Police Work With Juveniles

Criminal Justice
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Abstract
There is a lot of concerns raised in the judicial system in an attempt to the juvenile’s necessary protection and maintain their best interest in the society. It is no doubt that younger generation demands special treatment in the society and within the justice system. Concerning this, there are several concerns about the roles played by the police in maintaining justice and order in the society especially when dealing with the juveniles. This paper attempts to highlight the significant roles played by the police in handling juvenile cases as they are considered the gatekeepers to the justice system. The police have a big role in having to balance between the different ways of handling the adult offenders and the juvenile delinquents in the society. Such duties and responsibilities a lot of discretion and autonomy among the police officers for them to deliver to the best interest of the society and protect the well-being of the children too.
Keywords: Juvenile, justice, criminal, police, evidence, authority
Police work with Juveniles
Introduction
There exists a complete difference between the dynamics of juvenile offenders and those of the adults. Therefore, police officers play a noteworthy role in the justice system as evident on the impact of the juvenile. This paper seeks to address various aspects of the juvenile justice system particularly emphasizing the role of the police interacting with juvenile offenders.

Other major issues discussed in the paper are legislation and implementation of juvenile laws, an analysis of flaws in the justice system and the gross violation of the implementation rights of individuals (Wood et al., 2014). The adolescent equity framework is relatively like the grown-up arrangement of criminal equity as they all comprise of three noteworthy segments; the corrections, police, and the courts. In many cases, the adolescent cases prepared into the equity framework ordinarily rely upon the result of their experience with the police. The police, in this manner, fill in as the guardians to the adolescent equity framework.
It is the obligation of the cops to start the criminal equity process by settling on the underlying choices on the most proficient method to deal with episodes of adolescent wrongdoing. This delineates the vital pretended by the police in adolescent equity. The officers maintain frequent contacts with juveniles part of which are not known. For such reasons, only a small portion of juvenile cases reach the court. In this manner, the police have an extensive variety of reactions available to them, with regards to settling on choices concerning occurrences that include the adolescent. It is a necessary element in the justice system that the patrol officers be in a position to handle the various and often complex scenarios that they encounter with the criminal youths. In light of such discretions, one ought to be worried about ways the police settle on such imperative choices of managing adolescents particularly when formally grouping adolescents as delinquents and speaking to them to the adolescent equity framework (McMains & Mullins, 2014).
Policing Juveniles
In the past century, the purpose and focus of juvenile justice have gone through numerous changes. At first, the adolescent equity frameworks were shaped to shield the young from the grown-up equity frameworks and make space for circumspection while settling on choices concerning the young. The juvenile court, therefore, was formed to offer rehabilitation services and help juveniles who may have been considered troublesome in their various places of residence. Notwithstanding, the part of the police in the adolescent equity framework has not changed. The officers work on their own without any direct supervision from their seniors (Watson & Wood, 2017). Furthermore, they bear the weight of much watchfulness. This makes it hard to know the exercises that the police include in amid their works day. The police have been given the specialist to capture adolescents because the adolescents need procedural securities like the grown-ups. The cops assumed a noteworthy part of notice kids, taking them back home to their folks or gatekeepers, or give up them to any group office that was regarded useful. In America, cops were significantly selected from their neighborhoods. Subsequently they knew most adolescents living in their places of purview.
According to Woods et al. (2014), over the past few decades, there has been a notably increased concern over the seriousness and incidences of juvenile offending This alarm has incited restored regard for the adolescent equity framework particularly the way they are being handled all through the equity framework. The juveniles present a particular set of problems to the police. The police have maintained frequent contact with the juveniles hanging out on the streets creating some anxiety for other citizens living in their neighborhood. In most occasions, the juveniles have developed a negative attitude towards the police are a result of their increased contact. The interaction between the police and the juveniles occur in many ways. For instance, the patrol officers frequently interact with juveniles who may be victims or suspects of delinquent behaviors. In any case, just a couple of them is prepared into the adolescent equity framework. This cooperation typically occurs amid work days when cops start experiences with the young people who may be engaged in bad practices or as they react to dispatch calls for police consideration.
These are police departments that specialized developing units to handle juvenile cases. However, these officers failed to take part in juvenile justice until the patrol officers decide to formally report any incident relating to the youths. Most of the police confrontations with the juveniles do not involve personal or serious offenses. The police are called upon to settle instances of open issue offenses, suspicious conditions, or peaceful offenses that don’t require any legal move made upon them. Furthermore, these adolescent cases go unreported because police experiences regularly include just a single adolescent without a casualty or a complainant introduce amid such experiences. Be that as it may, if a casualty is available, they seldom request that the police capture the adolescents (McMains & Mullins, 2014). Also, it is hard for the police to process individuals to the juvenile justice system because they lack prior knowledge of the youths they are interacting with hence they are forced to make decisions using the limited information they have concerning their juvenile victims.
Existing research conducted on police indicates that patrol officers utilize a wide variety of options to handle situations and citizens in the course of their duty. An inquiry into the police actions indicates a similar variation between juvenile arrest and that of adult offenders. In situations where captures neglect to happen, the police utilize their power in various approaches to control any future wrongdoing among the adolescents. The police, by and large, abstain from taking formal activities against the adolescents which incorporate making a capture, arresting them, taking a report, giving a reference, or alluding them to an adolescent court or an administration organization Be that as it may, this does not infer that the cops neglect to make any move against most of the adolescent wrongdoing that they experience.. The simple actions are more common which are significant too. The police utilize authority over the citizens in other ways (Watson & Wood, 2017). For instance, they question them about certain offense that they have been found guilty of, they ask for information, they carry out searches for evidence, negotiate with the juveniles and the victims for a particular outcome, they order the juveniles to quit their illegal behaviors or threaten to make arrest and charge them in the court of law if they continue with their disorderly behavior. Despite the fact that such actions may be considered information due to lack of a written record, they are still considered as a form of authority by the police, and they are regarded as an officer’s attempt to handle a juvenile disordered situation.
It is a widely known fact that police officers exhibit a high degree of autonomy and discretion from organizational and supervisory authority. By nature of their work, the watch officers tend to work in disengagement without a quick administrator. In spite of the way that police organizations give an arrangement of standards and rules which the police are required to take after, the choice exists in the officers on the game-plan they need to take upon the reprobate adolescents. Along these lines, it is the obligation of the cops to deal with the utilization of laws that are particular to the adolescents which are here and there relevant to the grown-up wrongdoers. Such situations may even outcome in cops shying far from taking care of adolescent cases (Woods et al. 2014).
As to the great measure of prudence that the cops have with the young people, the youthful value structure should be more stressed over the behavior by which the cops settle on decisions to formally gather teenagers as delinquents and process them to the adolescent equity framework. Several factors need to be considered when dealing with the juveniles especially on a sociological aspect of police discretion. To make their work more accessible, the police should familiarize and increase their knowledge on the different kinds of juvenile troubles that they are dealing with. Additionally, it is important for them to know the outcomes of their actions in molding the behavior of the youths to become better people in the society. More research ought to be directed to recognize zones that need a change in police working with the adolescents to help in enhancing viability and reasonableness on the part of the police in the juvenile justice system.
References
McMains, M. J., & Mullins, W. C. (2014). Crisis Negotiations: Managing critical incidents andhostage situations in law enforcement and corrections. Routledge.
Watson, A. C., & Wood, J. D. (2017). Everyday police work during mental health encounters: A study of call resolutions in Chicago and their implications for diversion. Behavioral sciences & the law, 35(5-6), 442-455.
Wood, J., Sorg, E. T., Groff, E. R., Ratcliffe, J. H., & Taylor, C. J. (2014). Cops as treatment providers: Realities and ironies of police work in a foot patrol experiment. Policing andsociety, 24(3), 362-379.