Juvenile Recidivism in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Juvenile Recidivism in the United States - Essay Example This research tells that the examination of juvenile crime and procedures has hitherto focused on the flows of the justice processes and the psychology of minor criminals. This has shown that juveniles tend to re-offend within four years of their earlier offense and when the arrests were caused by drug issues, the likelihood of being arrested again increased up to 70%. Research has supported this finding of re-arrest among juveniles statistically, however, the literature review above has pointed out that such data is mainly limited to first arrests through January 2005 and does not take into account the arrests for different offenses occurring when the criminal was in custody. Research also shows that re-arrest rates vary in different boroughs and there is also a higher rate of juvenile offending among males as compared to females. Imprisoning young offenders in adult prisons also appears to be compounding the problem of juvenile recidivism. Juveniles are apprehended for serious crim es such as murder, aggravated assault, robbery and rape as well as less serious offenses such as violation of drug laws, lewd acts or copulation. The rationale offered for a commission of such crimes is their association with adult male prisoners. Since they are raped by adult criminals during their initial prison terms, these juveniles seek to wreak vengeance by committing sex crimes after their release from prison. The Sentencing Guidelines Commission of Washington, in an annual report on recidivism, suggests that juveniles experience pleasure while committing crimes, which is why they repeat them. A major part of a juvenile criminal activity in centered within sexual acts such as rape, sodomy, etc, suggesting that the pleasure in the sexual act is the motivating factor. The comforts such as food and shelter offered at prisons also function as an impediment to the deterrent value of the prisons, hence it may be necessary to consider improving the punitive atmosphere and beefing up the punitive aspect of existing prison programs.