Juvenile Delinquency and Intervention: Selecting the Best Approaches

This report examines juvenile delinquency and the selection of effective intervention strategies. It explores the different types of interventions, including youth justice reinvestment, conferencing, boot camps, and detention, emphasizing the importance of understanding the juvenile's perspective, peer and societal pressures, and the need for trust and opportunities for contribution. The report highlights the significance of investing in juveniles as future leaders and the role of the law in considering psychological and physiological factors when determining sentences. It advocates for rehabilitation-focused approaches and the importance of providing guidance and support to prevent misconduct and promote positive social skills, emphasizing that intervention should be tailored to the severity of the offense and the developmental stage of the juvenile.

10/5/2017
Student Name
Juvenile Interventions – selecting the best intervention

Juvenile Delinquency
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Types of Juvenile Intervention........................................................................................................1
Understand the Juveniles Point of View..........................................................................................2
Peer and societal pressures...........................................................................................................2
Lack of people trust......................................................................................................................2
Opportunity To Prove Their Contribution...................................................................................3
Invest In Juveniles as Leaders of the Future................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
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Juvenile Delinquency
Introduction
Prevention is always better than cure and the same applies while managing juveniles. The
juvenile hood is a period of time when many youngsters tend to experience major physical and
psychological changes occurring and this in many situations steer many towards the wrong path
(Mays & Winfree, 2013). Smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, rash driving, theft, and
violence are all common occurrences among juveniles making it an important factor to consider.
Intervention and management of juvenile crime and misconduct are therefore important areas
which require close evaluation to assist re-align the perpetrators and juveniles following the
wrong path back onto the track to leading a normal life.
Types of Juvenile Intervention
There are four main types of juvenile intervention and management of misconduct and crime of
namely:
• Youth Justice Reinvestment
• Youth Justice Conferencing
• Boot Camps
• Youth Detention
These four forms of intervention are the most commonly used forms of coping with juveniles
who have gone on the rampage and broken the law (Bliesener, Beelmann, & Stemmler, 2012).
The intervention choice purely depends on the crime committed but in most situations, the
intervention is selected based on the same arrangement as above and based directly on the
severity of the crime. It’s critical to keep in mind that juveniles are experiencing major
psychological and physical changes which may be altering their chemistry and this may be
triggering them to indulge in such activities. Many do not intend to harm others but are just
trying to prove their capacity in front of friends or rivals which push them to even breaking the
law or putting other people’s lives in danger. Intervention must never be too harsh on the first
occurrence; therefore, Youth Justice Reinvestment is the best option while dealing with
rampaging juveniles.
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Juvenile Delinquency
Understand the Juveniles Point of View
One of the main problems leading to juvenile crime, misconduct is related to the lack of
understanding, peer and societal pressure and inability to consider their needs. Once juveniles
enter teenage hood they experience major changes where they are more inclined towards trusting
their friends as opposed to adults and parents (Cole, 2006). This is considered by many
psychologies to be the most critical period during a youth’s development since it’s a time when
they classify people around them as friend or foe. Lack of proper management at this period
leads many parents to develop very chaotic and bad relationships with their children are which in
turn pushes the juveniles into committing crime and misconduct. Even the quietest child in class
can experience major changes during this period, making it important to understand this is a
period or phase a juvenile is experiencing whereby parents need to become more of friends as
opposed to parents. The juvenile is likely to re-stabilize once this phase is completed but making
this ages an important one which could have serious effects on the individual’s life.
Peer and societal pressures
Parents and society are responsible for managing this situation and understanding juveniles will
be misbehaved as it’s their time to prove their capability. Rather than fight the foe it’s
recommended to develop strong friendships with juveniles during their teenage where they will
turn to their parents and elder members of society for guidance (Arnett, 2006). It’s also important
to keep in mind the juvenile will commit some misconduct even with the best guidance making
the style of intervention very important to prevent creating a communication gap between the
juvenile and you. They should know you are not happy with what happened but this should end
there and move on to the next activity and that put in the past forever. Participate and indulge in
their generation and build a close bond, in which you monitor and manage as a friend and not
through brute force,
Lack of people trust
Juveniles tend to build huge gaps between their parents and members of society who are
constantly monitoring their movements and reporting on their mischief. Mischief is only natural
and can be commonly observed even in juveniles in the animal kingdom so why not among
human being. A certain amount of mischief should be allowed and encourages but under
supervision. Juveniles tend to tune in to the adventurous discussions adults make regarding their
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Juvenile Delinquency
child hoot and have a direct effect on them also desiring to have an adventurous young age.
Discos, nightclubs and other activities all tend to attract juvenile attention and they need to be
exposed to such activates under adult supervision but not under adult control. Juveniles tend to
build very boundaries with people would attempt to control their life making it more important to
offer guidance and support as opposed to controlling the juveniles life. Studies show juveniles
who are controlled tend to opt to follow the denied or disputed rather meaning they are more
inclined and attracted towards what they are told not to do (Siegel & Welsh, 2017). This makes it
a critical time to build trust which allows them to guided gown the right path.
Opportunity to Prove Their Contribution
Another major concern among juveniles is related to their contributions towards work and the
society. Juvenile-hood is a time when youth is craving for attention and are likely to indulge in
any activity which has the potential to attract attention towards the individuals. This also happens
to be the perfect time to bring out tomorrow’s leaders. Allowing juveniles to demonstrate and
prove their contributions and acknowledge their contributions will in most situation result in
making them conscious regarding their reputation in society (Whitehead & Lab, 2015). This
results in those willing to participate avoiding to indult in law breaking and misconduct activities
which could blemish their reputation among the society. Social gathering, meeting, and activities
must include juveniles and most importantly is allowing them to communicate publicly to the
society. This helps overcome stage fight and allows the juveniles to develop social leadership
and speaking attributes which discourage them from participating in misconduct. But while
doing this the society and older members of the community also need to remember they are
juveniles thus they also need to enjoy without highlighting their misbehaviours which in minor
instances can be overlooked of strict feedback given to avoid a reoccurrence in future. This
should be properly handled to avoid scarring the juvenile away from participating in the activity
which is likely to see them indulging more towards miscount activities (Lawrence & Hesse,
2009).
Invest In Juveniles as Leaders of the Future
Always remembers Juvenile today, leader tomorrow thus it’s important to build a close
relationship with juveniles to avoid instigating a large number of juveniles having behavioural
misconduct issues in the future. This precise reason every incident of juvenile misconduct must
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Juvenile Delinquency
be evaluated before intention is taken. First and second offenders can be provided with Youth
Justice Conferencing after which Boot Camps and finally Youth Detention can be considered for
serious repeat offenders but at the same time Youth Justice Reinvestment must be kept in mind at
all times (Kratcoski, 2012). This is due to society needing to depend on juveniles to develop
good habits leadership’s skills so as to lead society and development in future. Each generation
must hand over to the next making it important to avoid degrading the younger generation due to
lack of understanding on how to manage a phase the juvenile may be encountering during their
life. It also happens to be a critical stage in their life when they need lots of guidance and help
and one which is likely to be overcome as they grow older. This makes it important to manage
the few years of juvenile-hood carefully to avoid instigating juveniles to make major mistakes
which could have a serious effect on their future and development (IJSI, 2016).
Conclusion
Juvenile misconduct has been associated with criminal activity and therefore falls under criminal
justice laws and regulations and therefore classified as illegal activity and punishable. But the
law also takes into consideration the juveniles psychological and physiological factors which
may be influencing the individual's decision before making a ruling. In many situations,
juveniles who have committed a criminal offense are sentenced to serve terms outside detention
and given social work (Young, 2014). This s aimed at helping them receive counselling and
allowing them to interact with society so as to understand social demands and interactions.
Juvenile sentences are will always offer flexible sentence or ruling in favour of the juvenile
especially when they are a first offender. Gradually as the instances, increase and the type of
crime intensify the court also intensifies the punishment but always keeping in mind this is
rehabilitation. Juvenile boot camps and detention are never aimed at punishing then juvenile but
focus more towards helping build positive social skills which can help the juvenile recover and
abstain from social mischief, misconduct, and crime.
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Juvenile Delinquency
Bibliography
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