Criminal Justice Capstone
Project Proposal
The juvenile justice system can be dated back to the late 18th and early 19th century. Youths were confined to jails with mentally ill and hardened criminals because there were no other alternatives for them. Many of these youths were in these institutions for non-violent offenses. During this same time, many American cities had to find a solution to the overwhelming rate of child neglect. Today, there is still much debate about the well-being of youths in the criminal justice system. The juvenile justice system plays an important role in society because it allows youths the opportunity to change their behavior. The current system is effective in providing programs for juveniles in an effort to reduce recidivism. My research plan is to tap into various books, articles and websites to gather information on the success rate of the resources available to these youths. Some of the sources that I’ve found to be extremely credible and useful, is the information posted on the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, Justice Policy and the State of Connecticut websites. I also plan on looking at Bureau of Justice statistics to get a view of the juvenile system on a Federal level. I plan to address the problems that are associated with our juvenile justice system and the possible solutions to help alleviate these issues. The most common viewpoint I will have to address in my proposal is the fact that there are people who believe that programs aren’t reliable in rehabilitating youthful offenders and aren’t effective in preventing them from a life of crime. These individuals feel that detaining these juveniles in detention centers is the only efficient way to punish their behavior. In Connecticut alone, the numbers of youths who have been placed in correctional training schools and detention centers have reduced over the last ten years. This is due to the State rejecting the concept that relied strictly on confining a youth to a residential program.
There has been an increase of community treatment programs for youths that have a strong track record for being effective. The goal of this is to keep juveniles out of the adult system, where they could face harsher punishments. The earlier models that were proposed for the juvenile system focused on detaining and punishing youths, whereas there has been a shift to rehabilitating them. The Connecticut juvenile justice system maintains a philosophy of restorative justice. This concept states that a juvenile is entitled to individualized supervision and care, along with providing programs that include the juvenile’s family. Each juvenile is assessed and given services based on their own specific needs. They also have access to a variety of medical professionals that are there to service youthful offenders. Although youths receive care for their needs, they are also taught to be accountable for their actions. Juveniles who commit crimes are subjected to restitution, community service and other acts that help their victims. These are some of the examples of the measures that have been taken to provide better services and care to today’s youths.
My thesis demonstrates a mastery of the criminal justice concentration because this paper will outline the history of the juvenile system and compare it today’s system in an effort to evaluate the current state of the juvenile justice system. The purpose of this project is to inform my readers of the importance of the juvenile justice system and how the many changes over the decades have improved the resources provided to juveniles. The system is effective because of the various alternatives available to youths instead of being incarcerated. My paper will showcase these enhancements and how they are effective in reducing recidivism.
