Criminal Justice Research Paper on Juvenile Detention Reform Name 2016 Part One Research Topic Juvenile Detention Reform In the juvenile court...
Criminal Justice
Research Paper on Juvenile Detention Reform
Name
2016
Part One
Research Topic
Juvenile Detention Reform
In the juvenile court process, detention is a critical early stage. Placing juveniles behind bars in detention centers awaiting court greatly increases the possibilities that youths will be found delinquent and committed to correctional facilities which can severely damage their prospects for future greatness. A lot of the detained youth pose just minor or no threat at all to the safety of the public.
The number of states that are re-examining and also amending juvenile detention policies to reduce unnecessary reliance on secure confinement is steadily increasing over the years.
Wordes and Jones (1998) argue that few of the young people require detention. The reforms aim at avoiding detention at the outset for others by shortening the period a juvenile remains in detention.
It aims at providing alternatives to detention and focusing more on an implementation of community-based supervision, disproportionate minority contact reduction with the juvenile system and improve conditions of confinement of juveniles (Hsia, Bridges & McHale, 2004).
State actions require the use of both providing courts with options apart from detention or sending a young home and risk assessments to guide detention decision-making (Steinhart, 2006).
The alternatives to prison can include supervised evening and day reporting centers, release programs like electronic monitoring, home detention and treatment programs locally. Instruments of risk assessment that are used at screenings in detention to analyze youth's risk level and also needs of individual treatment and guide decisions about custody, services and supervision (Feyerherm, 2000).
Research Questions
What exactly is juvenile justice and what is the Juvenile detention reform?
Is juvenile justice different from one state to another?
What are the services that should be prioritized for prevention and early intervention among juveniles?
Is it wrong to involve young and low-risk offenders in the juvenile justice system and is it harmful?
Have different states made any progress in juvenile detention reform?
Research Design
Juvenile detention is a matter that should undergo review and changes. This is a hot issue in the criminal justice at the moment because nobody wants to go to that direction. Many states refuse to agree that there could be possible options or alternatives other than putting juveniles into detention centers like considering according to them supervised community service.
Is it possible to just completely scrap off the issue of juvenile detention entirely or find a way to maneuver around it?
It will be critical to sample some of the youth who have experienced lock up in juvenile centers to determine whether the centers were of any help to them in the long run or it just ended up wasting their time which they could have used to build their lives.
Describe the methods of analysis to be applied to the data in determining whether or not the hypotheses are true or false.
I intend to find out whether it is necessary to detain juveniles pending court hearing rather than just engaging them in supervised community service.
By experimental design, I will divide juveniles into two groups: those who have experienced juvenile detention and those who have experienced supervised community service. These two groups share a common characteristic that they have both committed an offense.
I intend to experiment whether these two processes have any impact and if any, by what magnitude.
Reference
Wordes, M., & Jones, S. M. (1998). Trends in juvenile detention and steps toward reform. Crime & Delinquency, 44(4), 544-560.
Feyerherm, W. H. (2000). Detention reform and over-representation: A successful synergy. Corrections Management Quarterly, 4, 44-51.
Mendel, R. A. (2007). Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform—Beyond Detention System Transformation through Juvenile Detention Reform. Baltimore: Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Steinhart, D. (2006). Juvenile detention risk assessment: A practice guide to juvenile detention reform. Retrieved April, 26, 2012.
Hsia, H. M., Bridges, G. S., & McHale, R. (2004). Disproportionate minority confinement: 2002 update. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
