Challenges and Issues of Juvenile Justice System in the 21st Century

This article discusses the challenges and issues faced by the juvenile justice system in the 21st century, including the implementation of policies, inappropriate limits on jurisdiction, and healthcare challenges. It also highlights the impact of child abuse and neglect cases on the system and the failure to achieve the original goal of rehabilitation. References are provided to support the discussion.

Running head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Juvenile Justice System
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1JUVENILLE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Prior to 21st century, the juvenile justice system treated adults and children distinctively. Age was
not considered to be a limitation as juveniles were eligible for the same punishment as adults.
However, during the 21st century, the term “criminal” in case of child offenders were replaced
with “delinquent child”. Separate juvenile courts were established and as a result of this, the
treatments of juveniles were allowed differently by the judicial system. In this regard, emphasis
can be laid upon the challenges and issues of the juvenile justice system during the 21st century
(Barrett, Katsiyannis & Zhang, 2015). Firstly, the major challenge faced by the juvenile justice
system is regarding the implementation of various policies in regard to the youth communities.
The juvenile justice system failed to ensure that the youths are treated fairly and equitably.
Secondly, there developed inappropriate limits on the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts (Burke et
al., 2014). The aim was to bring an end to the practice of prosecuting individuals aged between
16-17 years old. Therefore, juvenile justice system could be improved by increasing the age limit
of the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice court. Thirdly, the challenges are faced in the areas of
heath care as well (Kretschmar et al., 2015). It is evident that the youths involved with the
juvenile justice system experiences problems regarding mental health which can be efficiently
treated in the community rather than within the juvenile justice system.
The increasing number of child abuse and neglect cases has created great influence upon
the juvenile justice system. From the very beginning, the government authorities are committed
in improving the response on the part of the juvenile justice system in response the crimes
against the juveniles. In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention here that, not only children are
victimized (Mathur & Clark, 2014). In some cases, adults are victimized as well. These adults
were subjected to child abuse and neglect from the early days of their childhood. It is noteworthy
to mention here that, in present era, the children are at an increased risk for crime victimization.

2JUVENILLE JUSTICE SYSTEM
The natures of the crimes are such that it has created unfavorable impact upon the young victims
which are devastating at times. The sexual victimization of children in most of the cases leads to
violence and abuse in the coming years. It is important on the part of the government authorities
and organizations to improve and expand the efforts on the part of the nation to serve the child
victims in a better way. In this context, it is important to present recent information about the
victimization of child by evaluating statistics of crime victimization. It is worth mentioning that,
the juvenile victim justice system is not widely recognizable because it represents a fragmented
system (Walker, Muno & Sullivan-Colglazier, 2015). In some cases, it can be observed that
parents assault and abuse their children. These children, when they grow up involve themselves
in all kinds of criminal activities. However’ the nature of these criminal activities is such that it
forms a substantial portion of child abuse and neglect cases. These cases are generally
investigated and adjudicated by the criminal justice system.
MALTREATMENT CATEGORY TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Physical Abuse 223,000
Emotional Abuse 149,000
Sexual Abuse 132,000
Physical Neglect 396,500
Educational Neglect 195,225
Emotional Neglect 320,000
Figure 1: Total number of children abused and neglected according to NIS estimates from
2016-2017.
The juvenile justice system is facing major challenges that have actually resulted in a
failure while achieving their original goal. The main objective was to change the nature of the

3JUVENILLE JUSTICE SYSTEM
deviant behavior of the juvenile delinquent by emphasizing on the concept of rehabilitation. In
this way, juveniles would be given an opportunity to live a life of a respectable citizen. However,
the juvenile justice system failed to provide a process of fair and equal justice system for the
juveniles; which is evident from the present racial disparities in the United States (Zimring,
Langer & Tanenhaus, 2017). It is worth noting that, as a result of these failures, it contributed
negatively towards the criminal behavior of the delinquents. In this regard, various criticisms
were raised which attributed towards racial discrimination and biasness in most of the juvenile
Courts. The juvenile justice system has experienced many failures which resulted in various
challenges.

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References:
Barrett, D. E., Ju, S., Katsiyannis, A., & Zhang, D. (2015). Females in the juvenile justice
system: Influences on delinquency and recidivism. Journal of child and family
studies, 24(2), 427-433.
Burke, J. D., Mulvey, E. P., Schubert, C. A., & Garbin, S. R. (2014). The challenge and
opportunity of parental involvement in juvenile justice services. Children and youth
services review, 39, 39-47.
Kretschmar, J. M., Butcher, F., Kanary, P. J., & Devens, R. (2015). Responding to the mental
health and substance abuse needs of youth in the juvenile justice system: Ohio’s
Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice Initiative. American journal of orthopsychiatry, 85(6),
515.
Mathur, S. R., & Clark, H. G. (2014). Community engagement for reentry success of youth from
juvenile justice: Challenges and opportunities. Education and Treatment of
Children, 37(4), 713-734.
Walker, S. C., Muno, A., & Sullivan-Colglazier, C. (2015). Principles in practice: A multistate
study of gender-responsive reforms in the juvenile justice system. Crime &
Delinquency, 61(5), 742-766.
Zimring, F. E., Langer, M., & Tanenhaus, D. S. (Eds.). (2017). Juvenile justice in global
perspective. NYU Press.