I. Introduction
Crime is a major focus of public attention. Americans increasingly view their world as a dangerous and violent place to live, and, in response, favor increasingly harsh sanctions for criminal activity. This "get tough" mentality has flowed from the public debate into the state legislatures and frequently focuses on juvenile crime. In recent years, state legislatures have passed a variety of measures mandating harsher sentences for violent juveniles, easing restrictions on transferring juvenile cases to adult court, and facilitating public access to juvenile court records.(GINGER ROMERO & DAVID BROWN, Nat'l 1995, pg 12).
Statistics indicate that public and state government concern about juvenile crime is not unfounded. Although the overall violent crime rate has risen in recent years, and is currently at its higher rate since 1985, the current rate is significantly higher than in 1985.
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, juvenile arrests for violent crime increased by 57% between 1988 and 2001, while adult arrests for violent crime increased by only 29% over the same period. Although the rate of juvenile violent crime arrests was relatively constant from 1972 until the late 1980s, it broke out of its historic range in 1990 and has grown continually since.( HOWARD N. SNYDER., 1994).
The problem of serious, chronic, and violent juvenile offenders arises at the nexus of numerous social welfare and mental issues because these youths tend to grow up in environments in which both family structures and opportunity structures have deteriorated. Poverty, inadequate housing, inadequate education, racism, child abuse, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, alcoholism, and endless other social ills can push youths onto paths of violent and criminal behavior. Eradicating juvenile crime without addressing its relationship to these other issues is impossibility..............
