Initially the Juvenile Justice System was created in order to protect children and become a surrogate parent for children who didn’t have a support system at home. It was intended to deter children from becoming adult criminals and help rehabilitate those who were already on the “wrong” path. According to Mears, D., Pickett, J., & Mancini, C. (2014), “The founders envisioned that the juvenile court would act like a surrogate parent and focus primarily on what would be in the “best interests” of youth (Butts and Mitchell2000; Krisberg 2005). They also believed that youthful offenders should be protected from the harms of the adult justice system and that children could be “saved” and so avoid a life of crime (Feld 1999; Mack 1909; Platt 1977; Zimring 2005).”
Mears, D., Pickett, J., & Mancini, C. (2014). Support for Balanced Juvenile Justice: Assessing Views About Youth, Rehabilitation, and Punishment.Journal of Quantitative Criminology J Quant Criminol, 459-479.
When we started our group discussion about the juvenile justice system we realized that there are many repercussions youth face once they are part of this system. We are interesting in find out how the youth offenders transition into their communities and families after spending time in a detention center. How are they different after spending time in dentition facilities?
With the information we gather from our research project we can educate the general public about the Juvenile Justice System and how we can help teenagers transition and become part of society again. Improvements that can be put into place with in the juvenile system and understanding the emotional aspect of being a youth in prison. We would like to inform others about the rehabilitation process and how it affects the youth.
Our topic question is : How do youth offenders re enter society after being part of the Juvenile system?
Sub Questions: How are youth affected emotional when they are incarcerated?
Hypotheses:
We suspect the juvenile justice system works to a certain extent in deterring youth from committing crimes, however, there are consequences to being incarnated at such young ages. We believe that incarnation does more harm than good when rehabilitating youth offenders and re-entry into society is difficult.
