Juvenile Criminal Justice, Essay Example

Introduction

The issue of the use of drugs among the young children has become a major problem in the United States of America. The number of children using drugs has been increasing in the recent past with children as young as eight years taking some of these drugs (Evans & Katie, 2009). This has been one of the contributing factors the rise in the crimes in the young age groups. Children and adolescents in schools have indulged themselves in the acts of abuse of drugs. It is the use of the drugs of abuse which has led to the increase in the criminal activities among the young people. Students who are addicts are unable to obey their seniors, are unable to listen properly to instructions they are give. Therefore, the use of drugs of abuse among the students has led to increase in crime.

Drugs of Abuse

The drugs of abuse are drugs which act on the central nervous system to stimulate it. They lead to enhancing of the performance of the individual who has taken the drug. They are usually not taken for the purpose of therapy and are not prescribed by a doctor or a health care provider. The common drugs of abuse include alcohol, opium alkaloids, barbiturates, cocaine, amphetamines, benzodiazepams and methoqualone. The use of these drugs can cause a lot of physical and social harm to the person who uses them in addition to being illegal to use in the United States of America and therefore the person using the drugs risks a criminal penalty. In the whole world, the United Nations estimates that about fifty million people are addicts of cocaine, heroin and other drugs which are synthetic (Evans & Katie, 2009) . These drugs lead to a state of dependence on them and the individual can not do without them. A person who has become an addict can not think properly without the drug and some will be shaking when they lack the drug. Therefore, a child who has been using the drugs can not do without the drugs. Some of the common drugs young people abuses are:

Alcohol

This is  drug which is legalized in the United States of America though is not supposed to be sold to people who are of young age. It is a drug which interferes with the functioning of the brain. It causes the depression of the brain. In addition, the brain centers which are responsible for the maintenance of character are also depressed. This leads to an abnormal behavior in the juvenile. Due to the fact that the young person is more prone to being affected by the alcohol as opposed to the adults, the young person is likely to behave in funny ways which may be criminal. Alcohol may contribute to increase in the criminal cases of the young adults in the following ways:

First of all, the drug itself is not supposed to be used in the United States of America by people of the young age. Therefore, the people who are young and are consuming the drug are committing a crime. This leads to increment in the amount of charges preferred against the young person. The more they get into alcohol, the more they commit the offence. Therefore, the consumption of Alcohol itself by the young child is an offence and when they consume it, they are committing crime by doing so. Secondly, the drug interferes with the functioning of the brain. As a result, the child is unable to think properly and therefore he or she can not differentiate what is good and what is bad. The result is that the child is likely t6o commit some offences which he or she could not have committed if she or he was not drug. In the past, we have had young people getting drug and spraying bullets to their colleagues or even their parents or teachers. After interrogating them, they reveal that they were under the influence of alcohol and so acted in such a manner. Therefore, the depression of the vital brain centers leads to the abnormal behavior. Young people have committed crimes like raping their colleagues due to the influence of alcohol.

Lastly, alcohol is expensive. This means that the young person, who does not have a stable income, will not be likely to have enough money to buy the alcohol as he or she needs it. Since alcohol is addictive and when the child starts using it causes dependence, then the young person will have to look for money from all means so as to be able to buy the alcohol and reduce the craving he or she has. This can lead to robbery by the child so that they can get enough money to buy the alcohol. The child may also decide to cheat her parents or her primary care givers so that they can be able to get the money she or he needs. As a result, the child will have committed crime.

Tobacco

This is another drug which is also allowed in the United States of America. The drug is allowed for use in the country but it sells must be limited to the older people. Therefore, the young people are not supposed to use it. It contains a component called nicotine which is a central nervous system stimulator. It leads to excitement of the central nervous system and sometimes making the individual to not sober. The drug causes criminal increase in the following ways:

First, it is an offense for the young person to smoke tobacco cigarettes. Therefore, by the fact that the child is smoking when the law does not accept it, then it is causing a criminal offense. The young people are not allowed to smoke until they reach the age of maturity. This means that before that age of maturity, any young person found smoking is committing a crime. There should be no cases of children smoking and if a child is found smoking, both the child and the person who sold the cigarettes to him or her are all guilty. Therefore as a result, the smoking of cigarettes leads to the increase in the cases of crimes reported among the young.

Secondly, smoking requires many just like alcohol. Therefore, a child who does not have a stable income is likely to find that he or she does not have enough dollars to buy the cigarettes. Due to the dependence caused on the child by the tobacco smoking, the young person cannot live without smoking. When the child is having no money, then he or she is likely to look for money from all ways leading to the increased cases of theft among the young ages who smoke. The child is likely to even commit very serious crimes with an objective of earning good money to be able to sustain him or her.

Although smoking of tobacco does not cause a lot of depression of the parts of the brain which are responsible for the control of behavior, it has been reported that sometimes smoking of the nicotine substances leads to an increased ability to commit crimes. There are cases where a child or a young person smokes and becomes excited in his brain, making him or her behave in a manner that is not acceptable. This leads to at times committing some crimes which the child could not have committed if he or she was not a smoker.

Heroin

This is one of drugs of abuse which is totally not accepted in the United States of America. It is against the law to either buy or sell the drug or even be involved in activities which facilitate the spread or the distribution of the drug. It is a very strong stimulant of the central nervous system and therefore can cause a lot of effects on the behavior of the young person. It is one of the drugs of abuse which are a bit expensive as compared to the rest of the drugs. Heroin causes increase in crime among the young ages in the United States of America in the following ways:

Heroin is a very strong central nervous system stimulator and also depressor. The use of the drug by the young person leads to the change in the behavior of the young person and therefore leading to an increase in the probability of the child to commit crimes. Therefore a young person who has taken heroin is likely to behave in some funny manners which are at times criminal. The drug makes the young person to do some criminal activities which the child could not have been involved in if she or he was soba. With the increase of this drug consumption among the young ages, there has been a concomitant increase in the number and type of crimes committed by that age group. It makes the young people pot ray some behaviors which they could not portray if they were not drug.

In addition, Heroin is very addictive. A person who consumes the drug becomes dependent on it and has to take it so that he or she can be able to live comfortably. The drug is also one of the most expensive drugs of abuse. Since the child does not have a stable income, he or she is likely to get involved in criminal activities which are likely to increase his or her income so that she or he will be able to afford the drugs. This is one of the contributing factors to the increased robbery of the young population and therefore increases in crime in that age group. An addict of heroin is not likely to live without the drug and he or he must take it so that he can live comfortably. The lack of the funds for buying the drugs can cause depression of the young person and therefore make the child act very desperately in order to acquire the cash. This is one of the main reasons making that age group commit crimes of theft.

Since young people are particularly vulnerable to black mail by the older people, it is easy to make a child to start being a distributer of the drugs like heroin. The child will be used to deliver the drugs to the drug addicts since they may be do not know what are the repercussions of distributing the drug. In exchange, they are given some of the drug to use for free. The distribution of the drug is an offence and therefore when the young people are getting involved in its distribution, then there are increases in the crimes committed. In the past four years, the number of young people who have been charged with the distribution of the illegal drugs has increased greatly raising a lot of concern. Children are being tricked into the drug cartels and act as the people for delivering the drug. The young people are used as agents of distribution especially in schools where the drug dealers can not access easily.

Since the drug use is prohibited in the United States of America, the increase in the numbers of people consuming the drug leads to a corresponding increase in the number of crime commitment. As a result of pear pressure, when one young child starts using the drug, the rest are likely to also engage in that drug use. Therefore, there are a large number of young people especially in schools who are using the drug of abuse. As result of these, there has been an increase in the criminal cases related to the abuse of Heroin.

Cocaine

Although it is not a common drug of abuse among the young people, its use has increased in the current generation. It is a drug which has been prohibited in either use or distribution in the United States of America. The law of the United States of America does not allow for its manufacturing of consumption within the Unite States. It is another very strong stimulant of the central nervous system and also very addictive. The drug is responsible for the increase in the crimes in the following ways. First, its use is an offence. Therefore, the increase in its consumption leads to increase in the criminal offences which are associated with the use of cocaine. Since it is very addictive drug, once the child starts using it is likely to use it until he is caught by the antinarcotics unit. Also, the use of the drug in one young person is likely to attract more young people to using the drug because of the vulnerability of this age group to peer pressure. The result is that when one young person has started using the drug, there is a high likelihood that his friends will start using it. Therefore, there will be an increased crime rate in that age group.

The drug is also expensive and needs a lot of dollars to acquire it. As mentioned earlier, the young person may not have enough materials and resources to be able to acquire the drugs. Since the drug is also addictive, the child is likely to engage in some criminal activities like theft or even the distribution of the drugs so that he or she can be able to acquire the money for the buying of the drugs. Once a child has started using the drug, he or she can not stop it and will do anything to get money so that she or he will be able to buy them. This leads to an increase in the number of cases of criminal crimes associated with the drug abuse.

How Often the Drugs are a factor in the Juvenile Crimes

The cases of juvenile crimes are not as many as those of the adults. But in the recent years, there has been an increase in the crimes committed by young people. Young people are currently committing crimes such as the shooting of people, rapping of their colleagues and other related crimes. This increase has been related also to the increase in the number of people in the young ages who are involving themselves in drugs. In areas where the use of drugs of abuse is high among the young people, there has also been an increase in the number of crimes among the young people. In cases being reported of criminal charges, there has been association in at least sixty percent (John 2008) with drugs of abuse. This includes young people who committed the offences when they are under the influence of the drugs or young people committing the offence with a view of gaining enough money to buy the drugs.

Comparison between the Children and Adults

Young people are more to drug abuse than the adults. The young are developing and are trying to fit in the society. This makes them more vulnerable to blackmail by the adults who are already grown and then make them start using these drugs. Therefore the young people are more likely to start using drugs than older people. It is very hard to introduce an adult to the drugs and most people who take these drugs began taking them when they were very young. In addition, the young people including the adolescents are in the stage of discovering themselves and tend to try very many things. They want to see what will happen when they try a certain thing and therefore are very good in adventure. Due to the freedom of the children and young people in the United States of America, the likelihood of these young people to try drugs is very high. The children have their freedoms and the parents are unable to discipline them at times since it is criminal to beat a child.

The young people are also different from the adults in that they are not working and therefore they have no steady supply of money to buy the drugs. The drugs of abuse are usually very expensive and they demand dollars to have them. The unfortunate thing is that the drugs are addictive. Therefore, once a young person starts using them, he can not stop. This means that the young person has been left with no other alternative other than to engage in acts of robbery to raise the money to buy the drugs since they are not working and they need to get the drugs. In addition, the drugs develop resistance with time and hence the young person will have to increase the amount of drug she or he uses to be able to get satisfied. Hence the person needs to keep on increasing the money which is for buying the drugs.

The bodies of the young people are not as much developed as the older people Therefore; the young people are likely to be affected by the drugs. The older people have more developed organs which can metabolize the drugs easier and faster than children and young person. Therefore for an equivalent amount of drug which is given in equal amounts to the young person and another old person, the young person is likely to become more stimulated. This is because the liver of the young person has not developed fully and therefore can not metabolize and clear the drug from the body easily. The presence of the drug in the blood circulation or just in the body organs or other fluids leads to the continuous stimulation of the central nervous system leading to the long stimulation of the person. In adults the liver and the kidneys are very much mature and therefore it will take a very short time to metabolize and break down the drug and therefore limiting the duration with which the drug will be stimulating the brain. This means that the time when the young person is not sober is longer. This will lead to more criminal acts committed by the young person as a result of being not sober.

In terms of the drugs, children tend to use the cheaper drugs rather than the more expensive ones. The reason for this is because the young people who are taking drugs have less money that they can use to buy the drugs. This makes them concentrate on the cheaper drugs like alcohol while leaving the expensive drugs to the older richer people. This is why drugs like smoking of tobacco are very common among the young people of the United States as it cheaper and easily available to the young people.

Crimes Likely to be Committed

The young people are able to commit any crimes as a result of the use of the drugs. This includes crimes such as the use of the drugs themselves, the distribution of the drugs and other crimes as a result of influence. Crimes such as murder have been reported in some places in the United States whereby a young person under the influence of alcohol or other drugs kills others. There are also cases of rape which have been reported and are said to have occurred as a result of abuse of drugs. Cases of the abuse of the illegal drugs are also on the rise among the young people.

Criminal Justice Jobs dealing with Offenders and Drug Users who are Juvenile

There are several criminal justice jobs which have been associated with the increase in the abuse of drugs among the young people. These jobs are things like the distributers of the drugs of abuse, the people who produce the drugs of abuse and the people who buy stolen property by the young people. The distributers are responsible for the access of the drugs by the young people. If the distributers are not present, the young people would not have the drugs. The manufacturers of the drugs of abuse are also responsible the increase in the crimes. They are the ones who make it possible for the drugs to b available in the young population. Lastly, the people who buy goods from the young people in a way enhance criminal activities among the young since they encourage them to steal more and also give them the cash to buy more drugs of abuse.

Conclusion

Juvenile criminal activities have been on increase in the recent past which has been associated with the drug abuse in the young people. There is a high likelihood that the increase in the criminal activities is as result of the increase in the abuse of drugs by the young people. Young people are particularly vulnerable to use of the drugs of abuse due to peer pressure. They are also not mature and can be easily cheated by the drug dealers and users to start using or distributing the drugs or both.

References

John, M. V., (2008). Juvenile Criminology. Journal of Criminal Justice, 6 (3) 45-67.

Evans, S., & Katie, S., (2009). Abuse of Drugs among the Young People. Journal of Law, 5(5), 78-89.