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Introduction: Youth Crime and Juvenile Justice
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16953 |
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MODERN THOUGHT
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4 / 1990 |
236 Words |
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In newspapers and television reports across the country the plight of our nation's children is raising alarm. In spite of our status as a world power, a startling number of America's youth could be deemed children at risk.
Teen suicide has grown at a shocking pace in recent years, and an alarming number of young people - from small towns as well as large cities, from upper middle class suburban homes as well as from the inner city - have become runaways. Most of these young people are designed, in an effort to support themselves, to be led to some type of criminal activity - typically, pornography and prostitution.
Unavoidable questions arise: Is the very structure of our society (and its effect on family stability) responsible for this crisis? Is the juvenile justice system itself become a contributing factor to this tragic situation? What can be said about the shocking callousness and amoral mindset of the small corps of youth that is involved in violent crime? How can we ensure that their offenses are treated separately from those of simple status offenders?
To probe these crucial issues, THE WORLD & I has assembled a team of social researchers and experts in the field of juvenile justice who give a penetrating analysis of the situation of our nation's youth and suggest what might be done.
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