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Juvenile delinquency refers to Criminal acts performed by Juvenile s. Most Legal System s prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. NATURE AND CAUSES Juvenile delinquency may refer to either violent or non-violent crime committed by persons who are (usually) under the age of eighteen and are still considered to be a minor. There is much debate about whether or not such a child should be held criminally responsible for his or her own actions. There are many different inside influences that are believed to affect the way a child acts both negatively and positively, some of which are as follows: DEFINITION AND SPECIFICATIONS In the United States , a juvenile delinquent is a person who has not yet reached the Age Of Majority , and whose behavior has been labeled delinquent by a court. The specific requirements vary from state to state. In the United States, the federal government enacted legislation to unify the handling of juvenile delinquents, the ''Juvenile Justice and Delinquency'' Act of 1974. America has more than 1 million people in prison.1 The act created the Office Of Juvenile Justice And Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) within the Justice Department to administer grants for juvenile crime-combating programs (currently about only 900,000 dollars a year), gather national statistics on juvenile crime, fund research on youth crime and administer four anticonfinement mandates regarding juvenile custody. Specifically, the act orders:
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND CRIME Robert Merton Merton believes that there is a serious relationship between Poverty and crime. He feels that there are Institutionalized paths to happiness in our Society . He believes in a society of equilibrium where ''goals = means''. A society of Disequilibrium would be adaptation. Merton's Strain Theory suggests five attributes. # ''Innovation'': individuals who accept socially approved goals, but not necessarily the socially approved means. # ''Retreatism'': those who reject socially approved goals and the means for acquiring them. # ''Ritualism'': those who buy into a system of socially approved means, but lose sight of the goals. Merton believed that drug users are in this category. # ''Conformity'': those who conform to the system's means and goals. # ''Rebellion'': people who negate socially approved goals and means by creating a new system of acceptable goals and means. ONGOING DEBATE One of the most notable causes of juvenile delinquency is Fiat , i.e. the declaration that a juvenile is delinquent by the Juvenile Court system without any trial, and upon finding only Probable Cause . Many states have laws that presuppose the less harsh treatment of juvenile delinquents than adult counterparts’ treatment. In return, the juvenile surrenders certain Constitutional Rights , such as a right to trial by jury, the right to cross-examine, and even the right to a speedy trial. Notable writings by reformers such as Jerome G. Miller2 show that very few juvenile delinquents actually broke any law. Most were simply rounded up by the police after some event that possibly involved criminal action. They were brought before juvenile court judges who made findings of delinquency, simply because the police action established probable cause. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court decided the case '' In Re Gault '', that established the protection of many, but not all, procedural rights of juveniles in court proceedings, such as the Right To Counsel and right to refuse Self-incrimination . DELINQUENCY PREVENTION Delinquency Prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal, or other antisocial, activity. Increasingly, local, state, and federal governments are recognizing the importance of allocating resources for the prevention of delinquency. Websites such as the 'DelinquencyPrevention.Org'3 are working toward unifying delinquency prevention efforts. Because it is often difficult for states to provide the fiscal resources necessary for good prevention, organizations, communities, and governments are working more in collaboration with each other to prevent juvenile delinquency.
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