A movement has taken hold nationally to change the juvenile justice system, and erase any distinction between young offenders and adult criminals. Almost all fifty states have overhauled their juvenile justice laws, allowing more youths to be tried as adults and scrapping long-time protections to help rehabilitate delinquent kids and prevent future crimes. The current debate over juvenile crime is being dominated by two voices: elected officials proposing quick-fix solutions, and a media more intent on reporting violent crimes than successful prevention efforts.
Politicians feel that best and easiest solution is to simply lock up youth offenders for long periods of time, and ignore rehabilitation. The most recent studies demonstrate that putting young offenders in adult prisons leads to more crime, higher prison costs, and increased violence. Yet, we are spending more and more on corrections, and less on
Media reports on juvenile crime are greatly exaggerated. While some headlines suggested that a "ticking time bomb" of so-called "superpredator children" is waiting to explode, the studies show that this is simply not true. Crime level indicators show that the male "at risk" population will rise over the next decade, but the levels are far from the explosive level that the media would like to suggest. In fact, the levels are lower than those reached in the late 1970's , when the "at risk" population last peaked. The public also holds greatly distorted views about the prevalence and severity of juvenile crime. Contrary to public perception, the percentage of violent crimes committed by juveniles is low, only 13% of violent crimes are committed by young people. Also, most juvenile arrests have nothing to do with violence. Most kids only go through the juvenile justice system once. Also, most youths will si
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