Juvenile Delinquency and Reoffense Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Juvenile Delinquency and Reoffense - Essay Example As the discussion stressers after serving the punishment handed down by the juvenile justice system, the juvenile delinquent is released from custody or supervision. The interest in the effectiveness of the justice system in reforming the individual gave rise to a wealth of literature particularly in the subject of re-offense. This paper aims to determine and discuss the nature of troubled youth re-offense and evaluate the policies aimed in addressing them. In reading this paper, one will come to know that re-offense is more commonly referred to as recidivism and that several socio-demographic, legal and policy-related factors are involved in its dynamics. From this paper it is clear that reoffending is more commonly known as recidivism and is legally taken to refer to the act of an individual committing an offense after being released from a correctional facility. The interest in determining the tendency of an individual to commit a crime again has given rise to several studies concerning recidivism. Maltz conducted a literature review and was able to identify at least 14 working definitions with the most prominent being re-arrest, resentence and readjust/reconviction. An individual is re-arrested once he is taken into custody after being released from custody or supervision after a certain time. This measure is argued to be dubious due to the fact that the arrestee may have been arrested for a delinquent behaviour that he did not commit. In short, the mere act of being arrested is taken to be indicative of recidivism. A child or an adolescent is considered to have been resentenced once he is subjected to a period of custody or superv ision.