Policing Juveniles
Student:
Institution:
Policing Juveniles
The context of juvenile justice has changed over the years, initially, establishing the juvenile justice system aimed at protecting youths and teenagers from adult prisons as well as take care of children with mental illness and problematic families. Juvenile’s problematic behavior was considered un-intentional and required guidance and intervention(Paez, and Dierenfeldt, 2020). The juvenile justice system has gone through changes, mainly due to the occupation of policing. The police department has laid less emphasis on police handling juveniles where lately no documentation about what happens behind bars or daily handling of juveniles. The paper is a discussion of policing juveniles.
In the early 1920s, juvenile policing was considered political, where police officers were recruited. The police officers were assigned to patrol neighborhoods they were familiar with. For instance, police officers were aware and familiar with children in the designated community. Policing before the early twentieth century considered high professionalism where police officers upheld patrolling ethical and professional standards. In the early twentieth, policies such as development of select units, as well as fighting crime, brought about a significant change in juvenile policing. The police departments began to tackle juvenile delinquency through general policing strategies. During the era, female police officers were hired to enhance and offer proper childcare to juveniles.
Today, the juvenile justice system has specialties dealing with children working as a detectives in investigating and concentrating on juvenile crime (Paez, and Dierenfeldt, 2020). In the mid-twentieth century, police officers started engaging in youth programs to reduce recidivism, drug use as well as creating awareness in schools about gang formation and criminality—for instance, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE). Today, hiring police officers and assigning them to patrol youths in communities, as well as schools, has increased. Teenagers are more stopped on streets for searches, according to the department of justice survey.
Additionally, police officers are, however, called to handle family disputes at home involving children, for instance, skipping school, home runways, and mental illness. Police and children encounter led to more conflict and juvenile delinquency. According to reports on juvenile crime trends, juveniles arrest cases have increased over the recent years (Cheng, 2019). The increase in the juvenile arrest is contributed by changes in juvenile policing and daily police practices; for instance, Juvenile arrests in children between the ages of ten to seventeen sum up to seventy-three percent. The types of seizures reported on burglary, theft, and property crimes are many.
Juveniles are likely and vulnerable to police officer’s authority, questions well as investigations, Commanding a percentage of youths to stop misbehaving, others arrested while others subjected to police brutality, especially the black American kids. Police officer’s decision making when it comes to juveniles is weak and affected by various circumstances. Police officers make quick decisions when it comes to handling juveniles compared to adults.
Adults arrests are less compared to juvenile arrests because police officers lack to follow procedure and policies required for youth arrest. First and foremost, police officers should collect information about the child’s family and parental supervision (Cheng, 2019). Police officers, however, have not gone through education and training on how to handle juvenile cases compared to an adolescent specialist. Police officers are, therefore, prone to mishandling and violating youth instead of making a decision based on the teenager’s interest. Nevertheless, police officers do not record encounters with juveniles; for instance, police officers use the systematic social observation method, which focuses on the arrest.
Police officers work in isolation and mostly with no supervision. Monitoring police behavior towards juveniles is challenging mainly when police officers use the systematic social observation method. Police officers need training on how to handle juveniles or completely stay away from juvenile cases. The juvenile justice system should work towards hiring and training more juvenile specialties to avoid claims brought about by juvenile policing.
References
Cheng, D. (2019). Perspectives on Community Policing of Durban Juveniles Living on the Streets.
Paez, R. A., & Dierenfeldt, R. (2020). Community policing and youth offending: a comparison of large and small jurisdictions in the United States. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25(1), 140-153.
