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Essay Subject: Research proposal to determine if justice system fails to rehabilitate offenders. Recidivism, stigmatization, at-risk youths.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Research proposal to determine if justice system fails to rehabilitate offenders. Recidivism, stigmatization, at-risk youths. Paper Introduction: The Effects of the Criminal Justice System on Criminal Behavior: Are Youthful Minor Offenders Condemned for Life? I. Statement of the Problem Recidivism is the propensity of persons convicted of criminal behavior to continue and even expand that behavior after leaving the care of the criminal justice system. Recidivism rates of up to 90% have been reported (Brier, 1994, 215). Thus, prior involvement with crime is often the single best predictor of future involvement with crime. The unanswered question, however, is whether past criminal behavior alone is the major culprit, or whether there is an intervening variable that enhances the potential for future crime. There is evidence that the criminal justice system is little more than a crime Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. and Doyle, J.P. This will be measured by self-reports of youths. Finally, the study will examine whether those who are caught andpunished for minor criminal offenses are more likely to graduate to moreserious offenses than those who are not caught. Chavaria, F.R. Targeted treatment for adjudicated youth withlearning disabilities: Effects on recidivism, Vol. Definitions The basis of this research is the assertion that recidivism has beena poorly defined concept. Briscoe, R.V. It isdifficult to claim informed consent when the population being studied isnot of legal age to enter into a contract. The Effects of the Criminal Justice System on Criminal Behavior: Are Youthful Minor Offenders Condemned for Life?I. This study will examine whetheryouths with minor criminal backgrounds eventually graduate to more seriousoffenses only after being caught and placed into the system, while youthswith similar backgrounds who do not get caught do not escalate theirbehavior.II. A major assumption of this study is that the commission of minoroffenses is more widespread than is shown in official statistics. That is, that the keydifference between youths who are adjudicated for serious criminal offensesand those who are not will be that members of the former group werepunished for their minor offenses while members of the latter group werenot.H3: Early involvement with the criminal justice system is a significantpredictor of the commission of serious offenses.IV. Scherer, D.G., Brondino, M.J., Henggeler, S.W., Melton, G.B., andHanley, J.H. 4 ,Preventing School Failure, 1- 1-1996, pp 73. Guidance counselors at several largelocal schools will be asked to submit requests for volunteers from theirstudents. Statement of the Problem Recidivism is the propensity of persons convicted of criminalbehavior to continue and even expand that behavior after leaving the careof the criminal justice system. (1997). Data Collection A survey instrument will be constructed for the collection of thedata. Possible question areas willinclude whether they had ever been caught and punished, feelings of guiltor remorse, and frequency of occurrence. Hypotheses In order to conduct this assessment, a preliminary assumption must betested. However, the assurances of theprocedures developed to maintain anonymity alleviate some of theseconcerns. The U.S. Experimentation with drugs and alcohol isfurther defined as the recreational use of drugs and alcohol at parties andgatherings, but not as habitual use. It is operationallydefined as youths who have been referred to any intervention,rehabilitation, or incarceration program for the commission of a minoroffense. HypothesisThree will be analyzed through the use of regression.VII. For the seriousoffenders in Group One, a date, time, and place will be set at eachfacility from which volunteers are drawn. It is the program itselfthat marks the official contact with the criminal justice system. Youthful offenders areoften stigmatized for life, despite legal requirements that juvenile crimerecords be sealed. That is, it is early involvement with thecriminal justice system that has an effect on later behavior, not theinitial behavior that led to adjudication. This is designed to allow the respondent to feelcomfortable with the survey and to open up about their personal life.Gradually, this section will segue into questions about parties and alcoholuse, then drug use, truancy, and vandalism. (1994). It isconceivable that such an investigation could uncover further evidenceindependent of the study findings. Winters, C.A. The variable "Not-At-Risk Youth,"then, will be operationally defined as any youth who satisfies fewer thantwo of the major criteria for predicting delinquent behavior.V. Roughly equal sample sizes will be maintained for eachgroup.VI. Theschools from which the sample will be drawn will represent a cross-sectionof both urban and suburban districts. Ethical Issues Dealing with youths presents a whole host of ethical issues. Congress Office ofTechnology Assessment (OTA) conducted a comprehensive review of factorsassociated with delinquency, as part of a report on adolescent health. Thus, prior involvement with crime is oftenthe single best predictor of future involvement with crime. Hypothesis One will be analyzed through the use of regression.Hypothesis Two will be analyzed through the use of a t-test. Summary This study is an attempt to examine whether the criminal justicesystem as currently composed actually serves as little more than a"criminal academy," in which young offenders are thrown together withhabitual criminals and given a thorough introduction to a life of crime.This mixture of the young and naive with the older and corrupted may not bethe only failure of the criminal justice system. Winters (1997)found that learning disabilities and poor educational performance werestrong predictors of juvenile delinquency. The data will be collected in two different ways. These will be youths who have been adjudicated for the commissionof serious offenses and are currently in an intervention or rehabilitationprogram, are incarcerated, or are on parole. Any youth who has purchased drugs oralcohol for personal use for himself alone or for a small group of friends(4 or fewer) on more than two occasions is deemed "habitual" rather than"experimental" for the purposes of this study. Friends, families, and neighbors all know of theyouth's situation, and often subtle but sometimes overt changes inattitudes towards that youth can effect him for life. These criteriainclude gender (male), increasing age (up to between 15 and 17 years), low-IQ or learning disabilities, poor educational achievement, lack of parentalsupervision and involvement, parental rejection, poor disciplinarypractices, family criminal behavior, poor marital relations, and parentalabsence. It will startasking innocuous questions such as hobbies, preferred type of music, andfavorite sports teams. To test this assumption, a group of adjudicated seriousoffenders will be examined to test the first hypothesis.H1: Minor offenses will predict serious offenses. Probation and cognitive skills, Vol. Bryant, E.S., Rivard, J.C., Addy, C.L., Hinkle, K.T., Cowan, T.M.,and Wright, G. That is, that youths who are adjudicated for serious criminalserious offenses will have graduated to that behavior from a pattern ofminor offenses. Two samples will be assessed and compared. It is also possible that early involvementwith the criminal justice system so stigmatizes a youth that a future incrime becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In both studies, effects were found to be significant butsmall and often temporary, and recidivism rates always remained above 1 %and usually in the 4 % to 5 % range. Rarely is prior involvement with the criminal justice systemtreated as a predictor variable in itself. This study will focus on young males aged 15to 17, so those predictors will not be included in the operationaldefinition. Thus, a youth who has committed minor offenses could be one who hasskipped a few days of school, who has broken a window or tagged a wall withgraffiti, or who has occasionally used drugs or alcohol at a gathering ofother youths. It is the intent of this study todetermine if such attempts at intervening in youths' lives actually promptlater criminal behavior. (1995) Correlates of major and minor offending among youthwith severe emotional disturbance, Vol. Currently, it isthe belief of the researcher that any and all such information shouldremain solely in the hands of the researcher and should not be shared withlaw enforcement under any circumstances.VIII. Chavaria (1997) hasdocumented that disruptive and antisocial tendencies are most malleable atearly ages, becoming more intractable by early adolescence. Anonymity will beguaranteed for all information supplied by all volunteers. Examples of such offenses include theft, assault, and drugtrafficking. 2, Journal of Emotional & Behavioral Disorders, 1 - 1-1994, pp 198. Leunes, A., Bourgeois A., and Grajales R. (1994). Literature Review Researchers have determined that certain characteristics areassociated with continuity of antisocial behavior: early age of onset,frequency of behaviors, variety of behaviors, and varietyof settings in which they occur are all indicators that service agenciescould potentially use to screen at a relatively early age for potentiallypersistent delinquency (Bryant, et al, 1995, 77). The next step in the study will be to compare the behavior of youthswho previous research predict to be at-risk for delinquency with those whomsuch research would not predict. Detention facilitysupervisors, parole officers, and leaders of programs will be asked tosubmit requests for volunteers to their clients. The variable "EarlyInvolvement" is conceptually defined as any official criminal justiceinvolvement with a person before their 18th birthday. Aftercare services in juvenilejustice: Approaches for providing services for high-risk youth, Vol. Of course, by definition allrepeat offenders will have prior involvement, thus it cannot be treated asa variable (it doesn't vary). (1997). The variable "At-Risk Youth" is conceptually defined as a personunder the age of 18 who meets at least one of the major criteria previouslyidentified by research as predicting delinquent behavior. Learning disabilities, crime, delinquency, andspecial education placement, Vol. 61,Federal Probation, 6- 1-1997, pp 57-6 . If such evidence is found, theresearcher will be conflicted between the duty to the respondents and theduty to society. Should such evidence be turned over to law enforcementauthorities, who can then open an investigation into the activities? Recidivism rates of up to 9 % have beenreported (Brier, 1994, 215). Officialstatistics are based only on those youths who have been caught, and do notaccount for those who "got away with it." For this study, the variable"Minor Offenses" has been conceptually defined to include common truancy,light vandalism, and experimentation with drug and alcohol abuse. The researcher will sit in theroom and personally collect all completed surveys in order to assure therespondents that their responses will not be seen by any authority. Thisreview reported that demographic factors associated with increased rates ofdelinquency included gender (male), increasing age (up to between 15 and 17years), and race (African American), although race wasbelieved to be confounded with socio-economic status and urban environment.Adolescents with low IQ or learning disabilities have higher rates ofdelinquency (summarized in Bryant, et al, 77-8). Rather, "At-Risk Youth" will include any youth who exhibitstwo or more of the other predictors. 3, Journal of Emotional &Behavioral Disorders, 4- 1-1995, pp 76. Multisystemic family preservation therapy: Preliminaryfindings from a study of rural and minority serious adolescent offenders,Vol. Each survey will have a unique identification number and no datathat can identify the respondent will be collected. 32, Adolescence, 6-22-1997, pp 451(12). It is believed that the study will findthat a broad cross-section of youths will have participated in a wide arrayof minor criminal activity, and that middle-class white youths in suburbansettings will be found to engage in as much minor criminal activity aslower-class black youths in urban settings. This, though, may violate the spirit ofguarantees of anonymity granted to study participants. Such referral could have been either ordered by the court or byparents or voluntary on the part of the youth. The target size for each sample is at least n=3 , for a total size ofat least N=6 . Forthe high school students in Group Two, respondents will be given thesurveys to complete at their leisure and locked collection boxes will beplaced in convenient locations for completed instruments to be dropped. There is evidence that the criminal justicesystem is little more than a crime academy, in which young first timeoffenders are thrown together with career criminals and thereby learn howto become better criminals. Recidivism is the tendency of people who commitcrimes to continue committing them despite attempts at intervention,rehabilitation, or incarceration. 27, Journal of LearningDisabilities, 4- 1-1994, pp 215. Race (African American) has also been found to be predictor ofdelinquency, but race is believed to be confounded with socio-economicstatus and urban environment. Sample Selection The population to be studied is young males between the ages of 15and 17. Any students who have had any official contact with the criminaljustice system will be placed into the first sample group, those who havenot had any such involvement will be placed in the second group. Briscoe, et al (1996) and Leunes, et al (1996) examined the effectsof various attempts at intervention and rehabilitation on juveniledelinquents. (1996). The second sample will consist of youths who have never been involvedwith the criminal justice system. The first sample willconsist of youths who are currently involved with the criminal justicesystem. The third section of the survey will assess the previously identifiedcriteria predicting delinquency, such as respondents' attitudes toward andperformance in school and their family situations. (1996). The unansweredquestion, however, is whether past criminal behavior alone is the majorculprit, or whether there is an intervening variable that enhances thepotential for future crime. However, if youths who engage in minorcriminal offenses but are not punished are compared with those who arepunished, the effects of early involvement with the criminal justice systemas a predictor of later criminal offenses can be assessed.III. What all of these studies lack is a thorough understanding ofrecidivism. Scherer, et al (1994)investigated a variety of family factors in relation to delinquency,including lack of parental supervision and involvement, parental rejection,poor disciplinary practices, family criminal behavior, poor maritalrelations, and parental absence. Commontruancy is defined as youths who have skipped classes or an entire schoolday no more than an average of once a month during the current school year(in this case, no more than eight times). The effects of twotypes of exposure on attitudes toward aspects of juvenile delinquency, Vol.136, The Journal of Social Psychology, 12- 1-1996, pp 699(1 ). In summary, thisstudy will assess whether the introduction of youths into the criminaljustice is more curse than blessing; whether it warns kids away from a lifeof crime or sets the stage for such a life. Another ethical issue is presented due to the nature of the study.It is possible, if not likely, that evidence of serious criminal conductmay be uncovered as a result of this study. The second section will ask for personal information. References Brier, N. This section will conclude withquestions about whether more serious offenses had ever been committed,whether they had been caught at these or not, and whether the activitieswere ongoing. If this hypothesis issupported, it allows for control of many other variables.H2: There will be no significant difference between at-risk youths and not-at-risk youths in the practice of minor offenses. The variable "Serious Offenses" is conceptually defined as anyoffense that typically results in incarceration when committed by an adultoffender. Recidivism is always treated as an outcome measure, a means ofassessing the effectiveness of various intervention and rehabilitationprograms. The first section ofthe instrument will collect demographic data, including: date of birth,ethnicity, last or current school attended, and parents' occupations. Anonymity will be guaranteed for allinformation supplied by all volunteers. Students who have engaged inthis behavior more than eight times are deemed "problem truants." Lightvandalism is further defined as any vandalism that caused less than $1 worth of estimated damage. Operationally, this variable will be measured by officialrecords of adjudication and punishment. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.