Juvenile Recidivism Essay -- delinquency, rehabilitation, Risks Assess

Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased juvenile delinquency? Simply put, we must create a means of measuring juvenile’s level of risk and in turn, form an effective rehabilitation program that will decrease their risk level for future recidivism. Show the problem exists: â€Å"Critics of the juvenile justice system claim that approximately 500,000 youths who move through to the nation’s pretrial detention centers each year—70 percent of them nonviolent offenders—are thousands too many and that this experience may even increase the chances that they will commit more crimes and go â€Å"deeper† into the system† (Hardy 2007). These numbers are staggering. Of these half a million youths 350,000 of them will be re-incarcerated in just a matter of 12 months or less. This is an epidemic that can no longer be avoided. The arrest rates for juvenile violent offenses have also significantly increased over the past few decades with a 61% rise in arrests for violent offenses, even despite the fact that violent offenders are a relatively small proportion... ...OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS HELD FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS IN TURKEY. Education, 130(3), 384-398. Furniss, J. (2009). Fighting for the Futures of Young Offenders. Corrections Today, 71(3), 36. LU, A. (2011, October 30). Jailing Fewer Would Trim County Costs, Official Says. New York Times. p. 25B. Tulman, J. B. (2008). Time to Reverse the School-to-Prison Pipeline. (Cover story). Policy & Practice (19426828), 66(1), 22-27. Mulder, E., Brand, E., Bullens, R., & Van Marle, H. (2010). A classification of risk factors in serious juvenile offenders and the relation between patterns of risk factors and recidivism. Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health, 20(1), 23-38. doi:10.1002/cbm.754 Teitelman, R. B., & Linhares, G. J. (2013). JUVENILE DETENTION REFORM IN MISSOURI: IMPROVING LIVES, IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY, AND SAVING MONEY. Albany Law Review, 76(4), 2011-2017.