Instructors Manual - for Juvenile Justice in America th Edition Clem...

1 Instructor’s Manual for Juvenile Justice in America 8 th Edition Clemens Bartollas Stuart Miller 1 / 4

3 Contents To the Instructor 4 Syllabi (16 week) 7 (10 week) 17

Chapter 1 – Juvenile Justice: An Overview 25

Chapter 2 – Measurement and Nature of Juvenile Crime 30 Chapter 3 – Causes of Juvenile Crime 33 Chapter 4 – Gender and Juvenile Justice 37 Chapter 5 – The Police 41 Chapter 6 – The Juvenile Court 45 Chapter 7 – Juveniles in Adult Court 52 Chapter 8 – Juvenile Probation 56 Chapter 9 – Community-Based Programs 60 Chapter 10 – Juvenile Institutionalization 64 Chapter 11 – Juvenile Aftercare 67 Chapter 12 – Treatment Technologies 71 Chapter 13 – Juvenile Gangs 74 Chapter 14 – Special Juvenile Offender Populations 78 Chapter 15 – Juvenile Justice in the Twenty-First Century 82 2 / 4

25 Chapter One

Juvenile Justice: An Overview

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Evidence-based research provides reason to be positive about the future of juvenile Justice in the United States. All of the remaining chapters of this text discuss evidence-based practices in juvenile justice. “Gold standard” programs that have recently been developed to benefit youthful lawbreakers are Blueprints for Violence Prevention developed by Dr. Delbert Elliott, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Model Programs guide, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.In the midst of these hopeful program innovations in the juvenile justice system, there remains wide criticism of juvenile justice in the United States. Some of the criticism focuses on the juvenile court, as well as on the court’s rehabilitative parens patriae (“the state as parent”) philosophy. Indeed, one characteristic of juvenile justice today is the proposal, from both liberals and conservatives, to reduce the scope of the juvenile court’s responsibilities. Conservatives want to refer more law-violating youths to adult court, while many liberals recommend divesting the juvenile court of its jurisdiction over status offenders (juveniles who have engaged in behaviors for which adults would not be arrested). Some also believe that the adult court could do a much better job than the juvenile court with youthful offenders. Juvenile offenders, according to this position, would at least receive their constitutionally guaranteed due process rights.The fact is that the juvenile justice system will experience major changes in the next few years. How it will change and whether the changes will be helpful to the youth of this nation are critical questions to be answered. In the chapters of the current volume, positive changes are recommended to improve the functioning of the juvenile justice system.The juvenile justice system is responsible for controlling and correcting the behavior of troublesome juveniles. What makes this mission so difficult to accomplish in the twenty-first century are the complex forces that intrude on any attempt either to formulate goals or to develop effective programs. Juvenile violence remains a serious problem, although homicides committed by juveniles began to decline in the mid-1990s. Even though juvenile gangs declined in numbers and membership across the nation in the final four years of the twentieth century, these gangs continue to be a problem in many communities. Juveniles’ increased use of weapons has also become a serious concern, and there are those who believe that “getting the guns out of the hands of juveniles” is the most important mandate that the juvenile justice system currently has. The use of drugs and alcohol among the juvenile population declined in the final decades of the twentieth century, but beginning in the mid-1990s and continuing to the present, there is evidence that the use of alcohol and drugs, especially marijuana and methamphetamine, is rising in the adolescent population. Furthermore, conflicting philosophies and strategies for correcting juvenile offenders have combined with the social, political, and economic problems that American society faces today—this combination presents other formidable challenges to the juvenile justice system.Yet, let it be clear that while presenting the challenges of juvenile justice and the often- disturbing results of working with youth in trouble, the authors are not promoting a “nothing works” thesis. There are stirring accounts of youths who started out in trouble and were able to 3 / 4

26 turn things around. In some cases, it was a program that worked with them; in others, it was an adult who made a difference in their lives; and in still others, it was the youths themselves who made the decision to live a crime-free life. As previously noted, with the current emphasis on evidence-based practices and other model programs, it is hoped that juvenile justice programs will be more effective in the future.A heartwarming success story is found in Focus on Offenders 1–1. The youth in this case had more than his share of troubles with the law as an adolescent. He ended up in and out of juvenile institutions and became a member of an emerging Vice Lord gang. Incarcerated for forty-one years in Illinois’ prisons, he became a positive force to inmates while incarcerated and during his three years since his parole, he is committed to helping juvenile people in the community stay out of trouble.This chapter examines four topics: a historical sketch of juvenile justice, several historical themes, the organizational structure of juvenile justice agencies, and the philosophical approaches to treating youthful offenders. What these topics have in common is that they present the contexts (past and present) that have shaped juvenile justice in the United States.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

LO#1: Retrace the journey of juvenile justice in the United States

LO#2: Summarize the History of Juvenile Confinement

LO#3: Summarize the historical themes that guided the development of juvenile justice in the United States.LO#4: Present the structure and procedures of juvenile justice agencies in this nation

LO#5: Examine the various philosophies and strategies for correcting juveniles

LECTURE OUTLINE

What Are the Roots of Juvenile Justice?

• Early Europe
• The Colonies and Later
• How Did the Juvenile Court Develop?

The Juvenile Court Today

• What Is the History of Juvenile Confinement?
• How Did Probation Develop?
• What Is the History of Aftercare?

What Are the Historical Themes of Juvenile Justice?

• Discovering the Child
• Increased Authority of the State
• Reform and Retrenchment
• Get-Tough and Go-Soft Approaches
• Threat of the Dangerous Poor
• The Unsolvable Nature of Youth Crime
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