Treatment versus Punishment
Veronica Rosborough
CRJ301: Introduction to Juvenile Justice
Instructor: Jonathan Sperling
August 17, 2013
TREATMENT 2
Juvenile offenders can be the most ruthless criminals because they are so young, they do not have a conscience nor do they value their lives or the lives of other people. Children have been described as our future, our greatest resource, and our hope for a better tomorrow. For many
Americans, though, children invoke fear. They represent violence, a segment of society lacking in self-control and devoid of ethics and morals, and the failure of the family to instill traditional values, top among them being the value of human life and respect for others. With this being said
I believe that treatment and punishment should both be used when dealing with minors. Of course the type of crime plays a huge role on which task should be implemented. Fear of crime, especially random violence perpetrated by young Americans, is among the nation's greatest concerns. It has served as the motivation for countless numbers of people to change their lifestyles, take self-defense classes, install home security systems, and carry handguns for protection. Moreover, fear of crime has influenced politicians and laypersons to adopt the position that a conservative justice system, which seeks to punish and deter, holds the most promise in curtailing juvenile crime. Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children engage in criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous
