Adolescent suicide has been described as a major public health problem calling for the aid of researchers willing to better identify factors related to suicide risk. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds. Despite the fact incarcerated adolescents act in self-destructive ways, minimal research has focused on suicide behavior among incarcerated adolescents. Existing data indicates that suicide among adolescent males is especially prevalent in the juvenile justice system. Several variables have been identified as risk factors for suicidal behavior, including interpersonal relationship dysfunction, substance abuse, and psychological variables such as depression and dichotomous thinking. Incarcerated males have been shown to be more prone to these risks than the general population. There is a need to highlight these risks in context of this population, identifying behavior patterns over the life span. Addressing the need to identify behavior patterns within the incarcerated male youth population, this study focuses on one adolescent male involved with Utah's juvenile justice system who subsequently completed suicide. The identified youth suffered from substance abuse; its effects were devastating to himself and those around him. Furthermore, his hypersensitivity to disappointing others permeated his lifelong traits and behavior patterns. Interviewees reported that such hypersensitivity began early in life, prominently influencing his subsequent self-inflicted guilt in adolescence when drug use, the decision to drop-out of school, and incarceration became traumatic. As this case study exemplified, counselors, teachers, school psychologists, family, and friends need to be aware of the increased potential for suicide in incarcerated adolescents, particularly those who struggle with substance abuse and a comorbid disorder.

Juvenile offense is a social problem that affects communities and families. Black juvenile offenses occur at a higher rate than White juvenile offenses. The parents of these offenders may engage in the intervention process of their juvenile offender with the intent to improve the intervention outcome. The literature on this topic, however, is primarily focused on the treatment outcomes of various types of intervention. The identified gap in the literature is research on Black parental input on the process used to select various types of intervention for their offending children. The high rate of incidence compounded by the racial disparity furthers the need to better understand the intervention and treatment selection process from the Black parental perspective. The research question for this study was what are the experiences and perceptions of Black parents involved in selecting juvenile intervention programs for their children who have offended? The theoretical framework used to explain and interpret the participant data was Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. This generic qualitative study involved 7 interviews with Black parents of juvenile offenders residing 20 miles outside of metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. Thematic analysis revealed that participants’ selection process is driven by feelings of responsibility, community and church guidance, unaddressed emotional needs of their children, and intervention challenges and outcomes. Findings support the need for preintervention services; intervention resource availability; parental awareness; and intervention strategy, reform, and efficacy. Policy makers may use these results to inform actions to reduce the juvenile offense rate among Black youth and foster better outcomes for this population group.

1 Juvenile justice - Comparison of swiss and czech law with focus on criminal procedure Abstract anglicky This thesis focuses on comparison of Czech and Swiss form of juvenile justice. The opening chapters briefly summarize the Czech law no. 218/2003 Sb., basic principles of juvenile criminal procedures, concept of his criminal liability and sets out sanctions - educational, protective and penal - which can be assigned to a juvenile person. Then a Swiss version of juvenile law is introduced (the "Jugendstrafgesetz") together with juvenile criminal procedures law ("Jugendstrafprozesordnung"). Also these chapters cotains introduction of basic principles of both laws, a detailed description of respective penalties ("Strafen") and protective measures ("Schutzmassnahmen") and their execution. The juvenile criminal procedure, its specifics and details, is described in Chapter 4, followed by the analysis of laws, comparisons of specific penalties and protective measures. This is supported by recent statistic of juvenile criminality, decisions of special juvenile courts and age limits for criminal liability throughout Europe. Swiss judgements are supplemented by an overview of type and length of respective sanctions and execution of protective measures of placement. The goal of this thesis is to show a different...

Doctor Legum - LLD / The thesis focused on how the advent of children's rights, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has impacted on the subject of juvenile justice and embarked on a practical examination of law reform in this regard in an African context. The focus was placed on a number of African countries that have embarked on or completed child law reform in the aftermath of ratification of the CRC. The case studies in this thesis were Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1993-2001), Namibia (1994 to date), Lesotho (2003 to date), South Africa (1997 to date) and Uganda (1992-1996). / South Africa

This paper analyses the child rights and juvenile justice system in the contemporary Russian Federation as one of the member countries, that adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The choice of the researched country is based on the fact, that Russia is one of the few countries in the world, that has adopted a system of juvenile justice and particularly, the juvenile court as an executive juvenile legal authority, that is primarily addressed to the facilitation of child rights and its compliance to the Convention. The paper provides a qualitative content analysis on the juvenile justice and the child rights in Russia, formed in the sequential themes, in which the child rights are compiled and discussed. The results of this paper show how the juvenile justice system is developed in Russia and which advantages/disadvantages it has, as well as what are the new themes in the Russian legislation on the child rights. Therefore, these results are relevant to the field of criminology, in order to conduct future research on the child delinquency, juvenile victimology and other related areas. Thus, an important aspect of this research is to underline a need in the further research in child rights protection, specifically becoming not only as an international obligation, but a national one for all of the countries. The analysis of this paper can serve as the basis for subsequent scientific research and thereby, to contribute to the new solutions of problems associated with the realization of the child rights and their protection. / <p>Madsen, D. Juvenile Justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A qualitative content analysis on the example of the Russian Federation. <em>Degree project in Criminology 15 Credits</em>. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Criminology, 2020</p>

No description available.

Prosecutors have enormous discretion in the criminal justice system. Their decisions can ultimately impact and shape the course of the lives of the offenders whom they prosecute. This is certainly true for juvenile offenders considered for transfer to the adult court. Previous research indicates that serious, violent offenders are the most likely to be transferred to the adult court. However, very little is known on prosecutors' views of the role of the juvenile court, the process of transfer or the facts that influence their decision to transfer a juvenile to the adult court. A statewide survey of 800 Florida prosecutors was implemented using factorial vignettes. The results indicate that prosecutors support the idea of transfer generally, particularly when they are making the final determination to transfer to the adult court. Further, prosecutors indicate that juvenile transfer should be used sparingly, in extreme cases that are not appropriate to the resources of the juvenile court. The data were also examined to determine the effect of juvenile offender and juvenile offense characteristics on the decision to transfer a juvenile to the adult court. Analysis revealed several significant predictors of preference for transfer: age, threat to society, presence of a violent offense, ethnicity of juvenile, presence of prior adjudications, and amenability to treatment.

While a number of studies have indicated disparities in mental health services use among African-Americans, specific factors that account for within-group disparities have not been thoroughly addressed. Research shows that African-American adolescent males generally are less likely to utilize mental health services and this is especially true among those involved with the juvenile justice system (Hazen, Hough, Landsverk, & Wood, 2004). Previous research indicates that culture is a viable and necessary factor to consider regarding African-Americans' pattern of mental health help-seeking (Cauce et al., 2002). This study utilized a qualitative research design and the Network-Episode Model (NEM) (Pescosolido & Boyer, 1999) as the theoretical framework to examine the influence of culture on the attitudes of African American adolescent males released from juvenile detention facilities to understand their mental health help-seeking. Criterion sampling procedures were utilized to recruit for the study, two groups of African-American adolescent males (n = 54) who initially received services at John Hope Family Renewal Center following their release from juvenile detention. In-depth interviews with participants were conducted and participants' case records were reviewed. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts produced four overarching themes: (1) beliefs about causes of mental health problems, (2) other beliefs about mental health, (3) social barriers - isolation/exclusion, and (4) social network influence on service utilization. Comparisons were made between those youth who used services and those who discontinued service use. Findings revealed that: 1) participants' beliefs about the root causes of mental health problems prevented some from utilizing mental health services, 2) cultural factors partially influenced participants' attitudes and negatively shaped their behaviors towards use of mental health services. Findings also revealed that mental health stigma, ineffective treatment, fear and shame from peers, negative community reaction, and mistrust of mental health providers were important barriers to service utilization. Implications for social work practice, policy, and future research are discussed.

No description available.

Too often, the truth behind a phenomenon is not sought through the perspectives of the people who lived that phenomenon—“the masters of inquiry” into their own realities, as Paulo Freire (1982, p. 29) has explained. Voice is the most powerful, reliable medium for collecting data based on lived experiences, if we are to gain genuine insight into the phenomenon (Freire, 1982). Focusing on the lived experiences of four formerly incarcerated young men of color, this study gave each participant the space to not only recall specific events and times, but to critically reflect on their lives—becoming more critically aware of their individual journeys and constructing new knowledge of the injustices that relate to the school-to-prison pipeline, including recommendations for change. This study sought to answer the following research questions through the voices of the participants: (a) Based on their collective and individual journeys through the juvenile justice system, how do formerly incarcerated youth describe their experiences? (b) What recommendations do formerly incarcerated young men have for reducing youth incarceration and recidivism rates? The participants provided rich narratives that answered each research question with the expert knowledge that can only be derived from firsthand experience. Through careful analysis of the data, several major themes emerged, tying together the experiences of each participant with the findings from the literature. Each participant spoke passionately on not only the need for change, but also specific recommendations for change. It is the power of their poignant insights that ground conclusions offered in this study.