Critique from Taking Sides: Should Juvenile Courts Be Abolished?

Sean P Wise.............................................................LSCJ 3133-301

Should Juvenile Courts Be Abolished is an interesting debate about a complex issue.  Both positions have very solid reasons for believing in their argument.  In this paper we will look at the two authors and their varying viewpoints.

The first presenter is Barry C. Feld is the author of Readings in Juvenile Justice Administration.  He advocates for the dissolution of the juvenile justice system.  He states there are inherent flaws in the system because the juvenile justice system cannot act as both a social welfare and criminal social control.  The two are not on the same continuum, hence they end up acting as either one or the other.  

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Feld advocates getting rid of the juvenile justice system and only deal in punishment with his sliding juvenile discount on punishment terms.  His approach is a social responsibility approach to the issue which will not cure the problem but only increase the propensity for crime.  The reason is that prisons become schools for crime (Schmalleger 19).  He uses the platitude “Do the Crime, do the time” (Hickey 98), however he fails to remember, “Go to jail to learn how to be a criminal.”  

Feld does bring up a good point about the possibility for abuse by the judicial system without having a checks and balances system in place.  One only needs to look at the Judge who sentenced juveniles to prison because he was getting kickbacks to do so.  However another adage comes to mind, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Can there be reforms?  Yes, but as Feld states, it will take financial investment by society to do so.  That should be our goal, not following an approach of ‘just lock em up’.

Unfortunately Feld writes this piece without backing up any of his claims with qualitative data.  His pronouncements about the efficacy of the juvenile justice system are not referenced to any research or data.  The only thing he uses as a reference point is a court case for Oklahoma.  Thus his opinion piece loses credibility.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

The second article by authors Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg.  They are both employed by the Justice Policy Institute which is a think tank that analyzes crime policy.  They reviewed the Florida waiver program, which allows juveniles to be tried as adults.  Florida is one of 15 states that allow the prosecutor to waiver the child into the adult criminal system.  The authors throw out some very disturbing facts. 40% of juveniles sent to adult prison were learning new ways to commit crimes (Hickey 103).  Youths transferred to adult court were 33% more likely to reoffend than those who were sent to juvenile court (Hickey 103).  Youths who had been tried in adult court committed serious crimes at double the rate of those sent to juvenile court (Hickey 103).   In regards to Feld’s argument about judges abuses in sentencing in the juvenile system: youths held in an adult facility for any period of time, regardless of whether they are guilty or not, are 5 times more likely to be raped, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, 50% more likely to be attacked with a weapon and 7.7% more likely to commit suicide than their counterparts in juvenile justice system (Hickey 104).  The mountain of factual evidence that Schiraldi and Ziendenberg provide completely outweighs any resting fear that Feld has about the fairness of the system.

In Norman, I worked for Crossroads Youth and Family Services as an attendant in the Juvenile Intervention Center (JIC). The JIC worked as a way station between Police officers and parents of the juvenile.  At our lock down facility we fingerprinted and entered their information into the Juvenile OnLine Tracking Service (JOLTS).  As a JIC attendant I administered psychological tests and set up counselling sessions with the parents and juveniles.  Thus Feld’s claim that the social aspect of the juvenile justice system cannot work hand in hand with the criminal aspect of the juvenile justice system to attempt to cure the propensity for criminal activity in young people is a fallacy.  Carol W Kohfeld and John Sprague determined in their research experiment that under certain demographic conditions, arrest can reduce the incidence of criminal behavior (Schmalleger 19).  I found the same result working in the center.  On average, the reports we ran from the JOLTS system found that approximately 70% of the juveniles that came through our facility were first time offenders and did not commit another crime.

Image Courtesy of Flickr

From these two views and from my own experience I take away the fact that, while there may be flaws with the juvenile justice system, ultimately it is there to change the lives of even one person.  I remember working at the JIC and intaking a young woman.  She had run away from her family in Boston.  The reason she had run away way because of her mother’s abusive boyfriend. She was trying to save herself from getting abused again.  This is not a person that needs to be placed in an adult facility, this is someone that needs help.  Thankfully, we were able to provide that because of the great relationship the Youth And Family Services organizations in Oklahoma have with law enforcement.

Bibliography

"Kids For Cash Scandal." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.

Hickey, Thomas J. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology. 11th ed. McGraw Hill Education, 2013. Print.

Schmalleger, Frank. Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction. 7th ed. Pearson, 2015. Print.

Cover Image courtesy of YouTube

Perilous Repast

A shaky hand goes up to Judy Waller's temples. She massages her temples meditatively as a tear falls down and joins the pool in her glass. The half masticated remains of lunch sit baking in the sun. The sun is shining impossibly bright on her as she sits at the table in the chic Cafe Twila.

Sidewalk Cafe, Miami Beach

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Her hand darts down to her glass. She raises to her trembling lips and takes a small swig of water. She returns the glass to the table and gazes out over the railing separating her from the bustling street beyond.

Judy contemplates the information she just received as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. You see, the president had just taken office 4 months prior and had inherited a mess in the middle east. Judy smiles sarcastically to herself as she looks down at her watch. A mess indeed. When was it not a mess?

Judy pulls her purse up to her and clings to it like a life raft in the ocean. She fishes through it and pulls out a billfold. She extracts several bills and drops them on the check that was sitting silently on the table.

She stands up with too much force and almost falls backward. She regains her balance and drops her billfold back into her purse. She slings the purse over her shoulder and moves out onto the street.

She looks up at the glaring sun as she enters the heavy traffic of the sidewalk. It was times like these she wished that she could just burn up in the heat of the day. All cares and worries evaporated like so much spilt milk on the sidewalk.

Suddenly a crack exposed her Vera Wang knock offs as substandard. The 5 inch heel slips off to the side sending Judy plummeting directly into traffic. She hits the road hard, her hands scraped and bleeding. She lifts herself up slowly and sees a city bus barreling down the street toward her.

Travel Coventry

Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Everything slowed down to a crawl. The bus’s shrill horn bellowed out of the siren. Judy was frozen like a deer caught in headlights. Curiously she could feel a drop of blood running swiftly down the side of her cheek from a gash in her forehead. A slow scream of fright was escaping her throat involuntarily.

A hand wraps itself around her midsection. A sharp pressure lifted her out of the way of the bus and threw her back on the sidewalk. She landed splayed out on the concrete. People walking around her oblivious to the events that had unfolded. The man in the dark trench coat reached out a gloved hand, the fingers breaking through the fabric.

Judy took his hand and he helped her back up onto her feet. “Thank you! Thank you so much, Mr...”

“Jessup. Mr. Jessup.”

“I owe you my life.”

“It was nothing. Just saw that you were in need.”

The senator beamed back at him. “It’s people like you... Could I buy you lunch or something?”

An strong arm covered in a suit wrapped itself around her in familiarity. A strong voice resounded within the group. “Ally, we really must be going.” Judy’s face freezes at the sound of the name. She quickly tries to cover and smiles broadly.

“Right Lawrence, of course. I apologize Mr. Jessup, I have a meeting I must get to.”

“It’s all right ma’am. I hope you have a wonderful day!”

Lawrence is maneuvering Judy around and leading her away. She calls over her shoulder, “I hope you do too.”

Safely away Lawrence speaks into his cuff link, “Dove is returning to coup.”

“Why did you use the code name? What’s going on?”

“He had an AK under his coat, ma’am.”

Girl with AK47

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

“That sweet man that just saved me?”

“Yes, ma’am, he--” Lawrence’s point is cut off by punctuated gunfire. Judy turns in shock to see Jessup spraying death into the cafe she was just eating at.

Lawrence forces her head down as he continues to lead her away.

“Keep down, ma’am.”

“I don’t understand!”

“You were the target. We just received word of the threat; why I came to reclaim you."

"He's not Syrian!"

"It was in response to the strike you proposed to the President on the terrorists in Oregon, ma’am.”

“Oh my god!”

“He must not have seen a picture of you; known what you looked like. Count yourself lucky ma’am. Lets get you back to the office.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

This work is a derivative of the story “The Fawn and the Little Tiger”. After reading it I was struck by the multiple times we can encounter someone who is seen to be a friend and turns out to be our greatest enemy. Much like the song Passive by A Perfect Circle declares, “I’m sure of your ability to become my perfect enemy.”

People’s passions about different things are affected by their perceptions. I perceive the taking over of federal buildings by a criminal group making demands as a criminal act of terrorism. However the mainstream media decides to label them as freedom fighters. If these folks had been any other race other than white or any other religion other than christian, the response would have been a lot different. However because of their race and religion we give them a pass.

In my story, I equate the group as terrorist taking on a more traditional terrorism role of attacking a cafe. I also use a red herring of the senator contemplating the strike she had ordered in Syria which also draws a parallel to their actions.

In the source story the fawn and the tiger become friends and help each other out until it comes time to feed. The fawn goes to find food for the tiger cub when the tiger cannot eat grass. The fawn is told by it’s mother that it was lucky to escape since the tiger’s food was the fawn.

I feel that this type of story resonates with the acts of terrorism on multiple levels but because of the non action against the group in Oregon they are still “friends.” When they decide to “feed” by committing an act that endangers other whites, we will know what type of food they need.

Indian Fables by Ramaswami Raju. Website: “The Fawn and the Little Tiger”.