How are juveniles defined? At the state level and at the federal?
- Those individuals who are under 17 years old
- Each state has different ways of defining juvenile
- Federal the same definition for juveniles under 18
What is the definition of juvenile delinquency dependent on?
- Depending on the historical period and geographic region
- Dependent on our definition of juvenile and the time and place we are in
- Depending on general conceptions of misbehaviors and deviance
- What are some of the attributes that distinguish juveniles from adults?
- The young may not be responsible for their behaviors as adults
- Less mature than adults
- Juveniles can still be saved (rehabilitate and teach them)
- Juveniles are innocent and in need of our protection (outside and themselves)
- “What does it mean when we say that in the United States race, class, and gender still matter?”
- They impact individuals experiences over time (some people can afford to pay bail and spend their time at home waiting for trial vs. in jail)
- We have different experiences based on our race, class gender, and sexuality, and different experiences based on age
- What is the process of social differentiation and what does it lead to?
- We have different experience because we define nd describe people base on different categories.
- Leads ranking based on certain categories.
- The rankings can lead to social inequality and we have placed judgement or inequality on them.
What is individual racism
the belief of inferiority of certain racial or ethnic groups with discrimination
- Institutional racism
that occurs when individuals. are disadvantaged or oppressed because of their race because of the routine workings of social institutions.
Individual classism
prejudice or discrimination based solely on someone’s class
Institutional classism:
occurs when individual. Are disadvantaged or oppressed because of their class
Individual sexism
prejudice or discrimination based solely on someone’s sex
Institutional sexism
occurs when individuals are disadvantaged or oppressed based of their sex or gender
- What is unequal enforcement and give an example of unequal treatment of girls relative to boys?
The idea that the law is written in a manner that focuses attention on one group disproportionately over another.
- EX: Lilly burg has an increased unhoused problem with youth…. A new law has been passed that it is a misdemeanor to sit on public sidewalks between 9-9 p.m. This is a large tourist town and often tourists will be sitting and no law enforcement will say anything.
- EX: Maria was found with her cousin who had possession of meth she was found adjudicated and she completed disposition for 3 days in detention and later “violated probation”
- Once you become a repeat status offender girls are often managed and controlled through agreements to control sexual behavior than boys
- What is the cradle-to-prison pipeline and its associated issues?
Starts with pervasive poverty and end up in jail through lack of health care, gaps in development, disparate educational opportunities, abuse and neglect, mental and emotional problems, substance abuse policies
- 1 in 3 black males
- 1 in 17 black females
- 1 in 17 white males
- In in 111 white females
- What is the sociological imagination?
- Understand the experiences of individuals through the conditions they are living under
What philosophy was the juvenile justice system created under?
Children are savable and need rehabilitation, not punishment
- What problems emanated from the juvenile justice system relying on “informal” justice and judicial discretion?
The treatment looked like punishment due to children being kept for long periods with little focus on rehabilitation
- The discretion means that the children were vulnerable to the decision-making practices of individual workers
- EX: girls who were suspected of sexual behavior were kept in detention facilities until a marriage age
Describe the two ironies of the formalization of the juvenile justice system.
-1st the similarity to the adult system… Now both systems have similar legal rules and punishments look similar too
- 2nd did not protect juveniles from being treated differently based on personal characteristics
In terms of incoming youth, what is the strength of the Project Rebound Scholars program?
Helps people leaving prison earn college degrees
- Provides support to ex-convicts to get and education and reduce the recidivism rate to coming back to prison
- The chance of a black boy and girl, Hispanic boy and girl, and white boy and girl born in 2001 going to prison
A Black boy born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime; A Black girl born has a 1 in 17 chance of going to prison in her lifetime;
- a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance; a Latina girl a 1 in 45 chance;
- a white boy a 1 in 17 chance. and a white girl a 1 in 111 chance
behaviors that are considered crimes for which adults cannot get in trouble
status offenses: acts that are not considered crimes for which adults can’t get in trouble :
- running away from home (most often defined as an unauthorized absence from the home for 24 hours or more),
- school truancy (systematic absence from school),
- drinking alcoholic beverages or smoking cigarettes,
- incorrigibility (repeated disobedient behavior in the home)
What is Normative conception?
Normative conception (violation of norms): acknowledge that race, class, and gender, age, sexual orientation are somehow connected to delinquency
what is the Social Constructionist
(subjectively problematic/constructed by society
- assumes that the definition of deviance and delinquency is constructed based on the interactions of those in society.
- According to this conception, behaviors or conditions are not inherently deviant; they become so when the definition of deviance is applied to them
What is the Critical Conception
(established by those in power and to maintain their power): the normative understanding of deviance and delinquency is established by those in power to maintain and enhance their power.
- It suggests that explorations of both have focused on a white, male, middle- to upper-class understanding of society that implies that people of color, girls, and youth from working poor neighborhoods are, by definition, delinquent.
What are the 3 conceptions of delinquency?
Normative, social constructionist, critical conception
