The three types of offenders that the juvenile justice system recognizes
Overview
Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending or child crime, is the participation of minors (juveniles) in illegal activities (individuals younger than the statutory age of majority). Most legal systems, such as juvenile detention institutions and courts, establish certain processes for dealing with juveniles. A juvenile delinquent is someone who is under the age of 18 who commits an act that would be considered a crime if they were an adult. Persons under the age of 18 may be charged and tried as adults depending on the nature and severity of the offense committed.
The average age of first arrest has declined dramatically in recent years, and younger boys and girls are committing crimes. Between 60 and 80%… more content…
Different kinds of juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency, or offending, is classified into three types: delinquency, crimes committed by minors that are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system; criminal behavior, crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system; and status offenses, offenses that are only classified as such because the perpetrator is a minor, such as truancy, which is also dealt with by the juvenile courts.
According to Moffitt (2006)’s developmental research, there are two sorts of offenders who emerge during adolescence. The repeat offender, also known as the life-course-persistent offender, begins offending or exhibiting antisocial/aggressive behavior in adolescence (or even childhood) and continues into adulthood; and the age specific offender, also known as the adolescence-limited offender, begins juvenile offending or delinquency in adolescence (or even childhood).
Because most teens exhibit antisocial, aggressive, or delinquent conduct during adolescence, it is critical to account for these characteristics in childhood to determine whether they will be life-course-persistent offenders or adolescents-limited offenders. Although adolescent-limited offenders tend to quit all criminal behavior once they reach maturity and have less pathology than life-course-persistent offenders, they nonetheless exhibit higher mental health, substance addiction, and financial issues in both adolescence and adulthood.
