Juvenile Justice And Delinquency Prevention - 2440 Words

Introduction As of July 2015, the United States population has been reported at 321,238,352- accounting for at least 25% of the human population. Five percent out of the 25% of this population is the percentage of youths that are incarcerated or confined (Census, n.d). According to the U.S Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency prevention, it was reported in 2011 that 1 in 13 of juvenile arrests was for murder, and about 1 in 5 arrests was for robbery, burglary, or larceny-theft; totaling in an estimated amount of 1,470,000 arrests for 2011(Puzzanchera, 2013). The most popular crime committed between juveniles is arson, which makes up for 44% of all crimes committed by youths. Robbery and burglary both account†¦show more content†¦Hispanic juveniles are three times more likely than white youths to be incarcerated. Three out of four confined juveniles are minorities. Of all minorities, it has been proven that African-American juveniles have higher confi nement rates and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison (Crutchfield, Fernandes, Martinez, 2010 p. 913). Pre-Existing Policies and Research: Over the years, the United States has been focused on finding alternative methods that will reduce crime rates, but there is still a larger issue at hand- the high rates of youth incarceration and racial disparities. The United States is the leading country in the world as far as juvenile incarceration is concerned. Many juveniles are taken to juvenile jails every day and this issue has raised a lot of questions from the public and private organizations. Studies conducted by the U.S Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency prevention have shown that the juvenile crime rates and juvenile incarceration rates have significantly been reduced over the past couple of years but there is still more that can be done so that these rates can hopefully, in the near future become very close to non-existent (Puzzanchera, 2013). After spending countless of hour’s conduction research,