COMBATING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
GINA BUFFALOE
CRJ 180/STRAYER UNIVERSITY
DR. CLINTON MILLER
8/17/2014
COMBATING JUVENILE DELIQUENCY HILSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Hillsborough County in the state of Florida initiated a program called the Juvenile Arrest Avoidance Program or JAAP in August of 2010. The the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) was also implemented to provide at-risk youths the greatest opportunity to mature into responsible, law-abiding adults. Although there is more than one goal for the purpose of each program, the main purpose of JAAP is to keep first-time juvenile offenders out of Hillsborough County's criminal justice system, and to reduce the number of juveniles referred to…show more content… (Civ12; Juvenile Detention Alternatives Solution, n.d.; Juvenile Detention Alternatives Solution, n.d.) Prevention of teens being incarcerated for low-risk crimes prevents the primary deviance from resulting in being “labeled” permanently for one mistake. Being labeled does not only effect how outsiders view the deviant teen, but more importantly how they view themselves. Once a teen views themselves as always ending up in trouble or always making bad decisions, ending up in and out of the juvenile justice system becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Alternatives to detention eliminates associating daily with other “deviant” teens, which often times only teaches teens how to avoid being caught for crime violations, instead of following the law. The differential theory has been shown to increase substance abuse among teens significantly, when they spend a large amount of time around other teens in trouble with the law. (Menna, 2007) In addition to these two programs discussed, I believe juvenile offenders would benefit greatly from a victim impact program, especially for more serious crimes. Often time’s teenagers have difficulty thinking outside of their own wants and needs, and this type of program expands their level of crime impact. Too often teens participate in more violent crimes due to a lack of greater understanding of the damage they can create. Providing a program that focuses on the impact of crime for a victim and their
