Research Paper on Youth Crime Prevention: Rethinking Justice Intervention

Introduction

Criminal offending tends to peak in the teenage years and declines in the early 20s. This way, the youth becomes the primary focus of crime control. There is emerging evidence on development among adolescents, and other life trajectories all underscore the importance of rethinking justice intervention. The development of an adolescent's brain continues in their mid-20s, where there is an improvement in different areas such as impulse control that has a relation with criminal offending.

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Many young people are regarded as the 'targets' to these enormous policing models. Many of the supporters of this approach proposed for the existence of bonds and partnerships among service agencies, police, and societal members to help strengthen and boost the affairs of vulnerable groups (Jannetta & Okeke, 2017). Therefore, as a result of these initiatives and joints, extensive assessment of this COP is crucial for the identification of its effectiveness concerning the seriousness and emergence of a youthful offensive population. This proposal and the research at hand will major at addressing the understanding of community-oriented policing effectiveness by critically testing on these mechanisms or practices and contrasting departmental and community traits and their relative influence on young adults and juveniles.

Problem Statement

Youths that are involved in the juvenile justice system in most cases have trouble during the transition to adulthood. They are required to develop a sense of self-direction, autonomy, and also social competence. However, the juvenile system exposes these youths to negative influences hence arrest their development.

Despite the enormous researches previously conducted reviewing on issues of community policing, a lot of these papers have failed to provide supportive arguments on how these practices should be effectively be applied to influencing juvenile and young adults on crime instances (Jannetta & Okeke, 2017). Moreover, little evidence has been provided on the beneficial effects of juvenile detention, adult incarceration, and minors being taken to adult court. Thus, it is possible that to some extent, the community policing methods reduce juvenile arrest.

Purpose Statement

Therefore, this study is purposive at describing the effectiveness of community policing methods through efficient applications of this method to help influence and reduce juvenile arrest cases. In most cases, many of the efforts that the justice system makes to control crime are overly broad and punitive hence leading to an increase in delinquencies or impeding the life prospects of people in distressed neighborhoods (Emerson, 2017). Additional interventions and analysis will also be expressed by this paper on the benefits of using mechanisms like juvenile detention, adult incarceration, and juveniles being taken to adult court.

Literature Review

Community policing methods will help to deal with youth exposure to crime hence an excellent way to ensure healthy childhood development and better adult decision-making (Paez, & Dierenfeldt, 2019). There is a need for communities to commit and execute diversion strategies at local levels. It will be successful if there is a robust community capacity, which includes probation and substance abuse health treatment.

Most of the previous research maintained their lens at effectiveness community-oriented policing strategies in urban areas forgetting of the small jurisdiction (Paez & Dierenfeldt, 2019). Age is yet another disaggregation which demonstrates the variations that exist in the efficiency put across on COP strategies (Lynn Skaggs & Sun, 2017). A lot of community members, especially the juvenile, have ignorance on the effectiveness of community policing. However, the problem of police offering their service at small areas has also contributed to the ineffective application of COP strategies.

According to the Department of Justice in the U.S, organizational strategies supporting uplifting core principles like problem-solving and systematic utilization of partnership are vital impacts of the philosophy of community policing (Lynn Skaggs & Sun, 2017). Taking emphasis on the 1990's trends on community guarding as preceded earlier in this paper, over $15 million has been incorporated in increasing the number of officers in charge of community policing, technological advancement, technical support and training programs to help reduce idleness among juvenile, and providing support to initiatives advocating for crime prevention (Paez & Dierenfeldt, 2019).

Juvenile and the Police

Overly punitive and broad policies have negative impacts, such as the children of incarcerated parents likely to drop out of school. They could also have learning disabilities and are prone to disciplinary problems at school. They are expected to suffer from several physical and behavioral health issues, including depression and asthma. In the case of intensive enforcement of minor offenses as well as involving other tactics such as stop and frisk tend to saddle youths who have criminal records.

According to the research performed by Wilson, Olaghere, and Gill (2016), young people are subjected to higher risks of victimization, offending, and increased police arrest or contact. Emerson (2017) supports this study by expressing how childhood or early adolescent sets the tables for criminal activity and becomes peak at the late adolescent stage, thereby decreasing with age. In many communities, youths have not been included in community decision making processes, which isolate them and build negative perceptions on key law enforcers like police and community policing officers. Therefore youth inclusivity in community matters should be emphasized to help curb juvenile arrests.

Research Methods/Design

Population

The study examines community policing methods and juvenile arrest; achieving this arrest data was drawn from urban and small jurisdictions. Officers from different departments of up to 620 were interviewed, and both physical and online surveys conducted to 750 juvenile or young adults of the whole divisions.

Interviews

The study will incorporate both telephone and physical interviews to community policing officers to determine three key variables, rates at which juveniles are arrested, significant changes observed after the charged terms, and how frequently will the same minor be re-arrested. Questions related to demographic will include the range of ages, gender, literacy, and race.

Survey

The study will incorporate the use of survey instruments to help provide distinctive attitudes and effectiveness of these community policing mechanisms. Items like the demography of the population under review, the severity of juvenile arrest cases, roles taken by community policing officers, a taste of detention, and minor assumption of adult courts. The demographic surveys will embark on finding perceptions of different races, age, gender, social status, and education on the effectiveness of community policing strategies.

Procedures

All participants will be enrolled in the sessions and schedules provided for the two surveys (10:00 am and 4:00 pm). Policing officers and the juvenile will be included in the sample; however, participation will be voluntary. After the enrollment and rollcall, all the participants will be directed with a maximum of 30 minutes of the involvement in each session.

Hypotheses and Research Questions

H1. There is a significant relationship between useful community policing and reduced juvenile arrest cases.

H2. There are no beneficial impacts of juvenile detention and adult incarceration on young adults.

R1. How do community policing methods reduce juvenile arrest?

R2. How can partnership among police, service agencies, and community members be established?

Results and Discussion

It was found that community policing methods helped to reduce juvenile arrest. One way that the techniques were successful was that they protected the juveniles from lifelong consequences through confidentiality and expungement (Lynn Skaggs, & Sun, 2017). When juvenile criminal history is kept confidential, the minors then receive extra protection from these consequences. The communities also invest in prevention for youths at risk of justice involvement. They have intervention models that help to address the risk factors for crimes, delinquency, and justice system for the youth population at risk. Communities develop school-based violence prevention programs that have positive impacts on issues of violence or gang affiliation.

Local policymakers in the community should invest in effective prevention and also maximize the impact of the investments through developing prevention infrastructure. The infrastructure will be inclusive of a clearly defined criteria for service levels, tools of assessment to establish risk levels and eligibility and also design clearly specified models for service providers to follow (Wilson, Olaghere, & Gill, 2016). Community methods also include ensuring interventions for substance abuse and mental health without involving the justice systems. In many cases, behavioral issues are addressed through justice systems such as jails because of the inadequate capacity to intervene. This way, the communities can intervene to institute corrections and allow access of the victims to such programs.

Conclusion

According to the brief description and analysis provided above, the overall community members should impress mechanisms like providing education and training, community involvement programs, prevention of bullying, parent-child interactive sessions. Community policing methods will help to deal with youth exposure to crime hence an excellent way to ensure healthy childhood development and better adult decision-making. There is a need for communities to commit and execute diversion strategies at local levels. It will be successful if there is a robust community capacity, which includes probation and substance abuse health treatment. Promoting recreational activities to help prevent idleness among juvenile, and prevention program initiatives that will build cohesiveness among young adults.

References

Emerson, R. M. (2017). Judging delinquents: Context and process in juvenile court. Routledge. Available online: https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2017-0-46159-7&isbn=9781351510493&format=googlePreviewPdf

Jannetta, J., & Okeke, C. (2017). Strategies for Reducing Criminal and Juvenile Justice Involvement. Building Ladders of Opportunity for Young People in the Great Lakes States, brief, 4. Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/94516/strategies-for-reducing-criminal-and-juvenile-justice-involvement.pdf.pdf

Lynn Skaggs, S., & Sun, I. Y. (2017). Policing juveniles in rural communities: determinants of officer authoritative and supportive behavior. Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 40(2), 244-264.

Paez, R. A., & Dierenfeldt, R. (2019). Community policing and youth offending: a comparison of large and small jurisdictions in the United States. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 1-14.

Wilson, D. B., Olaghere, A., & Gill, C. (2016). Juvenile curfew effects on criminal behavior and victimization: a Campbell Collaboration systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 12(2), 167-186.