Each student will be required to complete the term project, which is a research proposal written in an APA Style. The project should have at least 1000-words of substance not counting the cover and re

Brandon Olsen

SSGS 300 Research Methods
Jason Anderson

05JAN19

Preventing Juvenile Delinquencies

Abstract

The study aims at investigating the inside knowledge and awareness of juvenile delinquencies and the preventive approach non-justice systems in the six Great Lake States namely Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The study analyzes the level at which the residents are knowledgeable about growing problems and the suggested policies that would help juveniles to access opportunities and economic mobility towards fruitful future lives. It adopted a cross-sectional survey model as the sample procedures, with 1000 questionnaires issued out to respondents, data collection and analysis courtesy of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The outcomes availed that 58% had knowledge of juvenile crime in the six Great Lake States, 24.5% admitted to having witnesses juvenile theft, 82% admitted to having an idea on juvenile delinquency services, 42% blamed ignorance and exposure to the justice system as the leading causes of juvenile crimes while 33% considered non-justice system and sensitization as the suitable approach towards addressing juvenile crime. In conclusion, the study showed the residents of Great Lake understood juvenile delinquency, threats and the need for a non-justice system, separation of juveniles from adult offenders and creating awareness and proper policies to address the issue.

Preventing Juvenile Delinquency

Introduction

There are collective institutions and regulations through which juvenile offenders face until the pressed charges are disposed of or evaluated punishment has been finalized hence termed as juvenile services. Such systems constitute of the juvenile courts, remand homes, judges, borstal homes, lawyers, approved institutions, probation officers, law enforcement officers, and social workers (Alfrey, 2010). Amid the existence of numerous policies that protect children since 1959, the juveniles have continuously exposed to policies which denies them their fundamental rights. Throughout decades as catalyzed by the growth of urban centers courtesy of rural-urban migrations, the number of juvenile delinquency increased worldwide thanks to the negligence of juvenile welfare and increasing poverty (Hanson et al., 2010). Majority of the juveniles from poverty-stricken regions resorted to crime, violence and youth misdeeds with the modern society facing an extreme of the same. Various institutions were set up to help address juvenile delinquency yet the rates of juvenile delinquency continued to skyrocket. As a result, reforms exist only to limit the available juvenile care. In the presence of digitization, contemporary society has become vigorous that youths are more vulnerable to engage in crime. Consequently, the world has so far detained more than two million juveniles with about a half of the population confined due to petty crimes hence going against their rights provided in the constitutions of every sovereign state (Alfrey, 2010). Some of the rights include the proper issuing of prompt notification of charges, impartial adjudication, separate trial, examination of prosecution witness an adequate defense. The Great Lake juvenile justice system shows gross inadequacy in both qualitative and quantitative terms to comply with juvenile rights. The study would, therefore, examine juvenile crime knowledge and awareness and the impact of non-justice system of juvenile delinquencies.

Problem Statement

The future of the youths and society could be under threat in the cases where children who engage in gross-misconduct face mistreatment from the law hence denying the reformation, isolation, and reintegration in the community, a role given to the juvenile services (Hanson et al., 2010). More so, submitting the youths to the justice system and making them undergo stereotyping due to the demographic factors would only help to increase the magnitude of the problem rather than resolving this issue. The study would assess the knowledge and awareness of the juvenile delinquency and the influence of non-justice system to the juvenile crimes.

Research Questions

The study would get the guidance of the progressing questions :

Do the Great Lake residents know juvenile delinquency services?

What are some of the approaches of the non-justice system in addressing juvenile delinquency?

How is the justice system influence juvenile delinquency?

Literature Review

The UNICEF reports of 2016 show that about two million youths have their liberty ignored as they continuously languish in prisons. They are likely to come in contact with the authority for various reasons ranging from the political issues among others . More so, the youths could engage the authority not as the real culprit’s, but as victims of circumstance, that is, being at the wrong place at the wrong time ( Alfrey, 2010). The modern digitization has further agitated the youths hence making them more violent and destructive. Some of the youths engage in armed fighting; teenage girls sneak out of school for prostitution, both male and female engage in theft to satisfy their urges for drugs with some youths used by the political class to cause havoc during the electioneering period.

Types of Juvenile Delinquency

Scholars such as Uqwuoke (2015) avails to broad categories of juvenile delinquencies namely the personal and sociologic delinquencies. The personal delinquency refers to the young youth whose misdeeds emerge from the unhealthy parent-child relationship as well as other numerous negative factors during the early developmental period that resulted in the inability to differentiate between the Do’s and Don’ts (Patacchini & Zenou, 2009). The sociologic delinquency, on the other hand, is the product of home, and other factors form the environment which intentionally made the youth aware of the fact that what the society deems wrong is embraced in the immediate surroundings. Sociologic delinquency is the cultural deviation of society’s norms and traditions.

Before talking about addressing adolescent crimes, one should have adequate knowledge of the risk factors. Bello(2006) presents the risk factors for juvenile crimes as home, society, school surroundings, peer groups, social and psychological trauma, lack of sex education in schools, stereotyping due to exposure to the justice system, the absence of social acceptability due to maladjustments away from home and the incitement among other factors.

Research Methodology and Design

The design utilized for the progressing research was cross-section-driven survey research design which targets at collecting data on certain variables within the research population at one area in a given time (Hanson et al., 2010). The design aided in studying a sample group of 1000 participants in the Great Lake states which were a suitable representation of the whole population of the region. The utilization of small segments of the said population enables the study partakers to acquire suitable information for the possible generalization of the total population (Patacchini & Zenou, 2009). Either, the application of a co-model titled the social Genome Model helped explore the influence of the criminal record on the family life resources in the Great Lake states. The primary tool used in the collection of study information was the questionnaire.

The study happened in six Great Lake states namely Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Out of the total population of 439,115 people, 1000 participants; 540 girls and 460 boys all below 18 years of age, availed the following responses (Hanson et al., 2010). 24.5% were witnesses of juvenile theft, 82% understood juvenile delinquency services and the impact of the justice system, and 42% blamed ignorance and exposure to the justice system as the leading causes of juvenile crimes and suggested the utilization of the non-justice system in and suitable policies to address the problem. Additionally, 33% considered and sensitization as a suitable approach towards addressing juvenile crimes.

The utilized questionnaire comprised of two sections: the first section highlighting the demographic data of the respondents while the remaining section contained very crucial research issues. The guiding principle for the questionnaire was the research questions and hypothesis, and it characterizes self-administration (Alfrey, 2010). The target sample received questionnaire courtesy of the five research assistants in every state once at a time. Data analysis and pressing happened courtesy of computation processes by use of the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version20. There was the application of the frequency distribution table and percentage to help interpret the availed information. The chi-square helped to determine the relationship among the variables.

References

Alfrey, C. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency and family Structure: Implications for marriage and Relationship education. Retrieved from

http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/docs/juveniledelinquency.pdf April 20th, 2016.

Hanson, Rochelle, Genelle Sawyer, Angela Beagle, & Grace Hubel. (2010). “The Impact of Crime Victimization on Quality of Life.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 23 (2): 189–97.

Patacchini, E. & Zenou, Y. (2009). Juvenile Delinquency and Conformism. The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 28 (1):1-31.

Appendices

Annotate Bibliography: Curbing Adolescence Criminology

Hanson, Rochelle, Genelle Sawyer, Angela Beagle, & Grace Hubel. (2010). “The Impact of Crime

Victimization on Quality of Life.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 23 (2): 189–97.

The above-given resource explores the insight of marginalization, societal stereotyping and other maltreatments affecting teens and the associated risk factors towards juvenile crime and the approach of preventing their participation in the vice. Exposing the youths to crime has a direct impact on their development and opportunities in various ways. Either, the cost of mitigating crime in the society raises courtesy most of the adolescents residing in marginalized areas with high rates of poverty, less organized social structures and high rates of crime. The situation could worsen as they enter a delicate stage of adolescence which requires proper parenting and guidance hence facing maltreatment by the society in which they reside. Lack of the latter further renders them helpless therefore could do anything to survive including violent activities and crime.

Relevant institutions should formulate the policies which lower the footprint of the justice system in which the judicial system does not over-enforce low-level offenses. More so, the non-justice approaches could help to address juvenile crime as coursed by various risk factors. Consequently, there is a need to invest in prevention for the vulnerable adolescents who could involve injustice crimes. Different prevention models such as the school-based Violence Mitigation Program, One Summer plus Job’s Program and Becoming a Man Program could help address the risk factors towards implicating in crime, the justice system, and delinquency. For instance, the application of Becoming a Man Program in Chicago public schools through the utilization of mental behavior-based treatment showed witnessed high rates of graduation among youths as levels of crime reduced drastically among. Other initiatives could solve the primary prevention in the broader community; secondary curbing which focuses on teens who are at risk of affiliating to gang-related crimes and the interventions activities for teenagers in groups seems to mitigate crime in areas with high rates of crime.

Among the required infrastructure are the clearly defined criteria according to the level of services offered, evaluative tools, and program guide. Among the drawbacks of effectively executing the initiatives include the inadequate capital the implementation of the efforts. The approach could, however, help to deter adolescents from engaging in crime for future patriotism and economic development

Patacchini, E. & Zenou, Y. (2009). Juvenile Delinquency and Conformism. The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 28 (1):1-31.

The study examines the situation in the economically disadvantaged regions, the risk posed towards engaging in crime and the appropriate strategy towards preventing adolescents from involving in the offense. In their article, Patacchini and Zenou state that adolescents and families residing in poverty-stricken regions experience necessary scarcity wants as compared to those in the active areas. Their situation renders them vulnerable to any appealing option of accessing such amenities. In the case where the population could easily obtain firearms further create an unsafe environment with rampant cases of crime among the youths. The dual suggests some approaches of addressing gun violence through the reduction of the diversion of guns and other weapons from legitimate to the illegitimate users hence preventing the highly vulnerable individuals from accessing such weapons.

By lowering the supply of firearms, the teens would not fall victim to gun-related criminal acts or participate in the vice hence reducing the associated outcomes. Lack of regulation in firearm policies could lead to high rates of crime among the youths. The equilibrium or study evidence proves that the rule that helps to strengthen necessary checks and needs legal permits to acquire firearms have a link with the decline in gun violence. However, evidence-based research from Ohio revealed that the impact for the other weaponry regulations and homicide showing combination or negative. More so, in the absence of firearms, the teens and other perpetrators of crime could opt to use crude weapons to execute offense hence creating the same disturbing scenarios. There must, therefore, relevant to establish a framework to eliminate the root cause of the problem before implementing policies on firearms ownership. The society with adolescents who have proper upbringing and education poses future prosperity with the opposite realizing horrific consequences associated with insecurity, deaths, violence and all other unwanted behavior.

Liberman, Akiva, and Jocelyn Fontaine. 2015. “Reducing Harms to Boys and Young Men of Color from Criminal Justice System Involvement.” Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

The progressing study explores the shortage of monitoring by appropriate entities, as a risk factor towards juvenile crime hence suggesting the suitable approach towards preventing teen participation in the offense. There has been a debate on the impact of involving teens in the justice system with stereotyping and numerous other factors emerging to embody them in criminal activities continuously. As a result, there was an emphasis on the non-judicial system as the solution of preventing them from crime. An exposure of adolescents to trauma and stress from the violence surrounding (marginalized regions) rocked with skyrocketing criminal activities could influence decision-making and sound childhood development among the fast transiting adults. Additionally, the pressure from all dimensions of the society ranging from life hardships, peerpressure, and biological factors among others could catalyze their engagement in crime. The home, school, and social environment should avail the appropriate climate for proper characterization of adolescents. Lack of adequate monitoring from the parents, religious institutions, teachers and the relevant government institutions threatens to render the adolescents vulnerable to criminal activities and the associated vices.

Parents, religious institutions and schools should come up with an initiative which could help to guide and counsel adolescents and provide them with basic needs to help them focus on constructive activities that could positively impact their lives. An initiative that provides the youths with appropriate information and support to deter them from engaging in crime could help to reduce crime and facilitate sound behavior in the society. For instance, the application of the Restorative Justice Models in Ohio as the substitutive to institutional discipline as compared to the no-perseverance methods proved to mitigate adolescence criminality. There is also a thin line between adolescent crime and substance abuse thus eliminating the latter would automatically reduce the former. According to the Wisconsin study, the illegalizing and curbing all loopholes of drug and substance trafficking as well as rehabilitating the addicted teens, the rates of crime among teenagers dropped suddenly hence impacting the youths academically. However, the community lacked behind regarding infrastructure and capital to facilitate the program thus engaging the justice system. The relevance of the article emerges from the fact that, adolescent crime mitigation poses a bright future not only to the lives of the involved teens but also to the general society.