of ostracism and "otherness" that will lead them further into a life of crime. On the other hand, the current juvenile system offers an ideal opportunity to reduce the amount of stigma as well as social disadvantage that caused their criminal behavior in the first place. Since juvenile delinquents are taken out of their comfort zone they are will no longer be restricted to the social context that they came from, providing them with an opportunity and an environment to desire and build change. Retributive justice is an inherently ends based theory of justice; it punishes individuals as an end to itself. When juveniles are punished not for their own sake but for the sake of individuals that they harmed, it creates a vicious cycle of abuse. It also castigates juveniles into a situation where they feel alienated and resentful from society. Thus, juveniles are put into a position where they will demand retribution not from those who put him in prison, but from society itself (Ross, 2006). Dr. Tim Griffin further articulates, "Relationships created within the rehabilitation process will oftentimes last a lifetime. The current rehabilitation model employs a combination of family encouragement and mentorship. These relationships help juveniles build their self-esteem and shift the scope of their life vision" (Griffin, 2007). A rehabilitative model improves the ability of juveniles to escape their current life of crime and find motivation and inspiration to lead a new life. Putting these same juveniles on "lock down" will only have further negative consequences and promote a greater cycle of violence and crime.

Empirical evidence also supports the use of the current judiciary model. Although numerous statistics have shown the rise of repeat juvenile offenders, these statistics have any implicit assumptions and data fallacies. Primarily, the majority of juveniles who repeat their criminal process are part of organized crime as well as drug syndicates. However, an examination of full rehabilitation systems for juveniles shows a dramatically different result. The San Diego Juvenile penal system employs a complete rehabilitative process, within their system they assign mentors to each individual, and subject them to both public works as well as mandatory educational curriculums. Statistics from this program show that only 8% of juveniles repeat criminal activity following this process, and an overwhelming 56% go on to receive either a high school diploma or equivalent GED (Matthews, 2007). This case study shows that effectiveness of juvenile rehabilitation at a fundamental level. Juveniles are individuals who have not fully grown to a level of maturity where they understand and appreciate the full implications of their crimes. With a rehabilitation model, these individuals can not only learn to improve themselves to not continue the cycle of violence but also increase their ability to better assimilate into society.