Youth Crimes and the Criminal Justice System

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the criminal justice system has long treated the young differently from adults, but community attitudes have changed in recent years so that this policy is in question. It discusses the concerns about youthful violence and how this has led to calls for a change in the criminal justice system in order to increase the punishment possible for certain young offenders, especially those involved in violence.

From the Paper:

"Other statistics are even more frightening. Webber cites the Children's Defense Fund, which estimates that an American child is arrested for a violent crime every 5 minutes and is killed by guns every 2 hours. Nine in 10 young murder victims in the industrialized world are Americans. Between 1979 and 1991, nearly 50,000 American children were killed by guns, which is more than the number of Americans killed in Vietnam in 25 years. An American child is 15 times more likely to be killed by gunfire in the United States than a child living in Northern Ireland. More than half the people arrested for murder in the United States in 1991 were under age 25, and juvenile arrests for murder and non?negligent manslaughter rose 93 percent between 1982 and 1991. It is more and more common for young people to kill each other, and 55 percent of juvenile homicides in 1995 involved friends and acquaintances (Webber)."

More papers on Youth Crimes and the Criminal Justice System:

• Book Review # 120539 : "Bias in the Criminal Justice System"
• Essay # 63232 : "The American Criminal Justice System"
• Essay # 67514 : "The Juvenile Justice System"

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