Are Intake Processes in Juvenile Justice Systems Really Fair essays

Are Intake Processes in Juvenile Justice Systems Really Fair essays The many valid - and even disturbing - questions surrounding fairness issues in the processing (arrest, intake screening, assignment to incarceration) of juveniles into the criminal justice system in America are not new questions; indeed, they have been raised for a number of years. First, the disproportionate number of minorities locked up in juvenile justice systems is a glaring issue which has not really been addressed adequately since the U. S. Department of Justice, under Attorney General Janet Reno, issued a highly critical report in the year 2000; and secondly, in conducting research, one finds an abundance of statistics on the number of juveniles in trouble but little information about the screening process per se. These are issues which need to be addressed, in particular, if one believes the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) statistics that show that the number of "child delinquents" (ages 7 to 12) in juvenile courts has increased 33% in the past ten years (OJJPD, 2003), and arrests for "violent crime" among that same group has risen by 45%. Given this shocking dimension to the problem of youthful offenses, the emphasis, sadly, is likely going to be on prevention and punishment measures rather than fairness and justice with regard to intake Race: Chances of incarceration are far greater if you're a Black kid Between the years 1985 and 1994, delinquency cases brought through the Juvenile Justice System (JJS) increased by 41%; but more disturbing is the fact that in that time period, delinquency cases involving blacks jumped 78% and cases involving other non-white youths skyrocketed by 94% (Lardiero, 1997). Another key fact illustrating the institutiona...