Juvenile delinquency is the act of minors participating in unlawful activities. A minor is an individual who is under 18 years of age, according to the American constitution. In " Restorative Justice and Higher Education ," Linda Keena explores some of the ways of reducing juvenile delinquency. She does a great job in elaborating on the Restorative Justice Organization's impact on creating awareness on crime, an initiative by the Southeast Missouri Correctional Center. As the author points out, one of the factors that contribute to the high crime rates being witnessed across the world is ignorance in which the minor offenders are not fully aware of their actions, or the ramifications therein.
The article's primary purpose is to show what impact crime awareness has on reducing crime. Through the RJO, high school students in Missouri get the chance to interact with offenders in correctional centers who help to shed more light on the choices individuals randomly make without considering the impacts. By so doing, the initiative, and the article manage to put across the message that the availability of information is a critical tool in fighting crime in the society. The second purpose of this article is to examine the effectiveness of the RJO initiative in reconciling the offenders and their victims (Keena, 2015). When talking about healing and reconciliation, Keena points out that the creation of such an avenue that brings together victims of a given crime and their offenders enables the offenders to see the impact their actions have on innocent Americans. At the same time, it allows the victims to see the justice being served to them, both of which help the two parties to heal, reconcile and move on.
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The two main ideas addressed by the author are critical in creating a holistic society that is more mindful of personal choices and the justice system. The first idea highlighting teenagers is on how the effects of crime enable the youngsters to be more assertive in the way they act. The second purpose, which is to reconcile the offenders and their victims is essential in highlighting the role of the correctional facilities and the justice system in ensuring law and order is maintained ( Hirschi, 2017 ). The article relates to juvenile delinquency in the sense that it highlights the role of the RJO in providing more in-depth insight into crime to teenagers, which in turn leads to the creation of a more vigilant teenage generation who would do their best to stay out of trouble, thus reducing the rates of juvenile delinquency.
The article's area of strength is the role it plays in highlighting the effectiveness of the RJO in reducing the rates of juvenile delinquency and bridging the gap that exists between the offenders and their victims. To this effect, Keena does a great job in commending the RJO. However, she fails to point out the shortcomings of the RJO, such as the lack of a better model that prepares the offenders to reenter society (Keena, 2015). She should have talked about the need of having better mechanisms being part of the RJO, such as providing a linkage to vocational training programs, to ensure that once they are out of the correctional facilities, offenders can support themselves financially, so that they can contribute positively in the society.
Written in the third person using a simple language, Keena's article is easy to understand, and the arguments are presented in a transitional yet consistent manner that allows the reader room to follow through. This is because the article targets mostly teenagers who need to be acquainted with the RJO initiative. The author backs up her argument with evidence when she bases her observations on the role the Interactive Classroom RJO led by a local professor played in facilitating interactions between the inmates and his students. Having covered all these areas, except the need to have a linkage between the RJO and programs facilitating vocational training, it is correct to point out that Linda Keena has done a tremendous job in discussing the Restorative Justice.
References
Hirschi, T. (2017). Causes and prevention of juvenile delinquency. In The Craft of Criminology (pp. 105-120). Routledge.
Keena, L. (2015). Restorative Justice and Higher Education; the Interactive Classroom [Ebook] (1st ed., pp. 54-59). Atlanta: American Correctional Association.
