Crime is an interesting and expansive topic. Many people devote their lives to preventing crime, and just as many spend their lives trying to understand why people commit crimes. The question that is often on the minds of many is how to prevent people from reoffending, and thus reentering the prison system.

 

What is most interesting is the growth of the juvenile justice system, and the interest in the juvenile offenders. Studies on childtrends.org state that in 2011, more than 60,000 young people were detained in the juvenile justice system (2013). The same question is applied to them: how to keep juvenile offenders from reoffending and reentering the prison system?
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Recidivism is the process when a juvenile offender reoffends and reenters the juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system began in 1899 in Cook County Illinois, and “began to develop flexible alternatives to incarceration, based on understanding to needs of children as different from adults” (Mody, 2009, 106-E). What began as a way to peacefully rehabilitate juveniles and eliminate them from being wrapped up in the adult justice system has shifted to a more militaristic program, geared toward zero-tolerance and severe sentencing (p. 106-E). In turn, many states are finding ease in trying juveniles in adult courts, leading to harsher sentences and life-ending judgments (p. 106-E). The racial disparity in juvenile justice system is very evident. Marginalized, racially diverse juveniles are more likely to be prosecuted than their white counterparts, with blacks and Hispanics being the most represented in the justice system; “two-thirds of all juvenile detainees are black or Hispanic” (p.106-E). These trends tend are mirrored in the adult justice system as well (p. 106-E).