The Attack on Juvenile Justice

Abstract

As juvenile crime increased during the last two decades, the juvenile justice system came under unprecedented scrutiny and criticism for its perceived inability to respond to this increase and to provide interventions that might thwart juvenile crime. As this offending became more lethal, with juvenile homicide rates increasing by more than 200 percent in some jurisdictions, the abolishment of the juvenile court was called for. Get-tough reforms, mostly in the form of boot camps, were established in the hope that physical exercise and discipline would provide a welcome relief to the perceived softness of the juvenile system. These camps also embodied the popular notion that punishment had disappeared and that its reintroduction would somehow lead to a general deterrence causing crime rates to plummet. Violent crime rose, but general crime rates dropped. Research efforts could not connect these declines to the boot camp phenomenon, however. In addition, violent juvenile crime led to an increase in the waiver of many young offenders to the adult criminal justice system, bringing into question the notion of diminished capacity and its relationship to crime and punishment.