JUVENILES AND CRIME

Juveniles and Crime

Juveniles and crime

Introduction

It is argued that the investigation of the consequences of imprisonment of juveniles and adolescents requires a developmental point of view because youth imprisonment is legitimated only as a developmental intervention. However, before reflecting on the developmental impact of youth imprisonment, it is necessary to consider who is sentenced to this punishment because juveniles sentenced to prison represent a highly selective subgroup of their age cohort. Thus, this paper aims at briefly reviewing three journal articles of research scholars that what is currently known about the development of juvenile and crime delinquency. The research articles demonstrate the innovation of on the effects of imprisonment in general. It is concluded that very little is known on the psychological effects of imprisonment on juveniles, crimes and adolescents.

Article 1: "Growing Fears, Rising Crime: Juveniles and Chinas Justice System," By Daniel J. Curran and Sandra Cook (July 1993).

Critical Analysis

This excellent article provides some insights into the lives of juveniles in China and the justice system the Chinese have developed to address juvenile crime. It begins with a general discussion of how the views of today's Chinese youth regarding crime and the justice system differ from those of their elders. The data reveal that youth have a greater fear of crime than their elders and, at the same time, are less willing to cooperate with and less trusting of the justice system.

Next, a review of the statistics on crime reveals that youthful offenders (under 26 years of age) account for a disproportionate share of total crime (75 percent) and that juveniles' (14 to 18 years old) share of crime in the 1980's rose threefold.

Attention is then devoted to theories of delinquency, examining the forces of family and the community. In sum, improper socialization is perceived as a central explanatory variable in delinquency. Considering the strong family and community structure that exists, the challenge for criminal justice professionals is how to use the positive dimensions of both while minimizing the potential for the negative. Another factor to be considered is the changing economic face of China.

Reforming youthful offenders is predicated on a reform through education principle based on a five-stage hierarchy of juvenile dispositions from education assisted by the community to discipline in the reformatory. This article focuses on the second-level "Gongdu" schools, a work study program. Beyond its mission to reform and redeem young people, the Gongdu schools educate the parents as to how they have failed and advise staff in the regular schools as to how to deal with difficult students. With regard to the success of the Gongdu school in reforming juvenile offenders, statistics disclosed an extremely low recidivism rate.

Conclusion

In concluding, the authors offer an important caveat in evaluating the apparent success of the Gongdu schools so far as transferability or prototypicality is concerned. In China there is a lengthy cultural, social, and familial base which supports the treatment methodology selected here. That same base is not present in Western countries ...