NCJ Number
141636
Date Published
1993
Length
93 pages
Annotation
As mandated by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, the National Coalition of State Juvenile Justice Advisory Groups prepared this report on the state of the art in juvenile justice and delinquency prevention in America. The report seeks to detail the realities and dispel the myths of the serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offender.
Abstract
The report discusses the incidence of juvenile crime, the characteristics of juvenile offenders, and the causes of serious, violent, and chronic delinquency including abuse and neglect, economic and social conditions, drug abuse, gangs, accessibility of weapons, and delinquency prevention. Other aspects of delinquency discussed here include juvenile arrest and detention practices, waiver and transfer of juvenile offenders, juvenile court trials, juvenile court dispositions, and the expansion of Federal jurisdiction over juvenile offenders. The recommendations made by the Coalition to the President, Congress, and to the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention stress several points: that the focus of juvenile justice must be on rehabilitation, that intervention must be supportive and not oppressive, that children must be held accountable for their actions but not become excessively involved in the juvenile justice system, that innovative programs to discourage recidivism must be developed, that the system must distinguish between juvenile criminals and juveniles who commit serious crimes, and that even juveniles who are tried as adults must and can be rehabilitated. 6 appendixes and 225 references