...peer pressure because the judging process within the brain is not fully developed. (Kirst-Ashman, 2013). With this being said, the actions of teenagers are mainly based on the people that they hang out with. Therefore, if teenagers are around other teenagers that are smoking, drinking, or using other substances then they are more likely to try those substances as well. While a teenager’s peers have a lot to do with the actions they take other factors can lead to substance abuse too. Gangs have been a huge issue in the past, and are continuing to grow every day. School is generally thought of as a safe place for students. They are there the majority of the day and are learning new things every day. Kentucky in particular has made steps to further educate its students. Kentucky is one of ten states in the United States to join the Adolescent Literacy Network in which...
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...Juvenile Drug Court Program Garret July 11, 2015 Due to the influx of juvenile drug offenses, it became clear that juvenile drug offenders required a more stable, directed and protected process if decrease of offenses was going to be successful for offenders, and the idea of the drug court was a good one. The drug court utilizes an idea called wrap-around services, which had previously been so successful with reducing the recidivism of adults. This study of the JDC in Lexington, Kentucky was undertaken to examine the outcomes of the implementation of the adaptations of the wrap-around procedures and services to see if the new model was succeeding. These adaptations stemmed from an in depth theoretical perspective application to basically understand why children do what they do with hopes of applying these theories to the JDC. Without attempting to answer the question of why children act the way they do, the question that the study hoped to answer was could a web of conventional social norms be woven to help prevent the behaviors (social interaction theory) or provide a base of norms, which children can choose to conform to (social control theory). These conventional social norms that were applied to the JDC were based on the comprehensive wrap-around service idea of criminal activity reduction. Overall, JDCs have been created countrywide since offenses for drug abuse have risen while other offenses for juveniles have either leveled out or decreased over the past ten...
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...Aubrey Grudowski Criminal Law Case Brief STANFORD v. KENTUCKY, 492 U.S. 361 (1989) 492 U.S. 361 STANFORD v. KENTUCKY CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF KENTUCKY JUSTICE SCALIA FACTS Petitioner in No. 87-5765 was about seventeen years and four months of age when he committed murder in Kentucky. After a juvenile court and several hearings he went to trial as an adult in a category for those who have committed Class A felonies or those under age sixteen who have been charged with a felony. This Petitioner was sentenced to death due to the fact he commit murder in the first degree. The death sentence was agreed upon, his contention rejected, and the mitigating circumstances considering his age, meaning he had a constitutional right to the juvenile justice system. PROCEDURAL HISTORY A societal consensus was gathered that a far smaller number of those convicted under 18 have been sentenced to death than over 18. When the Bill of Rights were written, punishments were considered cruel and unusual, therefore the 8th amendment was added to the constitution, Ford v. Wainwright. Or evolving to make society more decent to prove the maturity, Trop v. Dulles. Petitioners have not mentioned that their punishments would have been considered cruel in the 18th century. With the common-law tradition, at least 281 offenders under 18, and 126 under 17, have been executed in this country. Also, with the cases 488 U.S. 887 (1988) and 487 U.S. 1233 (1988), certiorari was granted...
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...Asharin 1 Asharin, Justin 4/12/10 Gardner Philosophy Why Capital Punishment Works: Concepts of An Ideal Model Throughout the history of capital punishment, there have always been many criticisms of the penalty questioning everything from racial motivations to give the penalty, to why or why not juveniles should be exempt from the penalty, to the economic efficiency of it. Economically, many believe that the death penalty is a too long and drawn out process, and that giving life in prison is a more efficient process, and saves tax-payer money. In terms of discrimination, there has always been a subliminal sense against certain groups; with those being minorities and juveniles. The death penalty is supposed to only be given as a punishment based on the nature of a crime. However, certain statutes such as the minimum age law for the death penalty attempt to prevent true justice. If a juvenile is deemed competent, and their crime is heinous enough to incur the death penalty, then there is no reason as to why they should not be given it. As for minorities, there have always been questions as to why the majority of inmates on death row are African American. Although racism seems to be the easy answer, it is clear that the true reason is because many African Americans live in higher poverty areas were crime is rampant, thus making them more susceptible to committing heinous crimes. The death penalty should defend certain peoples, and should be used more often against...
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...ITT-tech | Juvenile Justice Supreme Court Cases | Project 2 | | Latisha Lipsey | 7/30/2012 | | Juveniles have been committing crimes since the beginning of time, and they were punished has needed. The problem in today’s world is the youths are starting to commit more crimes, then decades ago, and another issue is how to punish a juvenile for the crime they committed. There are several landmark juvenile cases that were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The first three cases, Kent v. United States (1966), In re Gault (1967), and In re Winship (1970), are considered to be three biggest cases which opened the doors for the juvenile litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court (Champion, 2010,2007,2004,2001,1998). When the Kent case was decided in 1966, it was much easier for the U.S. Supreme Court to impose its vast precedent setting powers on juvenile courts in all jurisdictions. Then there was other cases including Breed v. Jones that granted various constitutional rights to juveniles (Champion, 2010,2007,2004,2001,1998). In today’s world juvenile courts in all jurisdictions have moved away from traditional approaches to juvenile offending and punishment and onto due process commensurate with adult offenders. The presence of an attorney in juvenile courts is more of a rule then an exception (Champion, 2010,2007,2004,2001,1998) . The history of the evolution of the legal rights of juvenile offenders began in the 1960’s, the Supreme Court required juvenile courts...
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...however, is a shortage of prison capacity to hold the increased numbers of convicted criminals. This has led to: prison overcrowding, sometimes prompting court actions against penal systems; rapidly rising operational outlays; and taxpayer resistance to the cost of new prisons. A partial answer to the problems of prison overcrowding and high costs may be the "privatization" of prisons. Costs and overcrowding problems are the driving force behind the privatization phenomenon. As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. Cost comparisons between private and government operation of prisons show frequent cost savings under private management. While the national average cost to hold a prisoner in a government run prison is $40 per inmate a day, many privately run prisons charge the governments on average lower fees. U.S. Corrections Corporation (USCC), a private company headquartered in Louisville charges Kentucky charges a daily fee of $25 per inmate. In their first year of operation in 1986, USCC saved Kentucky an estimated $400,000. A competitor of USCC is Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), based in Nashville, Tennessee, and founded in 1983, is the largest private corrections organization...
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...THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM CHAPTER ONE Chapter Outline Origins of the Juvenile Justice System Juvenile Court Jurisdiction Defining Delinquency Defining a Juvenile Chapter Objectives After completing this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Describe the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. 2. Explain what is meant by delinquency. 3. Explain what is meant by status offenses. 4. Compare the ways in which the various states define a juvenile. 5. Identify and define the unique terms used in the juvenile justice system. 6. Outline the three major steps in the juvenile justice process. 7. Describe the five decision points in the juvenile justice process. The Language of Juvenile Justice Overview of the Juvenile Justice System Law Enforcement and Other Referral Sources Juvenile Court Disposition Comparison of Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems 8. Compare and contrast the juvenile and criminal justice systems. 3 4 PART ONE Juvenile Justice and Delinquency in the United States Origins of the Juvenile Justice System Before the establishment of the juvenile justice system, courts and judges treated juveniles as adults and, in many instances, juvenile offenders received the same punishment as adults. There was only one system of justice in the United States, and all offenders were processed through it without regard to age. Under common law doctrine, the legal system the American colonists brought from England, a juvenile age seven or older could receive the same...
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...made headlines for a couple reasons; for one it involved retaliation against male gang members by female gang members and also because Montanez was only 15 when she committed the crime. Since the severity of her crime was extreme, Montanez was prosecuted in an adult court as opposed to a juvenile court. It only took the jury two days to determine probable cause. Video evidence along with testimony Montanez gave police was enough for the jury to make a decision On August 6, 1993 Montanez, then 17, was convicted of two first degree murder charges by a Cook County Court jury. Under the law of accountability Montanez was not only responsible for her actions but for Mulero’s actions as well, thus the two counts of first degree murder. Montanez was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since Montanez was 15 when the murders took place the death penalty was out of the question. Despite the fact that she was tried as an adult the death penalty could not be applied due to the Supreme Court case of Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988): which prohibited offenders of 15 years of age or else from receiving the death penalty. A year later in the case of Stanford vs. Kentucky (1989) the Supreme Court ruled that offenders of at least 16 years of age could receive the death penalty. These two cases are fairly significant with regard to Jacqueline Montanez case because she committed the crime shortly before her 16th birthday. Had she been 16...
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...The vital problem of death penalty for children as one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. The death penalty issue has always been one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. Years ago the majority of the criminals were male over 20, but nowadays the situation has quite changed. Not only grown-ups but also by children who are under 18 years old nowadays commit murders and other terrible crimes. Ordinarily, a young criminal is not applied the same restrictions for his crime as a grown criminal is, nevertheless if it especially goes about capital crimes people start talking about the death penalty for such juveniles. A child always remains a child and if he commits a crime it is not because he has had a good life. It is not the guilt of the children, but their big misfortune. It is a misfortune of not having anybody to love and truly support them and lead them in the correct direction. Along with that it is common knowledge that the period of 11 through 17 is a period of an especially intensive changes both in the organism and the mind of a child. That is why it is not fair to put a child in the same line with a grown up that can be completely responsible for his actions. A child is not mentally capable of comprehending the crime he or she commits. The system of values in the age under 18 is not built yet, other people can easily influence children and the psychic process are not stable yet. Under these conditions...
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...Criminal Justice Trends Evaluation University of Phoenix Contemporary Issues and Future in Criminal Justice People in society continuously change therefore people continue to evolve as our perceptions change. In this paper the student will assess the past, present, and future trends in the interface between elements of the criminal justice system. In the assessment the student will evaluate the criminal justice connections with surrounding society. The student will identify the recent and future trends affecting the criminal justice system. Last, the contemporary issues and the value of the criminal justice system in a changing society. Interface between Components The American Justice in the 1800s was quite different in the aspect of how the laws have changed. In the 1800s there were not enough law enforcement officers to enforce the laws. Therefore, many people believed it necessary to take the law into his or her own hands. An example of vigilante justice in the 1800s was the lynching of Henry Smith. This is a sad example of how people were treated; in 1893 Henry Smith was tortured and burned alive in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. People were executed for crimes not committed and trials were not an option (Keene, 2012). In the 18th century B.C.E. the first know death penalty was in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. A person could have 25 crimes before the sanction of the state for the death penalty. Capital punishment in the 18th century...
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...accident rates among sleep-deprived adolescents. In addition, in a 1998 study of Lexington, Kentucky schools, researchers found that delaying start times reduced crash rates among teens 16.5 % (Holohan, “Earlier School Start Times Endanger Teen Drivers). Reduced Crime among Adolescents According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a majority (63%) of violent juvenile crimes occur on school days. In addition, approximately one-fifth of these crimes are committed between the hours of 3 P.M. and 7 P.M; around the time most schools currently end. As most parents are employed in occupations that run about this time, many adolescents are left with little to no supervision following the end of the school day. With later start times, schools would naturally delay end times as well. As a result, adolescents would arrive at home later, during times where adult supervision is more likely to be present. This, in turn, could help to minimize the window available to adolescents to commit acts of deviancy. Concerns on Delayed Start Times Despite evidence supporting the delay of school start times, many still have concerns. One of the biggest is the cost of transportation. Many school districts currently use a tiered busing system, in which high school students are picked first, followed by elementary school students. Many claim that costs of reorganizing the busing system would be too much for the option to be considered effective. However, in Finley Edwards’ study...
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...03-Banks.qxd 1/30/04 4:52 PM Page 57 3 Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System ETHICAL BACKGROUND It is generally agreed that discrimination based on ethnic origin is morally wrong and a violation of the principle of equality. The equality principle requires that those who are equal be treated equally based on similarities, and that race is not a relevant consideration in that assessment (May and Sharratt 1994: 317). In other words, it is only possible to justify treating people differently if there exists some factual difference between them that justifies such difference in treatment (Rachels 1999: 94). Equality is a nonspecific term that means nothing until applied to a particular context. Thus, in a political context, equality means equal access to public office and equal treatment under the law, and equal treatment extends to equality in terms of job hiring, promotion, and pay. Race refers to groups of persons who are relatively alike in their biological inheritance and are distinct from other groups (American Anthropological Association 1997: 2). Ethnicity is a cultural phenomenon referring to a person’s identification with a particular cultural group (Hinman 1998: 403). Race is socially constructed, and the notion that persons “belong” to a particular race was developed in the last century based on the belief that there was a biological basis for categorizing groups of people. Biologically, however, the term race has no meaning, yet society...
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...they due to students that are repeat offenders that pose serious threats to the safety of the school. Under the Zero Tolerance policies African-American students are suspended at an approximate rate of 2.3 times that of Caucasian students nationally even when socio-economic factors are taken into consideration. These one-size fits all policies are also contributing to the elevated dropout rates related to repeated use of suspension and expulsion. The illusion that zero tolerance policies are making our schools safer has blinded school administrators to the fact that these draconian policies are contributing to the education problem in America. | Abstract . The Zero Tolerance policies that have been implemented in public school systems has eliminated common sense in determining disciplinary action, are racially biased, and are contributing to the growing population of high school dropouts. Strict adherence to so called Zero Tolerance policies has resulted in students being handcuffed, arrested and expelled from schools across the country for ridiculous offenses such as possession of a butter knife that their mother mistakenly placed in...
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...Parental Liability Many things in life are viewed by the actions people take in their normal everyday activities. The actions we take reflect the personality the individual has been raised up to be. When a person steels a car and is under aged should their parents be held accountable for the actions their child has committed? There are many answers to this question have been expressed throughout the World Wide Web, articles and book in plenty different ways. Most of the answers express come from the same mentality that the parental accountability should only be imposed to a certain age of a child. In my belief, parents should be held responsible for what their child does up to the point of the second year of high school due to the reason of self-control, basically 16 years of age. The child could be held responsible at that point because the education levels have become so advance to the point where they learn in middle school and in high school classes deductive reasoning – right from wrong. Their social skills are also more developed. There are other factors that are related other than age such as the parental liability child’s act and the characteristics of the child after their parents have showed them the way to make the right decision. Almost every state has some sort of parental responsibility law which holds parents or legal guardians responsible for property damage, personal injury, theft, shoplifting, and/or vandalism resulting from intentional or willful acts of...
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...Crime statistics and incarceration rates reveal that young African American men are prosecuted and imprisoned at higher rates than their Non-Hispanic White counterparts. Although the total number of incarcerations by race does not vary significantly, the age of prisoners by race is meaningful. In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice statistics for sentenced male prisoners under state and federal jurisdiction totaled 1,537,415. Broken down by race, African American lacks totaled 555,300 prisoners with Whites totaling 465,100 and Hispanics 331,500. As the assignment scenario noted, in 2003 there was disparity between the incarceration rates for males aged 25-29 among races. As of 2011, rates for the same age group do not show as wide of a gap. In 2011, White males ages 25 to 29 comprised 14.4 percent of incarcerated males compared to 16.5 percent African American lacks and 18.8 percent Hispanics. The statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice for 2011 show that, “More than half (52%) of white male prisoners were age 39 or younger, compared to 63% of black and 68% of Hispanic male prisoners.” There remains disparity when age is factored into the incarceration rates with eleven percent more Blacks and sixteen percent more Hispanics incarcerated than Whites for those 39 and younger. In addition, one must consider that African Americans have higher rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration when they total a minority number in the population. When evaluating...
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