Juvenile Gangs, Essay Example

Severe juvenile delinquency in the USA really started to appear in and after the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  Partly due to the slum conditions and shanty town that were created and a sub culture of crime.  There is doubt that poverty and depravation are major contributing factors to the behaviour of young offenders.  Notable areas in the USA were the backwaters of Chicago and New York where gang cultures were formed.  Poor economic conditions and ethnicity problems have deepened the problem to other Cities in the USA. ” American society has determined a culture goal, i.e., to acquire wealth for all the citizens and has specified hard labour honesty, education for achieving that goal. But there is gap between theory and practice. Social recognition to people who have acquired wealth through ways not approved by the society and insufficient social opportunities to acquire wealth causes high rate of deviant subculture”  (Karzon).

Some recent interesting statistics in the USA indicate that about 62% victims of non fatal violence occur at the hands of juvenile offendors.  95 % of sexual assaults were commited by youths under the age of 18.  Some 74% of reported juvenile offences said the purpotrator was a male.  61% of simple assaults were carried out by juveniles.  One area singled out as having the most continued troubelsome record was Los Angeles in California.  (Montaldo)

Types of Juvenile Offences :  The following have been categorized as amongst the ten most typical examples of juvenile crime:

• Murder / Homicide
• Rape and Assault
• Theft  / Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Drink Driving
• Drug Addiction
• Vandalism

“2.3 million juveniles were arrested in 2002. This accounts for 17 percent of all arrests and 15 to 25 percent of all violent crimes. According to juvenile crime statistics, murder accounted for five percent of violent crimes committed by juveniles, 12 percent for rape, 14 percent for robbery, and 12 percent for aggravated assault.” (Smith)

The penalties for juvenile crime vary from State to State, with the death penalty being imposed at the severest end.  The Supreme Court generally does not advocate the death penalty for juveniles, nevertheless this remains at the prerogative of the State laws.  At the moment the USA has executed 6 juveniles this decade with Oklahoma and Texas strong advocates of this.  ” A 1988 Supreme Court ruling (Thompson v. Oklahoma) is widely interpreted as prohibiting the execution of offenders who committed crimes when under the age of 16, but individual states can set higher minimum ages.”  (Mark)

Punishments for young offenders :  These vary from the nature of the crime ranging from community service, through imprisonment and ultimately the death penalty. In 2005 the USA was reported as having 2,250 juveniles serving life imprisonment.  This being highly criticised by Amnesty International who considered it a violation of human rights.  This ruling on life imprisonment was being exercised across 42 States.  It was stated only Tanzania, South Africa and Israel adopted such harsh practices.  An interesting case was that of Christopher Simmons who had been sentenced to death at age 17.  This occurred in the State of Missouri in 1993 and subsequent appeals lasted until 2002.  The US Supreme Court in Missouri stayed the Execution until the US Supreme Court has reached a final verdict on Atkins v Virginia ( a murder case based on someone who was mentally ill).  ” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally ill violated the Eighth and 14th Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment because a majority of Americans found it cruel and unusual, the Missouri Supreme Court decided to reconsider Simmons’ case.”  (Kennedy).  The Government decided that a dangerous precedent would be set if State Courts would be allowed to overturn rulings of the US Supreme Court simply based upon popular beliefs of the people that it was in their business interests.

Works Cited

Karzon, S. H. (2003, 8 10). An inquiry into the causes . Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://www.thedailystar.net/law/200308/02/index.htm

Kennedy, J. A. (2008). Oyez Supreme Court Media. Retrieved 10 28, 2009, from http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2007/2007_07_343/

Mark, J. (2009). A Crime against juvenile Criminals. Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/646.htm

Montaldo, C. (2009). Most Juvenile Crime Victims Are Other Juveniles. Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://crime.about.com/od/juvenile/a/juvenile_vics.htm

Smith, L. (2009). Juvenile Crime Statistics . Retrieved 11 17, 2009, from http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/criminal_law/juvenile/statistics.html