Getting Tough with Violent Juvenile Offenders

• NCJ Number: 89437
• Author(s): W Hall
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 45 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Ford Foundation; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: Bedfordshire Police
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; Bedfordshire Police
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: One of a series of reports prepared under the Fellows in Education Journalism program.

Annotation

Maryland is imprisoning an increasing number of juveniles even though juvenile crime is down, predictions indicate further decreases, and despite the fact that many officials consider such an approach ineffective.

Abstract

The arrests of juveniles for serious crimes in Maryland have declined by nearly 4,000 since 1976, and the proportion of juvenile arrests to total arrests for serious crimes during that period dropped from 48 percent to 38 percent. Against a backdrop of a decrease in the number of cases handled by the juvenile justice system, waivers, detentions, and commitments to juvenile institutions are increasing. Officials say they are compelled to take this approach because the public demands it and the juvenile justice system cannot produce proven alternatives to institutionalization; however, these same officials acknowledge that institutionalization does not ultimately protect the public (offenders are eventually released unchanged or perhaps worse) or rehabilitate the youths. The most vocal complaint about Maryland's approach to juvenile crime is that State programs largely ignore the strengthening of the families of juvenile offenders, which are considered to be the key to a youth's deviant behavior and any positive change. Programs such as the Baltimore Family Life program have shown that upgrading the quality of family interactions that impact the juvenile can achieve significant positive effects in the juvenile's life, even for violent offenders.