At-Risk Youth

A CURE TO JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

In order to prevent youthful perpetrators of crime from experiencing the capital punishment given out by a court of law, and also to encourage rehabilitation of young offenders of the law instead of condemning them to a degree of penalty for their offence, hence a juvenile justice system is set up.

The juvenile justice system focuses on helping the young and adolescent by acting in the best interest of the child. It does not take into consideration the crime that brought the young offender into reprimand, but actually provides a platform to assist and train them to deter from such criminal acts.

Juveniles are not charged with crime, seen as guilty and sent to prison as seen in a normal court process, but are rather found delinquent or sent to a training or reform school in order to reorient them. Juveniles are not punished for a crime, but helped to dissuade from the act of delinquency. The main goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation rather than punishment.

PROCESS OF A JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM

The steps taking in a juvenile court are rather informal when compared to a regular court process. If a juvenile is found guilty of a criminal offence after evidence attests to this act, the juvenile is detained and placed under hearing known as adjudication by only a juvenile judge which is closed to the public, and remained confidential so as not to affect the juvenile’s ability to be reintegrated into the society and protecting them from stigma when their records are publicly available.

This is opposed to a regular criminal court in which juries and the public are present to hear the case. The juvenile judge decides the penalty for the juvenile after going through the various evidences brought before the court. The penalties may include a juvenile detention center, community service, mandatory counselling under close supervision, paying of fines as the case demands or may be put under probation depending on the intensity of the crime committed.

Although, they may be confined to juvenile correction facilities that sometimes seem like an adult prison or jail and imposing correctional facilities, the juveniles are entitled to educational training while incarcerated. Juvenile court judges pick from a variety of legal options to meet the safety requirements of the public and also the treatment needs of the juvenile offender.

During the process of transition from childhood to adulthood, children may make choices that might endanger their lives or put their lives at risk. Therefore, these choices constitutes some high risk behaviors which has the tendency and ability to form adult behavior and they have repercussions which are costly to the society and to the children themselves.

There are some common risk behaviors exhibited by children and adolescents which includes engaging in sexual activity, illegal substance abuse, and illegal activities like vandalism or robbery, playing truancy in school, violence and even causing harm to themselves. For instance when children become sexually active, their response and behaviors towards sex if negative, may result in a high rate of unwanted pregnancy or even sexually transmitted infections.

Many a times, a lot of these children and even their parents are unaware of the dangers or risks that are involved in engaging in sexual activity and also the infections that come along with it. They perform activities without taking careful precautions, hence leading into unwanted pregnancy and an adverse effect may end up in abortion.

Also, there is an increasing rate of the abuse of substance such as cigarette, drugs etc. Children take risk with the misusage of medications prescribed by a medical personnel. Drinking excessively which is a risk behavior to the use of alcohol, is also common among young ones. The misuse or abuse of these substances tend to have an adverse effect on them. Sometimes, it alters the thinking capacity and harm decision making abilities, causing harmful psychological behaviors and could result to mental illness.

Likewise, children and adolescents are sometimes exposed to violence and abuse, and as a result brings them to a state of depression and melancholy. In response to this, they release emotional pain when they are traumatized by probably thinking of inflicting injuries on themselves or even committing suicide. They are forced to have a negative orientation about the society and hence they take up undesirable behaviors.

In addition, children who finds themselves in low-income families do not have the opportunity to receive adequate and substantial formal education, and so there is a high affinity not to do well academically or even have the cause to drop out and obtain a high risk behavior. Similarly, some children play truancy in school as a result of a lackadaisical attitude towards education leading to negative inclinations.

A WAY TO FURTHER REHABILITATION

Half-way houses for juveniles is a transitional facility provided in a bid to further reintegrate young criminal offenders who have served their terms, and are about returning back into the society. This facility provides a platform to continue offering supports after the juveniles have undergone some kind of reorientation and positive psychological change in perspective as regards crime. This facility is meant to strengthen the effect of what detention and the services provided in the correctional facilities, imparted to the juveniles.

The settings of the half-way house are that of an organized and systematic home which consists of a number of rules that guides the day to day activities and events that are carried out by the juveniles. Counselling continues to hold in the half-way house, skills and training on some vocational trade continues to be learnt. The structures such as security and confinement are not as rigid in the half-way houses as it is in the correctional detention centers the juveniles come from.

EFFECTIVENESS OF A HALF-WAY HOUSE ON JUVENILE OFFENDERS

The effect of the half-way house on juveniles amongst many others is that, it establishes a reasonably stable pattern of life, developing their capacity to cope with daily living. It helps develop and train the juveniles in life skills such as social and communication skills to enable them integrate themselves into the society at large. Half-way houses also provides assistance such as counselling that are necessary for the inmates to live and survive beyond juvenile correction centers.

It is important to note that besides the education and training provided to the juvenile offenders by the correctional facilities, it is necessary to prepare them for their return into the society, hence half-way houses are saddled with the responsibility of giving the juveniles a general idea of what a normal society should look like: one where there are rules to be adhered to, limits to be obeyed and supports to be enjoyed.

In addition, half-way houses can effectively serve the purpose of protecting the community from receiving ex-juvenile offenders that still carry traits of committing crime, and have not totally being rehabilitated of their criminal acts, but they will achieve these goals only with the full backing of the society and awareness of their cost-effectiveness and the need for such programs in the society.