Beth Allen (Edison) Juvenile Delinquency

20. March 2010 by student.

Crime is a huge problem worldwide. One way we can try to reduce the crime rate is to prevent and intervene when we see people, especially children committing crimes. As we know, Children are the future, and each year thousands of kids in the
United States commit crimes. The legal terms for this is Juvenile delinquency, it is defined as “criminal acts performed by juveniles”. It is estimated that about half of the crimes that kids commit will not ever get reported. Also, many times children don’t get convicted or will just get a warning. This is surprising, considering the large number of kids that are currently in detention centers, or have been in trouble with the law in the past. For a child to be put in a secure detention center they must be labeled as a risk to public safety. They appear before a judge within 24 hours and usually the limit is 21 days but children can be held for up to 30 depending on the severity of the crime. In 2001, there was said to be 100,000 children that were in (
US) JDCs on any given day. If we do not do something to change the way our kids act & teach them right from wrong, we can only expect that they will continue to commit crimes and eventually end up in jail.  A lot of people who are currently in prison have spent time at a juvenile detention center as a minor. I also believe that crime could be reduced if adults started becoming more responsible & better role models for children, considering seven out of ten children who have at least one parent in jail, end up going to jail themselves. In 2008, there were 2 million kids nationwide who had a parent(s) incarcerated. Another shocking statistic is that 70% if the prison population grew up in a single house. This is not to say that single parents can’t be good parents, it is just important to make sure that children have plenty of positive role models & people in their life that they can look up to. Teachers, coaches, tutors, mentors, even babysitters can play a huge role in a child’s life. 

There are a lot of juvenile detention programs throughout the country that aim at helping and rehabbing children who have committed crimes. In
Florida there are 25 facilities, spread throughout 24 counties. There are also a lot of non-profit organizations that are there to assist parents that are stuck in a bad situation, or those with difficult children. Sometimes parents are busy and don’t have time to always be watching their kids, sometimes kids take advantage of that and commit delinquent acts, sometimes simply because they’re bored. There are a lot of efforts being made to try and prevent children from committing crimes. Florida and
New York are the two states that are currently concentrating the most on preventing juvenile delinquency. As a result,
Florida’s juvenile delinquency rate has been dropping ever since. This is very encouraging, and hopefully will show people that we need to continue to do what we can to prevent juveniles from committing delinquent acts. This involves getting government funding and getting more people involved in helping children one on one. Also, developing more places where parents can turn to when they are in distress. Juvenile delinquency can be reduced if we stay focused and are persistent with prevention and intervention.

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