NCJ Number
159944
Date Published
1996
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Incarceration in youth camps or other secure correctional facilities is a likely outcome for many violent gang youth, and incarceration must be considered as one method of safeguarding the public from dangerous youth and other juvenile offenders.
Abstract
Serious and violent juvenile crime has significantly increased over the past few years. During the 1983-1992 period, juveniles were responsible for 28 percent of the increase in murder arrests, 27 percent of rapes, 27 percent of robberies, and 17 percent of aggravated assaults. Between 1988 and 1992, juvenile violent crime arrests increased by 45 percent. Consequently, the national scope and seriousness of the youth gang problem have increased sharply since the early 1980's. Youth gangs are becoming more violent, and gangs increasingly serve as a way for members to engage in illegal money-making activities, including drug trafficking. Efforts are needed to control the small group of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders who have committed felony offenses or who have failed to respond to intervention and community-based treatment and rehabilitation services. An effective juvenile justice system program model is one that combines accountability and sanctions with increasingly intensive treatment and rehabilitation services. Graduated sanctions must be wide-ranging to fit the offense and include both intervention and secure corrections components. The family must be integrally involved in treatment and rehabilitation efforts, and programs must use risk and need assessments to determine the appropriate placement for juvenile offenders. Graduated sanctions proposed within the intervention component include immediate intervention, intermediate sanctions, and secure corrections. Graduated sanctions proposed within the secure corrections component include community confinement, incarceration in training schools and camps, and transfer to the criminal justice system.