The Rise in Juvenile Offenders and the Public Perception
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Juvenile Offenders and the Public Perception
Juvenile offenses are on the rise, with different reports and analyzes released of those who are likely to be involved based on various factors. More often, the people’s perception links color to juvenile offenses. This assumption is on the contrary to data release, implicating the whites as a faction that is dominating most minor crimes (Roger, 2012). To an extent, authorities and enforcement persons are basing on similar assumptions in their lines of duty and in dealing with crimes. Response to offenses differs depending on the person involved with the colored receiving harsh response compared to their white counterparts.
The majority perception, which is negated, contributes negatively to the lives of the minority youths hurting them. The juvenile justice systems have served as a gateway to the adult criminal courts for the blacks but as a rehabilitative unit for the whites (Sullivan, 2012). For the colored people, the system has far served to brand them as criminals all the way to the adult courts. With the already biased justice system for the colored, the latest developments in the states blurring the juvenile justice system hurt most the minority (colored) (Benekos, Champion, &Merlo, 2013). The colored suffer increased arrests tenfold their white counterparts.
The United States, world-leading country in the number of prisoners, have colored people Constitution close to two-thirds of its general prisoners. The juvenile justice system is transforming to be more punitive deviating from the primary establishment basis with those from the racial minority being on the receiving end as targets. Even in instances where the minority commits crime at the same frequency as their white counterparts, the white boys were less likely to face the juvenile justice system as the blacks. For a white to fall into the same bar of the juvenile justice system as the blacks, he/she must have committed crime on several counts as the colored child of several frequencies at various instances (Roger, 2012).
Concerning the share of the population, the colored being the minority and the rates of juvenile offenders being higher for the whites, it is expected that fewer blacks will be in the juvenile correctional facilities. On the contrary, the racial minorities constitute a larger portion of the system than their majority counterparts do. For the minors, earlier contact with the justice system at more initial stages continues the chain in their lifetime and making them more likely to have contact with the justice system in future. It is clearly indicative that the reinforcement and the judicial systems confirm the assumptions that the colored tend to be offenders than the whites (DeLone, Spohn, & Walker, 2012). The racial minority who are handled with severity in the event that they are charged with a crime are more likely to face imprisonment.
In all this, one can tend to wonder if the causes of racial disparities are skewed mentality of the judicial personnel or the biased system, or if the blacks lack proper legal representation. The contact with the law enforcers by the youth affects the frequency of the criminal activities since they will tend to be repeatedly involved in illegal activities (Corrigendum, 2012). The criminal record tagged on a youth is likely to affect the flow of their education, with those earlier implicated in crime not to complete their studies. The system has deviated from its designated purpose to serve practically as a punitive facility. Even if the common perception of the public links colored more to crime, racial disparity must be done away with from the justice system to express sober truth (Sullivan, 2012).
Notable Exception Crimes
There are crimes of notable exceptions that juveniles enjoy immunity over with no proper taking of responsibility or proceedings. Offenses such as those of violence, sexual offenses, and substance overuse are considered those that need rehabilitative measures rather than punitive actions for the juveniles. Blacks are shown to be the predominant offenders in the cases.
The majority tends to endorse rehabilitative efforts for the juveniles in the corrective facilities even though punitive measures exist within. The exceptions can be termed as biased crimes, and they penetrated into groups with the laws changing in an effort seen to counter them from another perspective (Roger, 2012). The crimes that are seen to have an impact on the juveniles are recommended for rehabilitation to mend them. Those who out rightly engage in such crimes tend to show some sense of sovereignty and mass up to come out of perceived cowardice. Measures have to be put in place in a precise manner to respond to the situations in the aid of the victim and the perpetrator (Greenwood & Turner, 2009).
Such exceptional offenses, the rates among different ethnicities are somehow similar, but the minority race is purportedly perceived to be the leading offenders in such crimes. The rate of arrest for the offenders does not reflect the ratios of crimes committed while analyzed as per the ethnicities. In this light, it can be presumed that the colored criminal offenders attract much attention of the criminal justice system as compared to the whites (Roger, 2012). Often, the cases involving the minority race leads to detention in folds as opposed to the whites. The minority juveniles are commonly overrepresented at all levels of criminal reporting due to the skewed judicial system and the already opinionated service officers.
The exceptional offenses all the same may not be unique to the colored offenders as they are more likely to experience more arrests, face tougher actions and spend longer time in jails. According to DeLone, Spohn, & Walker, (2012) there is disproportionality in the manner that the colored and the white offenders are handled by reinforcement agencies, leaving the youths maneuver around. The relevance of race in the criminal justice systems must be upheld, and some extent of fairness practiced in dealing with offenses both juvenile or adults. The severity and selectivity for the punishments should be based on the criminal factors and not on race.
The punitive policies are in place with more focus on the racial minority implying that the whites are more punitive than their black counterparts are. By the fact that there already exists misjudging of the crime rates involvement of the colored, so is the overestimation of the offense rates committed by the people of color (Alarid, Sims, & Ruiz, 2010). The more punitive policies are more advocated by those linking criminal activities to the colored. On another hand, media involvement in issues of the crime makes the whole thing to be viewed from an ethnic perspective. The media on their side also gives biased representation of the whites differently from the colored (Benekos, Champion, & Merlo, 2013). The media gives the whites a representation of crime victims as their counterparts who are colored are seen as criminal suspects. The racial perception of crime is fueled by many factors as and results to such actions that are biased and discriminative to the minority group.