Juvenile Prison System

Research Paper # 58018

African-American Studies
Child, Youth Issues > Teen, Adult Issues
Criminology
Criminology > Juvenile Justice
Sociology

A literature review on the rate of recidivism among African-American youths in the U.S.A.'s juvenile prison system.

5,420 words () | 10 sources | APA | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

This report examines the juvenile justice system in relation to recidivism rates in African-American juvenile offenders. The juvenile justice system is placed in societal context through use of labeling theory, control theory, and the presence of racial profiling. The link to the program-based juvenile correctional, educational, and/or residential treatment program is provided through an association with the continuity of labeling-based role behavior within the juvenile justice system. Issues of recidivism are compared between different sorts of programs, with an emphasis on the residential treatment program. The formation of an environment that simultaneously blocks the presence of criminality-associated factors and values the inhabitant who is incarcerated, strictly on terms of their being a criminal among other criminals, is assessed in its contribution to higher rates of recidivism following incarceration. The report primarily exists as a literature review rather than an actual longitudinal or other experimental methodology presentation, and operates on the central hypothesis that African-American juvenile delinquents tend to increase rather than decrease levels of criminal behavior after being incarcerated in the juvenile justice system. The effects of discrimination in terms of unequal treatment within the juvenile justice system of differing races is also addressed, as are program realities.

From the Paper:

"These individuals may put themselves into a situation in which these relationships with supervision are seen as negative and/or absent. The role of the juvenile justice system in replacing these supervisory relationships is therefore crucial for an understanding of recidivism patterns following incarceration. The provision of a positive supervisory structure is what is wanted, while the provision of a negative supervisory structure is seen to detrimentally affect the juvenile within the justice system and lead to a higher likelihood of the original negative-supervision attitude's being reinforced. "The onset of puberty, the increased presence of alcohol, drugs, and weapons in a young person's environment, and growing economic pressures all increase the risk of being a perpetrator or a victim of violence" (Posner, 1998). The reduction of these presences in the juvenile justice system is too often reinforced within a sort of labeling situation that still places a high premium on the criminal's role of association with these presences."