Criminal and Juvenile Justice & Theory

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Law, Criminology
Year 2
Criminology I
Hi,
Let's take a closer look through discussion and example, which you can draw on for your final copy.
Q1. Explain how the practices of diversion, decriminalization, net widening, and de-institutionalization of status offenders work in juvenile justice. How do each of these initiatives relate to the basic assumptions of labeling theory?
Labeling theory was a child of the 1960s and 1970s, which saw criminals as underdogs who initially did something out of the ordinary, and then got swept up in a huge, government-sponsored labeling or shunning reaction. It argues that anyone facing such an overwhelming, negative labeling social reaction will eventually become more like the label because that is the only way out for their identify formation. It points out that sometimes its best to do nothing (for minor offending), and that there are few reintegrative rituals designed to help people fit back into their communities. In other words, the best practice intervention is either nonintervention or reintegration into the dominant society, the law-abiding society.
The above concepts are the nonintervention or the re-integration strategies associated with labeling theory. In 1967, for example, the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that the juvenile justice system practice judicious nonintervention and avoid the incarceration of children and adolescents. The commission endorsed decriminalization, diversion, due process, and deinstitutionalization (Empey, 1967). As a result, the juvenile justice system has emphasized rehabilitation, not retribution, requital, or punishment (Bartol & Bartol, 1994).
Because of this emphasis, juvenile justice policy makers are interested in knowing which rehabilitation programs reduce recidivism. Previous research on juvenile recidivism has reflected this interest. For example, starting in the 1950s and 1960s, group homes were introduced for rehabilitating juvenile offenders (see McCorkle, Elias, & Bixhy, 1958; Sommers, 1963), and early evaluations of these group home programs used recidivism to determine their effectiveness. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_137_35/ai_62959087
In other words, these concepts are related to community-based interventions aimed at re-integration into society.
Examples of Diversion Programs
For example diversion strategies divert the juvenile offender from the courts to other programs. One of the most common forms of diversion is the police-based program that historically is housed in the department's youth bureau. Its objective is to remove youths from the criminal justice system. In Bismarck, North Dakota, the goal of the Police Youth Bureau is to combine consequential and therapeutic approaches in working with young people who have been referred through law enforcement, school, juvenile court, the family, or self-referral. A key ingredient to the success of this program is the intense supervision it affords the child. This includes ...