Summary: The Ideal Juvenile Justice System

Introduction:

The ideal juvenile justice system aims to have every one of its components working together to achieve a common goal. Generally, this goal will be to reduce recidivism amongst juveniles. Recidivism refers to convicted criminals reoffending. (Recidivism, 2011) While juvenile justice systems aim to prevent recidivism amongst young offenders, they also aim to protect at-risk youth and prevent them from committing crime in the first place. While many currently employed youth justice systems adopt a range of criminological theories, this system will only focus on one. The theory that this system will focus on is the classical school of criminology. This essay will explain the 18th century classical school and why it is suitable for

(Claster, 1967) Two of the main contributors to the classical school of criminology were Jeremy Bentham and Cesare de Beccaria. (The Classical School of Criminology, 2013) In the field of criminology, Bentham and Beccaria are widely considered the founding fathers of the classical school of criminology. (The Classical School of Criminology, 2013) Both Bentham and Beccaria wanted to reduce the harshness of the judicial systems that existed in the 18th century. A significant part of Bentham’s contribution to the theory was his pleasure- pain principle. (The Classical School of Criminology, 2013) In essence, he believed that the reason individuals committed crime was to gain sex, money or excitement. Essentially anything that the individual believed to be valuable. (The Classical School of Criminology, 2013) Beccaria himself wrote that preventing crimes was better than punishing them. (Cesare Beccaria, n.d.) In essence, this sums up the classical theory. Beccaria, at the time believed that the punishments offenders were receiving were far too harsh and did not match the crime. The 18th century was infamous for the incredibly harsh punishments for crime. For example, in England the

The first concept was the principle of rationality. The classical school believed that all criminals think rationally, they weigh up the consequences of their actions and choose to commit crime. (Classical School of Criminology, n.d.) The classical school believed that deterrents should be created that only just outweigh what could be gained from the crime. This was why both Bentham and Beccaria heavily opposed capital punishment and believed that it was pointless. (The Classical School of Criminology, 2013) Applying this concept to juvenile offenders can be tougher than applying it to adult offenders as some young juveniles may not have sufficient cognitive capacity to understand the weight of their crime. The second concept was hedonism. This refers to the pleasure -pain principle that Beccaria embraced. Classical school believed that the reason individuals committed crime was to gain sex, money or excitement. Anything that the individual held to be valuable. This concept can be more easily applied to the issue of youth crime. As previously mentioned, the study by the Australian Institute of Criminology showed a majority of youth crime is property offences. This supports the argument that juvenile offenders are stealing and breaking and entering to obtain money or valuables. The third concept is punishment and it relates to the pleasure-pain concept. Essentially, an individual will use the punishment that will