NCJ Number
134942
Date Published
1992
Length
49 pages
Annotation
The history and current status of the imprisonment of juvenile offenders are summarized, and the authors note that the risk of apprehension for a delinquent offense is quite low and that the proportion of juvenile delinquents who are sent to correctional facilities is small.
Abstract
The use of imprisonment as an appropriate reaction to juvenile delinquency remains a key controversy in juvenile justice. The need for secure institutions for juveniles is still under attack, although this need has been countered in recent years by arguments for imprisonment as a means of incapacitation. The rate of confinement has increased relative to juvenile crime after a decade of declining during the 1970s. The actual impact of imprisonment on juvenile offenders is not as definite as conveyed by the declaration that reformatories are "schools for crime," but deterrent or rehabilitative consequences of imprisonment have not been demonstrated. Similarly, while correctional experiments suggest community-based alternatives do not worse and possibly better than reformatories, it is not clear they are better than ordinary probation. Currently, critics with a more conservative bent have advocated a return to an emphasis on deterrent, incapacitative, and retributive functions of imprisonment. 103 references and 7 figures