NCJ Number
143301
Journal
Lay Panel Magazine Volume: 28 Dated: (April 1993) Pages: 20-24
Date Published
1993
Length
5 pages
Annotation
A proposal introduced in the United Kingdom in 1992 would create a new generation of secure schools for persistent juvenile offenders; courts would be given powers to impose a secure training order for up to 2 years on 12- to 15-year-olds convicted of three imprisonable offenses.
Abstract
The proposal is based on research suggesting that 48 percent of truants become offenders, compared with 16 percent of nontruants. Critics of the proposal believe that secure schools would be nothing more than penal prep schools, that the schools represent only a knee-jerk reaction to recent crimes, and that the proposal lacks careful thought about the nature and size of the problem posed by very young offenders. Nonetheless, public concern over crimes against children specifically and over law and order generally is significant. Evidence suggests, however, that locking young people up is the least useful form of punishment; locking young offenders up together in one school increases peer group pressure and hardens already tough teenagers. In dealing with young offenders, the juvenile justice system should consider not only illiteracy and poor education but also the role of psychiatric disorders in adolescent aggression and therapeutic programs to save vulnerable youths.