Juvenile Status Offenders

What is a status offender? Merriam-Webster says it is the following ¹"a young offender (as a runaway or a truant) who is under the jurisdiction of a court for repeated offenses that are not crimes." The simple explanation is that it is a child who breaks the law without so-called "dangerous" crimes being committed. A child, who is truant, shoplifts, and or anti-social this is a status offender. Many times this behavior leads directly into a more destructive criminal behavior throughout life. The idea here is to approach these offender types with potential fixes. The following explanations of different factors in the progressive justice applications will assist with understanding the following treatment strategy.

Profile and risk factors

What makes a status offender do what they do? Some research indicates that status offenders mirror their surroundings and the environment in which they grow up. Because of the environment, these children at times exhibit anti-social behavior, though in all fairness this behavior is not always a result of the environment. Unfortunately, a status offender is most usually the beginning of something far more criminal. Many times if a child's status behavior mannerisms are not addressed, it can evolve into more self-destructive behavior as well as criminal behavior. By directly addressing the source, we can effectively put a stop to the behavior type and assist the child with changing their potentially destructive behavior. Too combat future problems parents and teachers alike should be aware of several signs about status offenses.

1. Normally active children withdrawing from daily activities (schoolwork- and homework)

2. Lying about simple things to friends and unstable personal habits.

3. Reduced joint activities with family and peer groups, and the addition of new different friends.

4. Poor support systems, family, and or neighborhood, school related.

Look for the signs and actions that could possibly allow a child to be placed in a program that could actually change the future outcome of that child's life. Disallowing a person to continue on a path that could eventually lead to severe criminal behavior should be the imperative of any Justice System worker.

Corrections and detention

Status offenders should only be detained if the original cause is not their environment and all other attempts to "fix" the problem have failed. Obviously, there is always a need for corporal punishment (I.E. detention) however; it is not always necessary first. Something we all as adults must be aware of is that any child anywhere can potentially develop negative and destructive personal habits leading them to lives spent in the system as criminals when we could have stopped it before it even began. Every child deserves the right to grow up with a bright future, and no matter what that its background can. Statistically many juvenile offenses are committed by inner city youth. However, with proper attention we can reduce the statistics drastically. Remember your child's life is far more important. Corrections and detention should always be a last resort when dealing with status offenders. However, when utilizing detention and punishment the effort should be made to approach each case separately as well Children are not merely numbers.

Juvenile courts

Concerning the court system, we should always attempt to fix the problem versus causing more through detaining and punishing potentially more destructive habits. Currently some Juvenile Courts are very well ran and tend to run with restorative principles, however not all do. These courts are running concerning 100+ year old laws that should be adjusted and changed. The idea that the court interprets the laws per the offender and the crime should be readjusted and used to a more constructive end with juvenile status criminals in mind. Current juvenile courts work with laws that tend to be antiquated and address problems that while similar are not the same as what is seen now. This obviously should be taken into account so as too properly approach each individual situation.

Prevention Programs

There are many programs available however, most are based around the fix after the crime is committed and not changing the basis of the crime. If we remove or change the cause for the crime, we will affect more people positively than allowing the crime to occur repeatedly. Most importantly, these programs tend to work on just one principle of juvenile justice versus attempting to work with as many or even all the principles currently utilized. Local Arizona programs operate generally around the following ²"The Juvenile Probation Department's mission is to provide access to evidence-based early intervention, supervision, treatment and secure care for youth and families so that youth learn accountability and responsibility, and community safety are enhanced." Modern prevention programs concentrate on very specific areas, and tend to neglect the general wellbeing and continuing needs of the juvenile status offender. We need to consolidate these into a well-rounded program based on solid laws, and well regulated but modern approaches to age-old problems. Current programs while well intentioned are woefully inadequate and can lead to more problems as only a portion of the problem is addressed.

Guiding Principles

Most interestingly, the modern principles of juvenile behavioral programs and laws are based around one section of laws, though they unfortunately tend to change due to individual interpretation. Nations that belong to the United Nations must follow certain codes of conduct in this regards. There are updates almost annually however, so it is important to remember changes are necessary and must occur. These guiding legal lines allow for a general set of rules to be set up to base additional laws on. The United Nations charter is constantly evolving though it normally utilizes an approach that is both multicultural and multi-societal in its actions. ³" These broad fundamental perspectives refer to comprehensive social policy in general and aim at promoting juvenile welfare to the greatest possible extent, which will minimize the necessity of intervention by the juvenile justice system, and in turn, will reduce the harm that may be caused by any intervention. Such care measures for the young, before the onset of delinquency, are basic policy requisites designed to obviate the need for the application of the Rules." The idea being that a general code for the treatment of juveniles can and should be addressed at all times. This obviously enables those that follow it adjust their legal systems to fit this generalized code.

A different approach

The system I would like to implement is based on a simple set of guidelines and initial actions that could potentially change the future of juvenile justice in a positive way. I have a set of guiding principles, and a competent strategy to address these principles adequately.

A simple system of Juvenile Justice specifically for status offenders.

1. Gauger the current laws and adjust accordingly, utilize current legal personnel and juvenile input.

2. Balance prevention with punishment, emphasis on prevention at the status level.

3. Understand the driving force behind various types of status crimes, some may be peer influence, others may be reactions to current living conditions.

With number one, it is important to utilize all avenues to properly update and apply legal changes to the current system. Everyone should be able to have some type of input even if that is merely voting on a variety of changes to put in place. The strategy in mind would utilize current youth organizations that base themselves in the legal world; however, we could also utilize juvenile input on a far more broad level. With this particular level, we should place more effort on expanding the available legal definitions for this criminal type. Most importantly, we should form several advisory boards of various juvenile justice professionals decide on current laws and possible changes to those laws.

Number 2 should be approached with certain finesse and if number one is properly completed prior to implementing number two you will see that it becomes far easier to put in place. Proper balance of punishment and prevention is very important. At the status, level of offense a child many times is not yet thinking that what they do is a crime. It is highly important to approach these offender types with an attitude of assistance versus punishment, obviously a direct approach is good, however not always necessary. At times approaching these types of offender with an attitude to fix the problem versus punish the crime can have various results. At times juveniles will react in defense if you approach with a negative attitude. This defeats the purpose of approaching the offender, it is imperative that the offender be in an open inviting state of mind. Many times asking an offender what they feel is wrong can end with appropriate answers that will enable you to understand the "why" without initializing the negative feelings that are very apparent with law enforcement at times. Understand when approaching a juvenile offender that much of what they hear regarding law enforcement is negative and that is the first most important speed bump in dealing with younger people. The idea that law enforcement is bad is an idea that should be overcome utilizing a proper approach. Several agencies in Arizona currently utilize a "community service" officer, the role of said officer is to directly integrate into the public and show a kinder gentler approach to law enforcement.

With number 3, we see that utilizing proper psychiatric as well as social approaches to juveniles can indeed allow us to understand the root cause of their "status" criminal actions. While this criminal type is not violent, it can indeed lead to further criminal activities and should be addressed as soon as it is recognized. The attempt to understand should begin with the juvenile in question and work backwards through their peer groups and parental (home support system) stimulus as well. Understand the social parameters of each peer network as it varies according to age and location. Than understand the separate (per offender) influence of the family unit, at times it maybe a lack of family that causes this as well. Juveniles tend to react in negative ways to external stimuli that they do not fully understand, especially if this stimuli has a direct or conflict based position in their life. At times, it may take visits to the household that the juvenile resides in, and in many cases, these visits should be made spur of the moment without prior knowledge to the visited. Wile the child is in school or surrounded by other juveniles they should be observed in a non-confrontational manner to garner useful information into why the child maybe acting the way they do. By utilizing this information gained it could be a simple adjustment including the entire support group that allows a child to change their viewpoint into life in general which than affects their mannerisms and actions on a day-to-day basis.

Every time we turn around there is another issue with juveniles that hits the news, sometimes it is simple like school attendance at other times it is difficult to approach from a sane perspective as it includes children killing other children. My desire is to be able to change this so that we eventually have far less actual juvenile criminals versus current numbers. My hope is to eventually approach each system of justice in this manner however I truly feel that if we address status offenders now with the implementation of a program similar to the above outlined simple plan we may soon see massive positive results. I feel deeply that we as a society do not spend nearly enough time and effort preventing things from occurring and when it comes to our children, we spend far too little time and effort preparing for their general futures. Programs such as the one I am proposing may assist us in building a better brighter future for all. Positive reinforcement and working towards building our future through our children is the most important thing we can do as a society for ourselves!

¹ Status offender. (2008). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved July 27, 2008, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/status offender

² The Judicial Branch of Arizona, Maricopa County (2007) Online Reference.

³ Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. (1985) United Nation Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, Online reference