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How should juveniles-in-trouble be handled?

Approaches to the problem generally fall into two camps: the public health solution, and the law enforcement solution. Advocates of the public health approach tend to see juveniles today as victims of an anti-youth culture. The problem is not just parents failing children, but a whole attitude among adult society that is increasingly hostile, angry, and punishing toward youth. It's also not just poverty, per se, among children, but the relative deprivation of living in a society of affluence in which self-esteem is tied to achieving affluence. People are only hosts, not causes, of social problems, according to the public health model. The real enemies (if there need to be enemies at all) are the environment (broad social forces that shape their way through culture) and the agent (the means of violence, firearms and access to weapons). Intervene, and then trace the pathology back to its source. The source often turns out to be low SES families and neighborhoods where there have been few prevention programs, poor economic and educational opportunities, and no way to reintegrate released offenders back into the community.

The law enforcement solution looks at the problem in terms of what needs to be done to improve investigation, arrest, prosecution, and conviction. Advocates of this approach perceive that a nationwide crackdown, "get tough on juvenile crime" program is what this country needs, but they are also just as likely to want the delivery of real rehabilitation programs in juvenile prisons, at least when we are better able to separate the minor offenders from superpredators. For the most part, however, the belief is that it is society's duty to punish, not rehabilitate, and boot camps, life terms, and even executions are in order for juveniles if they deserve it. They should serve time as adults, and face the ultimate punishment, no matter what the age. Troubled neighborhoods can be made safer by municipal curfews. Some of the more common law enforcement solutions, and how they work, are outlined below:

Waivers of Jurisdiction

Waivers of jurisdiction transfer a case from juvenile to adult court. The effect is to deny some offenders the rights and protections that have evolved in juvenile law. All states provide for some type of waiver mechanism, and most set a lower age limit (13 and 14 in a handful of states; 17 and 18 in most). Kent v. U.S. (1966) has become the settled law on how to properly conduct waivers.

Execution of Juveniles

A large majority of states (about 35) permit the execution of juveniles regardless of age. The U.S. is unique in this because no other nation in the world executes anyone under age 18. About 300 juveniles have already been executed in the U.S., the youngest being a 13-year-old in 1927. The Supreme Court in 2002 is rethinking the issue.

Scared Straight Programs

Jails and detention centers are places that mix juveniles and adults together who are both non-adjudicated and/or awaiting trial. Schall v. Martin (1984) allows preventive detention under some circumstances. Many youth placed in this status are only guilty of minor violations. They are troubled youth or status offenders. They are usually released after only a few days, but victimization or suicide may, and has, occurred. Few places run the kind of full-blown Scared Straight program that Rahway prison (and Beevis & Butthead) made famous in the 1980s. It is generally accepted that these kind of programs don't work and have backlash effects.

Parental Accountability Laws

Also called Parental Duty Laws, a number of states have experimented with subjecting the parents of children to arrest. Florida, for example, imposes a 5-year sentence on parents of children who find and use guns left around the house. California prosecutes mothers if it can be proven that parental neglect led to their child becoming a gang member. Most of the teeth in these laws have been removed with the provision of parenting classes as a way out for parents.

Curfews

Many cities, like Atlanta and New Orleans, require anyone under the age of 17 to be off the streets by 11 P.M. Any teenager found in a public place during curfew hours is held at a police-designated truancy center until a parent or guardian claims them. Parents who are determined to be aiding and abetting curfew violators are subject to fines and community service.