Juvenile Offenders

Juvenile Offenders

Juvenile offenders refer to minors or persons younger than the statutory majority age who participate in a crime or various unlawful behaviors. It is important to note that the statutory age of maturity in the United States is 18. The main age of the various juvenile delinquents in the United States is between 10 and 18 (Delcea et al., 2019). The number of juvenile offenders in the United States has consistently risen over the years.

Juvenile offenses are not classified as "crimes" in the same way that adult offenses are. Deliberately committing crimes while a juvenile is referred to as "delinquent actions." The juvenile is subjected to "adjudication," in which they are given a "disposition" and a punishment rather than being tried. Although there are certain similarities between juvenile and adult processes, there are also some differences. The majority of delinquent behaviors fall into two types. An example of the first sort of delinquent behavior would be deemed criminal activity if perpetrated by an adult. Depending on how heinous the offense is, certain jurisdictions will even trial minors as adults in some cases. When kids are charged as juveniles, on the other hand, their parents are frequently forced to cover the costs of the children's court appearance. The second sort of delinquent behavior would not ordinarily be considered a crime if done by an adult instead of a child. These are sometimes referred to as "status" offenses since the child's age is considered a factor in prosecuting the charge. Keep in mind that the most typical instances of status offenses include being out beyond curfew, possessing or consuming alcohol, and tardiness, which is the failure to attend school consistently.

There are various levels of juvenile delinquents. The levels are primarily four. The first level is the serious juvenile offender. This refers to teenagers who commit crimes beyond the fathom of the age group in which they fall. The second level is serious child delinquent, defined as children up to the age of 14 who take part in relatively serious crimes (Anjaswarni et al., 2019). The other two levels of juvenile offenders are chronic juvenile offenders who have formed habits of repeatedly committing crimes and violent juvenile offenders who are delinquents who use violence during criminal activities.

Moreover, it is worth noting that there are four types of juvenile delinquents. The first type is individual delinquency which happens when only one person is involved in committing an act considered delinquent. Secondly, there is group-supported delinquency, in which the delinquent act is done when one is in the company of others. The third type is organized delinquency which refers to crimes committed by various formal, organized groups. These are so common in the United States. The last type is situational delinquency. It is assumed that delinquency is not rooted, and the various motives for the delinquent act were used to control a given phenomenon. These are the types of juvenile delinquency.

Juvenile offenders frequently exhibit issues in a variety of life areas that all influence daily functioning and exhibit risk factors in a variety of domains. As a result, the number of possible combinations of risk factors that might exist in one person is significant. So far, much research on the features of juvenile offenders has been conducted on the population as a whole, without taking into account the variety that exists within this community. However, because of their heterogeneity, conclusions based on total group statistics cannot be automatically applied to different clinical treatment planning, resulting in a disconnect between research and practice (Delcea et al., 2019). It may be possible to uncover more precise treatment signs for more homogenous groupings of persons by identifying various subgroups of juvenile offenders within a broader population of serious juvenile offenders. This is a significant step forward in the creation of tailored care for these juveniles.

References

Anjaswarni, T., Nursalam, N., Widati, S., & Yusuf, A. (2019). Analysis of the Risk Factors Related to the Occurrence of Juvenile Delinquency Behavior. Jurnal Ners, 14(2).

Delcea, C., Fabian, A. M., Radu, C. C., & Dumbravă, D. P. (2019). Juvenile delinquency within the forensic context. Rom J Leg Med27 (4), 366-372.