Cultural DiversityJuvenile crime in the United States is wave; the sheer number of juvenile offenders ensures a blooming correction business far into this century, said to say with those numbers come the racial and ethnic disparities. Understanding why there are disparities is important to help researcher understand the underlying causes for the huge amount of juvenile crime happening in the United States. Much advancement has been done within the justice system to help reduce the number of ethnically forced arrests; however, there not nearly the impulsive to reduce the root cause for the crime level and the disparities that exist. The following paper addresss the advancement, disparities and takes a look at possible root causes as well as potential fixes
The Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Impact of Criminal and Juvenile Offender Sentencing in 2012
The 2008 Sentencing Reform and Corrections report on federal sentencing reform states: “the current criminal justice process is a flawed, unequal and time-consuming experience that leaves many of the poorest defendants without the protection of the courts and the opportunity to get on with their lives. By requiring state prison systems to participate fully in efforts to improve the safety of inmates, public safety has been severely undermined.” While a comprehensive picture of criminal and juvenile offenders is presented by the FBI released this year and a comprehensive report released this January, a very different picture has emerged when compared to the original criminal justice reform report (or in more traditional terms, the sentencing reform process:
The “Corrected America” approach: The number of U.S.-based corrections facilities in need of increased and expanded criminal justice oversight is on the decrease. In addition, a “cascade of large and rapidly gentrifying changes and increases” and thus increased and rapid increase of supervision within the prisons has been seen, has led to many more convicted criminals getting behind bars. Forcing states to adopt mandatory minimum sentencing and the reintegration of persons with “violent and repeat offenses which have no significant link to crime severity would certainly make changes in that picture, especially in states such as Kentucky and Wisconsin. The current rate of incarceration in a state which has a long history of mass incarceration of low-level offenders with the intention of serving a prison sentence is approximately 2% of statewide total population, compared with about 12% of the national average.
A “Reconviction Process” of “Reaction in the Juvenile Justice Community”: This is a way that people who are involved with juvenile justice in the United States can see themselves as part of the problem in a better way. It’s a model for public involvement and community participation in the juvenile justice system. As mentioned earlier, a “reactions in the juvenile justice community” represents a change from a “cascade of large and rapidly gentrifying changes and increases” and also represents a shift from a criminal justice reform perspective to some perspective of ‘reaction to crime.’
A “Reconviction Process” for “Recreational Drug and Narcotic Treatment and Disparities: A Reentry Program for Juvenile Drug Users and Community Drug Services”: Juvenile drug offenders do not seem to be fully housed in an effective criminal justice system that serves them their most basic need for rehabilitation. The failure of many facilities to offer the mental health services that are recommended for them by the FBI and other agencies, is perhaps the primary reason behind the large majority of incarcerated offenders being released from prison. Juvenile drug offenders should be given the mental health services available to them that cannot be received at private institutions because of incarceration without their substance abuse problem.
A “Reconviction Process” for Juvenile Drug Arrests: Most people living in Florida are too scared to actually contact the police and they are not being fully equipped to handle crime from their homes or at their own homes.
Statistics in Juvenile Justice:Understanding the evidence currently existing on a national level is the key when discussing the probable disparities with juvenile offenders race and ethnicity. The most recently publicly available statistics are 2007 for juvenile offenders it is vital to be aware of that in many cases juvenile arrests are not reported to the Uniform Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigations because of different state and federal boundaries on juvenile information. In 2007 law enforcement agencies in the United States made an anticipated 2.18 million arrests of persons under the age 18. (Puzzanchera, 2009) Of the approximately 14 million arrests made for all crimes and ages in 2007 statistics show that juvenile arrests equaled approximately 15% of all arrests made. Juvenile arrests equaled over 18% of all adult arrests which means for every eighteen adults detained one juvenile was also detained. Obviously, these are arrest figures and do not properly reveal concluded cases and incarcerations. According to Puzzanchera in 2007 black adolescence accounted for just 17% of the youth population ages 10 through 17, black juveniles were implicated in 51% of juvenile vicious crime index arrests and 32% of juvenile property crime index arrests. Therefore, the crime types seem to be the real variables here and not the so-called disparity of arrest numbers. In fact by looking at the essential numbers, it is obvious that there is no real disparity in arrests on a broad-spectrum scale, as the current numbers per the 2000 census reflects approximately 18% of the residents meaning that the 17% percent arrest rate is lower than the residents numbers in general. On the other hand, close to 60% of African Americans live in urban region, and because a huge proportion of the crime occurs in urban areas due to the bigger number of people it is a absolute certainty that a greater number of African Americans may, in fact, be detained or in prison for specific offense types versus other racial or cultural groupings. An appealing point of fact however, is the decrease in the past 15 years of violent crimes committed among African American juveniles.