The American criminal justice system Essay

The focus of the American criminal justice system is frequently punishment. Criminals of all levels are exposed to severe punishments. The agencies of law and criminal justice hardly ever take into account alternative channels of justice that might aid people in changing their ways and lowering their reoffending rate. Additionally, these organizations ought to focus more on prevention, particularly for young people. Poverty is one of the main factors that has been linked to elevated juvenile delinquency rates. Many young people who were born and raised in urban poverty become involved in crime at very early ages. Poverty has been linked to inability to access essentials such as food, shelter, clothing, proper housing, healthcare and education. Children in urban areas with high populations of the urban poor have limited access to education. This paper comes up with a proposal on how the city of Chicago can reduce crime among the youth. The paper prepones that there exists a positive relationship between access to education and reduction in crime rate. It will propose a plan to bring together the community and other stakeholders to address law enforcement and corrections among juvenile offenders by enhancing their ability to access formal education up to at least the high school level.

Summary of the Jurisdiction

Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission has put together data that shows that young people from the urban poor contributes towards high crime rates within the major urban centers. The socioeconomic status of the minority groups has often been linked to general impoverishment that has made many young people unable to access essentials. Children within the high school age bracket (12-17) do not get what is required to attend and complete their high school education (Elejalde-Ruiz 2016, n.p). Within this age bracket, the young people require full support from their family members and the community, especially the parents. This support ranges from finances to emotional support. Family members and the community should be available to give hope to the young people and provide basic amenities such as food, shelter, clothing, housing, healthcare and education (National Crime Prevention Council, 2017, n.p). The link between the community and the young people does note exist in many neighborhoods habituated by the urban poor, especially the minority groups. The purpose of this plan is to use education as key factor to bring together families, communities and young people as a strategy to prevent crime.

Chicago’s urban district barely manages to have one half of the high school students graduate. Data by National Center for Education Statistics (2017, n.p) shows that the highest high school graduation rates in the state has been 85%. This was recorded in the 2014/2015 academic year. When broken down further, the statistics show that African American students are the least likely to complete high school compared to those of other demographics. A study targeted the urban poor within Chicago showed that half of the students were likely to drop out of high school before graduation. Cleveland is one of the worst ranking cities in the US on the basis of high school completion rates. This city has experienced a high number of criminal incidents perpetrated by young people. Data by America’s Promise Alliance (2017, n.p) shows that some of the neighborhoods habituated by the urban poor had their high school completion rates averaging as low as 34%. Therefore, Chicago seems to be an average city when it comes to high school dropout rates. This also seems to reflect in juvenile delinquency.

An Analysis of the Current Trends

Cleveland

Chicago

Trenton

High School Graduation Rate

65%

85%

94%

Delinquency Cases

18600

21,496

14700

Total number of arrests as a percentage of the population between 12 and 18 years

45%

30%

14%

National statistics show that most juvenile arrests involve youths who are within the high school age bracket (12-17 years). About 80% of those arrested are male while the rest 20% are females. African Americans account for about 79% of the total arrests, White Hispanic make up 3.16% while the rest of the white population makes up slightly more than 3% of these arrests (National Crime Prevention Council, 2017, n.p). The 2014/2015 statistics by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that high school graduation rates have been increasing with time. This data coincides with that from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2017, n.p) that shows that juvenile arrests have been decreasing at a rate of about 13% from 2011 to 2016. Data from the three major cities compared above shows that high school graduation rates are inversely proportional to the number of arrests. Cleveland has low high school completion rates with high crime rate among the young. Trenton is on the other extreme with low crime rates among the youth and more than average high school completion rates. Among the three, Chicago is relatively an average city with both aspects being moderate.

This plan is aimed at getting the attention of all the stakeholders to focus on education as a way of reducing juvenile delinquency. The school district, parents, community, government and NGOs will be brought together in a plan that seeks to overcome the effects of poverty using improved access to education. Drug abuse violation and simple battery remain the two leading causes of youth arrests in Chicago (National Crime Prevention Council, 2017, n.p). These two, among other vices, can be dealt with by keeping the youths busy in school. Access to education is often tied to social welfare. Social welfare is a concept tied to availability of resources and satisfaction of the involved parties.

Figure 1: SARA model representing use of education to solve the problem of juvenile crime in urban areas

Literature Review: Addressing Social Justice from the Criminal Justice View

Stakeholders have highlighted the relationship that occurs between crime rate and education. However, most of these studies have been covering the general area of crime. Attention has been given to certain sectors of the population. A press release by the Alliance for Excellent Education (2017, n.p) proposed that the money spent on crime by the government should instead be directed towards raising education standards among the men. The organization described poorly educated and needy men as vulnerable and proposed that stakeholders should ensure that young men at least graduate with a high school diploma. Reforming the school climate for groups that are likely to engage in crime will ensure that these students can build their careers and avoid crime and prison.

Hjalmarsson and Lochner (2012, p. 49) notes that there are tendencies by policymakers to concentrate on punishment and enforcement as a way of dealing with crime. These have been futile in many cases. Their research found out that policy mechanisms arte more effective in dealing with crime, especially when in come to young people. There is growing international evidence that shows that increase in graduation rates and improvement of the quality of education have a positive effect on crime rate reduction. Increasing high school graduation has a positive social and economic impact on the community.

The report by Alliance for Excellent Education (2013, n.p) proposed that some of the resources spend on retributive justice should be channeled to policy mechanisms that increase literacy levels. Hjalmarsson and Lochner (2012, p. 53) and Machin et al. (2011, p. 463) state that education has a long-term positive effect on crime reduction. Both studies mainly concentrated on the general crime rate. Such researches are likely to underestimate the positive impact of education on socioeconomic wellbeing of the society. Education, especially at the high school level, has a greater impact on crime rates among the youth. This impact reflects both in the short-term and long-term and should be given more attention by researchers.

In many developed countries, stakeholders are likely to assume that all households have the ability to provide basic necessities for their children (Lochner and Moretti 2003, p. 3). This partly accounts for the slow rate of increase in high school completion levels in the US, especially in the urban areas. Stakeholders have delegated most of the general responsibilities to the households. These households do not possess sufficient resources to provide education, especially among the urban poor.

An Analysis of the Various Programs

After various interventions aimed at tackling crime, especially in major urban areas, stakeholders came to a realization that the urban youth are some of the most vulnerable groups. With this realization, the various administrations have been making efforts to deal with specific socioeconomic issues in urban areas. Job creation, juvenile justice incarceration and access to secondary education are some of the key issues that have drawn the attention of stakeholders. The Obama administration came up with a stimulus package in 2009 that targeted low-income households in the country. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was aimed at reimbursing households, individuals and communities from the effects the Great Recession. The act allocated funds to various sectors aimed at providing temporary solutions. Some of the key issues targeted included health and education. Donovan (2009, n.p) notes that despite the existence of such laws, the Obama administration seemed to neglect the urban poor. Initial allocation of the Recovery Act funds to Cleveland was $27000000. At the time of the allocation, 64% of offenders in the city were young people from poor families. The authorities indicated that the fund would be channeled to job creation for this group. The fact that some school districts registered graduation levels that are as low as 34% meant that most of the young people could secure the jobs created and the government had to outsource. At the time of the allocation, Chicago was registering very low high school completion rates. Donovan (2009, n.p) notes that barely half of those enrolled in schools graduated. A large percentage of the Recovery Act funds were also channeled towards job creation. The youth hardly possessed the skills and willingness to take up the jobs created and crime rate remained high.

Recommendations on Funding

This program involves individual parents, family members, community members, NGOs, school districts, criminal and legal justice institutions, local authorities and state and federal governments. It is the expectation of other stakeholders that parents and family members will take charge of their children’s education. This fails to happen among the urban poor. Therefore, the other stakeholders should provide the funding. This program will heavily rely on the funds diverted from other crime intervention programs that have failed in the past. They include incarceration and creation of jobs. Therefore, the program will focus on preparing the youth to take up jobs while keeping them away from incarceration by creating a conducive learning environment both in the community and in schools. Both state and federal governments have shown the intention to contain juvenile delinquency. However, the interventions by these two major stakeholders have not been effective because of lack of foundation. Diversion of the money allocated to job creation and other retributive justice programs towards education can have a great positive impact on reducing crime.

The major financier of the program will be the government. The juvenile criminal justice institutions should also give less focus to punishment and instead focus on supporting communities and families to provide education to their children. Some children from the low income families fail to graduate due to lack of moral support. The criminal justice system, through the community, should take up such children and offer advice as foster parents to have them work hard in secondary education and graduate. This can be done by getting volunteers who will then act a mentors to the young children. The volunteers can be adults from within and outside the state. The adults can offer advice to the young people on the issues that they are facing and even financial support where possible. NGOs can run homes, offer counselling services and also attract the attention of other stakeholders in case the young people have financial needs that are beyond the ability of the organization.

Anticipated Outcomes

This prevention program deals with juvenile crime rates in the short-run while its long-run will have a positive effect on both the juvenile and adult justice system. The anticipated short-term outcomes of this program is reduced juvenile crime rate. This will be followed by an increase in high school completion rates. The young people who are likely to get involved in crime will have school to keep them busy. The fact that these individuals have enough resources and mental support to keep them in school means that they have little time to concentrate on issues that may draw them into crime.

Conclusion

The urban poor are a vulnerable population. Many young people from this population often find themselves desperate and resort to criminal activities to earn a living. In other cases, young people from this population lack financial and moral support from the community and families that can help them concentrate on self-development. This program aims at bringing together a number of stakeholders to distract the young people from crime by providing a conducive school environment. The short term goals for this program is a reduction in juvenile delinquency and high school completion rates while the long term goal is a decline in both adult and juvenile crime rates. The stakeholders will be involved in providing information to the criminal justice authority, moral support and finances to the youth to ensure that they attend their education. The education institutions will also be utilized in tracking down and collecting information on juvenile ex-convicts which can then be used by the criminal justice institutions for intervention.

References

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2013). Crime Rates Linked To Educational Attainment, 2013 Alliance Report Finds [Online][Updated 2013]. Available at < http://all4ed.org/press/crime-rates-linked-to-educational-attainment-new-alliance-report-finds/> [Accessed June 19, 2016].

Aoki, Y., 2010. Does schooling reduce juvenile delinquency? Evidence from a natural experiment in Japan.

Donovan, R. L. (2009). The 5 Worst Cities for Urban Youth. ABC News [Online][Updated November 2009]. Available at < http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Politics/worst-cities-urban-youth/story?id=9083935> [Accessed June 19, 2016].

Elejalde-Ruiz, A. (2016). Nearly half of young black men in Chicago out of work, out of school: report. Chicago Tribune [Online][Updated January 2016]. Available at < http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-youth-unemployment-urban-league-0126-biz-20160124-story.html> [Accessed June 19, 2016].

Hjalmarsson, R. and Lochner, L., 2012. The impact of education on crime: international evidence. DICE Report, 10(2), p.49.

Lochner, L. and Moretti, E., 2004. The effect of education on crime: Evidence from prison inmates, arrests, and self-reports. The American Economic Review, 94(1), pp.155-189.

Machin, S., Marie, O. and Vujić, S., 2011. The crime reducing effect of education. The Economic Journal, 121(552), pp.463-484.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2017). Public High School Graduation Rates [Online] [Updated April 2017]. Available at < https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coi.asp> [Accessed June 19, 2016].

National Crime Prevention Council. (2017). Programs [Online] [Updated June 2017]. < http://www.ncpc.org/programs> [Accessed June 19, 2016].

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2017). Glossary: Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime [Online] [Updated April 2017]. Available at < https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR.asp>[Accessed June 19, 2016].