Introduction
Juvenile incarceration is among the sad truths about the Free World; a name used to define the USA as one of the freest democracies globally (Mauer, 2016). Indeed, regarding to juvenile incarceration, America ranks among the worst in the world. The global concept of juvenile criminal justice tends towards rehabilitation and correction even in the worst of crimes (Reiman & Leighton, 2015). The American system provides for irrevocable punitive measures, which include life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and even death sentencing (Mauer, 2016). Clearly, this is a major departure from world trends and acceptable practice. The study of juvenile incarceration in America has been extensively studied locally and internationally with the available statistics creating fodder for major criticism. This research paper looks at the issue of Juvenile incarceration in the USA from a statistical perspective with an emphasis on how it affects different social groups.
Statistics on Juvenile incarceration by Race
Statistically, there has been a manifest reduction in the numbers of juvenile incarceration since 1999 (Mauer, 2016). However, this general reduction has been found to have an uneven trend as the racial ratio has been increasing. Among the major premises for focusing on racial ratio in juvenile incarceration is the probability of recurrence in adulthood which many researchers have placed at over 50%. In 1999, for every 100,000 Americans there were about 900 incarcerated juveniles (Mauer, 2016). Among this, about 200 were non-Hispanic whites, 350 were non-Hispanic black with the Hispanics being about 420. The balance was made out of other minority races. In 2014, out of every 100,000 Americans, 464 juveniles are incarcerated with 100 of them being Non-Hispanic whites and the Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks being approximately 170 juveniles each (Mauer, 2016).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Figure 1 : Number of juvenile arrests per race in 1999 and 2014.
Statistics on Juvenile incarceration by Gender
This is a relatively straight forward statistical classification as its trend has remained constant. All research and records show an exponentially higher number of males in juvenile incarceration than females. Most numbers range at over 80% of all juveniles in prison being male. There has however, been a general fluctuation in the ration between 1997 and 2014, but the trend has remained the same (Mauer, 2016).
Statistics on Juvenile incarceration by sentencing disparities
This is a crucial area of data collection and is significant in understanding the nature of justice meted by the American system to juveniles premised on different demographic circumstances (Minton, 2015). The American criminal justice system from the perspective of court proceedings is adversarial as opposed to being inquisitive. Therefore, whenever an individual, be it of minority of majority age is indicted, two major forces; the state and the defense, compete to determine the individual’s destiny (Reiman & Leighton, 2015). In many states, this adversarial process will continue through to the post-conviction process of sentencing (Minton, 2015; Reiman & Leighton, 2015). This creates a battle between the state and defense on whether the juvenile will be incarcerated and for how long. Other systems adopt relatively different systems and structure with major human input to the sentencing process (Minton, 2015).
Sentencing disparity involves the difference between the number of juveniles who are convicted for crimes and those who end up incarcerated. One of the major premises for sentencing disparity is race. A research by Milton (2015) on racial profiling in the entire juvenile justice system focused on two races; white and black. The ratio of black to white juveniles is 16% against 72% in the general population (Minton, 2015). The ratio of conviction upon due procedure is 29% white to 67% black. This shows more black juveniles will be convicted per arrest than whites. The arrest trend has however, been decreasing for both white and black juveniles as shown in Figure 2.
Finally regarding incarceration, the ratio is 33% white against 63% blacks (Minton, 2015). This means more white juveniles will be given alternative forms of rehabilitation with more black children being condemned to incarceration. Other areas of disparity in sentencing include gender with more boys being condemned to incarceration than girls (Minton, 2015). It is worthy of notice that financial capacities of the juvenile family plays a major role as those who have the ability to pay fines or get better legal representation get freed (Reiman & Leighton, 2015).
Figure 2 : Number of black and white juveniles arrested from 1980 to 2014 (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2015).
Statistics on Juvenile incarceration by Recidivism
Recidivism in juvenile incarceration is the repetition of delinquency after a juvenile has already been through the juvenile judicial system due to a previous offence (Minton, 2015). Unfortunately, recidivism is one of the least studied areas of juvenile justice in the United States. Indeed, no formal government agency records the actual numbers and trends of juvenile recidivism (Minton, 2015). From available data however, it is clear that the rates of recidivism in US adults is congruent with that of juveniles (Minton, 2015). The average statistics show that within 1 fiscal year of release, over 56% of American convicts are rearrested for repeat offences. The general age of majority from the perspective of criminal justice in the USA is 18 years old. However, juveniles as young as 14 years old are incarcerated, mostly for brief periods. This will create a good number of juveniles at the age of 16 and 17 who have already been incarcerated leading to juvenile recidivism (Minton, 2015). Normally, recidivism almost always guarantees incarceration upon conviction. Studies have however, shown that people put more emphasis on how the justice system works to ensure that a juvenile has a low probability of repeating a crime upon release (Lalley, 2015). These statistics are shown below.
Conclusion
The juvenile criminal justice system in the USA is clearly flawed and in need of an absolute transformation. The general ratio of juveniles incarcerated, albeit having increasingly reduced in the recent years is still significantly high. Further, there is a clear correlation between juvenile incarceration and adult criminal conduct, and this implies that juvenile incarceration is not rehabilitative. Of more concern however, is the major racial discrepancy between incarcerated juveniles that creates a clear picture of institutionalized racism. This contention is confirmed by the racial sentencing disparities. The gender variance can however, be explained through social premises. Finally, the important issue of recidivism has largely been ignored. This is an important area of focus if incarceration is to be transformed from being punitive to rehabilitative, in a bid to make delinquents better future citizens.
References
Mauer, M. (2016). Race to Incarcerate: The causes and consequences of mass incarceration. Roger Williams University Law Review, 21, 447-471.
Minton, T. D., & Zeng, Z. (2015). Jail inmates at midyear 2014. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics , 3 .
Reiman, J., & Leighton, P. (2015). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class, and criminal justice . London: Routledge.
Lalley, T. (2015). Re-Examining Juvenile Incarceration: High cost, poor outcomes spark shift to alternatives . Retrieved from http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2015/04/reexamining-juvenile-incarceration
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2015). Statistical briefing book. Retrieved from http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05260.
