A Retrospective Analysis of Juvenile offenders

A Retrospective Research Analysis of Juvenile Offenders

Daphne Norris

Faulkner University

A Retrospective Research Analysis of Juvenile Offenders

The Juvenile Offender Study: A Retrospective Analysis of Youth Offenders Who Stop Offending as Adults. (2006, March). Council on Crime and Justice. Retrieved from www.crimeandjustice.org

The purpose of this report is to exhibit the major factors of punishing juvenile offenders and the outcome these punishments produce. The participants of the study involved 25 males with a juvenile record, in addition to having no criminal history records as adults. They performed this study on this group of participants in comparison to a previous study conducted in 2000, which identified juvenile offenders continuing to commit crimes as adults. Furthermore, this was done to establish explanations relating to juveniles not committing crimes as adults versus juvenile offenders that do, determining if there is any correlation connecting to the actions of the juvenile justice system. There were several ethical issues that stood out in this study. However, the most problematic issue was the lack of impact and influences the justice system had on the participants in regards to their treatment method during the sentence served. The participants complained about the lack of learning prospective, negligent, and various other issues, which several members of the study considered the juvenile justice system as being a hindrance. My primary concern is that most states’ juvenile justice systems have two main goals: increased public safety and the rehabilitation of adolescent offenders to prevent future crime. If these are the goals of the justice system they are inadequately performing these tasks, due to the rising recidivism rates of juveniles because of the improper aid in rehabilitation programs.

The sampling method used in this study involved collecting administrative data from Juvenile Court and Probation case files.  The criteria required for the sample consisted of males ages 15 to 17 years old at the time of their crime in the year 2000, having no adult criminal record by the year 2004. When the group was gathered, qualitative interviews were carried out involving the participants. Through these interviews, the design was composed opened ended questions relating to the role of the juvenile justice system, their education, family dynamics, and social support. The methodology of this study implemented an exploratory design to gain knowledge from juvenile offenders and their practice on abiding by the justice system living a crime free life in adulthood. The researcher used quantitative and qualitative methods in their approach. The quantitative approach involved collecting data from the justice system and the probation court. Whereas the qualitative approach consisted of person to person interviews. Being that the sample size was small; the quantitative numerical data was relatively limited by only examining common behaviors of the participants. The qualitative analysis use of the interviews was employed to counteract the quantitative results. Conversely, they both provided appealing information.