NCJ Number
180145
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 23 Issue: 9 Dated: September 1998 Pages: 1-25
Editor(s)
Gabrielle deGroot
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Several myths about juvenile violence have severely distorted the reality of juvenile crime and have undermined effective juvenile justice policies and programs; graduated sanctions are described as a new approach to dealing with juvenile crime.
Abstract
The following myths about juvenile violence have been perpetuated: (1) juveniles account for most violence in the United States; (2) juveniles are responsible for most of the increase in violence in the United States over the past decade; (3) there is a new generation of juvenile "super-predators" that will significantly grow during the next decade; (4) the juvenile justice system is a failure because it was not designed to handle serious offenders; and (5) punishing juveniles in adult prisoners is a solution to juvenile crime. When responding to juvenile crime, juvenile justice system officials often experience great difficulty in distinguishing serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders from others because their judgments are usually made based on offense history information only. The pathways model can help juvenile justice system officials understand the logic of risk assessments that include indicators of the development of serious, violent, and chronic careers. In addition, early intervention is important to halt the progression of delinquent careers. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders incorporates three principal components: (1) preventing youth from becoming delinquent by empowering communities to conduct prevention activities based on risk and protection; (2) intervening early in the careers of potential serious and violent offenders and offering programs for problem families in high-risk communities; and (3) improving the juvenile justice system response through a system of graduated sanctions and continuum of treatment alternatives that include intermediate interventions, intermediate sanctions, community-based correctional programs, secure corrections, and aftercare. Examples of effective juvenile crime control programs are provided. 44 references