NCJ Number
165982
Date Published
1996
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies perennial beliefs about juvenile crime that are reflected in cyclical shifts between harsh and lenient juvenile justice policies.
Abstract
The public belief that delinquency and youth crime are increasing is one of the constants in the history of juvenile justice. This belief is a reflection of a broad tendency to believe that the current state of society is worse than it was previously and that each generation of adolescents is more degenerate than the last. Proposed solutions to juvenile delinquency are also repetitive and limited. Since the situation with juveniles is always viewed as a crisis, the response is typically to make quick, immediate changes that do not solve the deep-rooted causes of the problem. This paper argues that policymakers vacillate between two poles and continually reinvent the same solutions. For the past decade or so, society has been in a "get tough" phase. The cycle of juvenile justice arises because juvenile crime rates remain high, regardless of justice polices that are in effect at the time. This cycle cannot be broken by any particular justice policy, since every conceivable policy confronts the same dilemma; after it is implemented, many people will continue to be convinced that juvenile crime is exceptionally high, that it was not a serious problem in the "good old days," and that it would not be a serious problem today if the proper justice policies were in effect.