Recidivism of Juvenile offenders
Recidivism among juvenile offenders research examines the rate in which young people are repeatedly incarcerated. Criminal justice projects focus on recidivism and much of the research is done at colleges and universities around the United States to determine what policies work and what incarceration efforts fall short of their goals.
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Recidivism of juvenile offenders presents a difficult social dilemma. On the one hand, the impressionability of youth offers hope that juvenile offenders can be persuaded to mend their ways and grow into productive, law-abiding adults. Young people have so much life before them that it seems particularly important to give them every opportunity for rehabilitation. On the other hand, juvenile frequent offenders pose the threat of becoming lifelong criminals damaging society for many years.
Efforts to combat juvenile recidivism are hampered by lack of solid empirical data on recidivism rates. Statistics exist, but no uniform standards for precisely what information should be tracked has yet emerged. Many studies track the following concerning the recidivism rate of juvenile offenders:
- Juvenile police contact
- Returns to a juvenile court or to probation
- Repeat imprisonment
Unfortunately, few track all of these consistently over an extended time. Further, legal restrictions on the records of persons younger than 18 severely curtail efforts to conduct wide-ranging studies. Juveniles who avoid felony conviction as adults typically have their records sealed permanently, for example, so it is difficult to determine how many juvenile repeat offenders go on to stay out of trouble as adults.
Recently, public perception of juvenile offenders has steered responses more toward punishment than rehabilitation. High profile violent crimes like school shootings have raised concerns about the leniency of rehabilitation-oriented models that perhaps contribute to these incidents. In the future, better statistical data and empirical testing may provide more insight into the best social response to the recidivism of juvenile offenders.