Juvenile Delinquency. Changing Your Perspective

Transcription

1 Juvenile Delinquency Changing Your Perspective

2 What are Delinquent Behaviors? Delinquent behavior is defined as any illegal or immoral behavior conducted by a juvenile. This includes things such as shoplifting, vandalism, fighting, school problems, and other forms of disorderly conduct. Delinquent behaviors can happen in the home, school, or community and are not limited to age or gender.

3 Delinquent Behaviors in the Home Delinquent behaviors in the home include defiance, arguing/fighting with peers or adults, and destroying or stealing the personal property of other people in the home. These types of behaviors often occur between siblings, children and their parents, or other people in the home. The behavior is considered to be delinquent if the severity of the behavior requires police or other forms of legal intervention in order to stop or reduce the behavior.

4 Delinquent Behaviors in the School Delinquent behaviors in the school include things such as fighting, arguing with teachers, truancy, vandalism of school property, and refusal to do school work. Delinquency in the school can cause a student to be suspended, sent to alternative school placements, or expelled depending on the severity of the behavior. Many school systems have School Resource Officers (SROs) that are school based police officers who help the school in managing situations and protecting students as needed.

5 Delinquent Behaviors in the Community Delinquent behaviors in the community can include both individual, and group behaviors. These behaviors include things such as loitering in areas where not permitted, trespassing, violating curfew laws, gang related activity, fighting, vandalism, runaway, and drug related activities that are occurring in public areas. These behaviors can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the type and severity of the behavior.

6 Delinquent Behavior Many delinquent behaviors include more than one person and are often a result of individual or group peer pressure. These behaviors include things such as gang related behaviors, trespassing, shoplifting, and loitering or curfew violation. While these behaviors are often peer related, they can all be completed by an individual person.

7 Delinquent Behavior The type of charge associated with the behavior or crime is based on the severity of the action itself. The two levels of severity are misdemeanor and felony. A Misdemeanor is described as an offense that is less serious than a felony and often able to be addressed through probation and a structured legal plan in order to meet the courts requirement for the charge. A Felony is a more severe charge that often involves injury or violence. A convicted felony charge will remain on a person s legal record regardless of completion of probation requirements or imprisonment.

8 Delinquent Behavior The following sections will discuss how delinquent behaviors are impacted by things such as addiction and drug use as well as what happens when you are arrested and charged with a crime.

9 Delinquency and Addiction

10 Delinquency and Addiction Many delinquent behaviors often involve drug and alcohol abuse as part of the behavior itself. These behaviors include things such as underage drinking, social experimentation with drugs, and underage tobacco use. While many of these behaviors are considered by the youth to be social behaviors, and not necessarily delinquent of abusive, they may lead to the child becoming addicted to a substance such as alcohol, tobacco, or other drug. Due to the high rate of comorbid or dual problems with delinquent behaviors and drug/alcohol use, this section will discuss how addiction effects the mind and body.

11 Delinquency and Addiction What is Addiction? What is addiction and how does it effect delinquent behaviors? The term addiction is defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her. Substance abuse is defined as abusing a drug or other item that is the focus of an addiction such as alcohol or marijuana. If someone is addicted to a substance then they are more likely to commit delinquent acts when they are either intoxicated by that substance, or attempting to get more of the substance.

12 Delinquency and Addiction What is Addiction? Addictions can occur in a variety ways at any time during a person s life. They can include things such as caffeine, tobacco, illegal narcotics, prescribed medication, and other substances. Addictions are not specific to age, gender, cultures, or ethnicity. They can develop over time, or immediately depending on a person s own will power or self control. Addiction can also occur in the single use of a substance depending a person s own willpower and self control.

13 Delinquency and Addiction Addiction and the Brain Addiction can occur in the single use of a substance depending a person s own willpower and self control.

14 Delinquency and Addiction Stages of Addiction There are four specific stages of addiction 1. Experimental Stage The experimental stage is exactly how it sounds. A person is trying something for the first time in order to experience or experiment with a drug that they have seen or heard of. 2. Social/Recreational Stage This state of addiction is similar to experimental in the sense that many people in this stage only use drugs when they are in social situations where the drug is present. For example, drinking and smoking marijuana while at a party or with a certain peer group.

15 Delinquency and Addiction Stages of Addiction 3. Habitual or Problem Stage This stage of addiction is present when a person uses a drug or substance regularly regardless of who they are with or where they are. This is a precursor to dependence as the person is still able to stop or reduce the substance without significant withdrawals. 4. Dependence or Chronic Stage This stage of addiction is the most severe due to the continued drug use despite negative consequences or effects. The Dependent or Chronic stage of addiction requires significant intervention in order to help the person overcome and treat the addictive behavior and need for the drug or drugs.

16 Delinquency and Addiction Signs of Addiction Signs of addiction include Continued drug use despite negative consequences Repeated legal problems related to addiction Health problems related to addiction Increased tolerance to a substance and withdrawal symptoms when a person stops or reduces the use of the substance. The following slides will discuss how drug abuse can affect the body and mind as a whole.

17 Delinquency and Addiction Alcohol Abuse Your liver can process approximately 2 ounces of alcohol per hour. The average alcoholic beverage sold in a bar or restaurant contains around 2 ounces of alcohol. This means that the average liver can process the alcohol from one drink each hour. A 12 ounce beer, 4-6 ounce glass of wine, and 2 ounce shot of 80 proof liquor all have the same amount of pure grain alcohol in them. The amount of alcohol in a person s body is represented by the term Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).

18 Delinquency and Addiction Alcohol Abuse BAC is measured in grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. A BAC of.01 indicates.01 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. Alcohol enters your bloodstream as soon as you take your first sip. Alcohol s immediate effects can appear within about 10 minutes. As you drink, you increase your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level, which is the amount of alcohol present in your bloodstream. The higher your BAC, the more impaired you become by alcohol s effects. Your body processes alcohol at the rate of approximately 2 ounces per hour. However, the alcohol that remains in your bloodstream is what causes intoxication and an increase in BAC. The following slides will discuss how BAC can affect both a person s body as well as their ability to operate a vehicle.

19 Delinquency and Addiction Alcohol Abuse BAC and the effects on the body. The chart to the left provides an illustrated look at how alcohol in the bloodstream may affect the body as a whole. Any BAC at or over.08% is considered to be legally intoxicated. This BAC can be achieved through consumer as few as 4 drinks in a relatively short period of time. *The original chart can be located at

20 Delinquency and Addiction Marijuana Abuse Heavy Marijuana use can cause long term mental, emotional, and physical effects. These effects include altered brain development, cognitive impairment even when the person does not feel high, and personality changes such as anxiety or depression. The long term effects of extended marijuana use may not decrease over time depending on each person s individual physical makeup.

21 Delinquency and Addiction Marijuana Abuse Some people believe that smoking synthetic or artificial forms of marijuana (such as spice, K2, and other marketed Marijuana substitutes) are harmless. However, There are several physical and cognitive side effects to smoking synthetic marijuana. These side effects are often due to the fact that the chemicals found in synthetic marijuana are often unknown and can cause lasting physical and psychological damage. Psychical symptoms include heart palpitations, chest pains, muscle spasms, nausea, and seizures. Cognitive symptoms include paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, confusion, and disorientation.

22 Delinquency and Addiction Medication Education It is possible to become addicted to a medication that is prescribed to you. People can become dependent on the medication itself even though it was prescribed for a specific problem such as pain relief. Pain killers are the most commonly abused prescription medication. This is often due to the numbing and relaxing effects that pain killers have on the mind and body.

23 Delinquency and Addiction Medication Education Snorting medication can cause serious mental and physical side effects. Abusing medication through snorting can destroy your nasal passages, enlarge your sinus cavity, decrease your sense of taste and smell, and cause severe physical harm to your body. Snorting medication bypasses the bodies natural digestive processes and introduces the drug almost directly into the blood stream via nasal passages. This process lowers the bodies ability to regulate the introduction of the drug into the system and causes a more direct or severe high. However, this also causes the user to become desensitized to many types of drugs as they are causing the body to become tolerant or resistant to the overall effects that the drug may be able to provide.

24 Delinquency and Addiction Now that we know the effects of drug abuse and addiction, lets discuss how addiction impacts delinquent behaviors. Studies have shown that a large percentage of delinquent theft behaviors are actually drug seeking behaviors due to a drug addiction or drug need. What this means is that the people committing a delinquent act or crime are actually attempting to get either drugs from somewhere, or steal money/items in order to buy drugs to feed an addiction. The addiction is driving the person to steal in order to purchase/use more drugs or alcohol.

25 Delinquency and Addiction This section has presented and discussed how addiction plays a role in many delinquent acts or delinquent behaviors. These roles can include things such as drug seeking delinquent acts, underage intoxication, and illegal substance abuse.

26 The Juvenile Court Process

27 Juvenile Court Process The Juvenile Court process often has many stages. These stages are designed and based on the individual crimes that have been committed and are more severe or lengthy depending on the individuals needs. While a large percentage of delinquency based acts involve probation, there are other types of legal interventions and consequences that can be utilized. The following sections will discuss how delinquency based charges are often addressed by Juvenile Court.

28 Juvenile Court Process The cost of Delinquency Delinquent charges for acts such as Vandalism, Burglary, and Theft often come with financial fines such as restitution, court costs, and community service. The following sections will define and describe how restitution, court costs, and community services affect your probation as a whole.

29 Juvenile Court Process - Restitution Restitution is defined by Webster s Dictionary as Compensation for injury or loss in a legal matter. What this means is that you must pay for all damages that was caused by something you did. This includes replacing damaged goods, paying for the labor involved in the replacement, and paying for any medical bills that may have been the result of a fight or other incident that caused injury. Charges and probation requirements are not met until restitution has been paid in full. For Example: If you are ordered to pay restitution for spray painting graffiti on a public walk (like a school or park), then you will have to pay the court the full cost of having the area cleaned and repainted before you can complete your probation requirements.

30 Juvenile Court Process- Court Costs Court Costs are defined as any type of expense that must be paid in order to complete the legal process and finish probation, pay a fine, or complete a court order. Court costs are exactly how the phrase sounds. They are the literal costs involved in the court process. You must pay court costs in order to have things legally filed, completed, or concluded in a legal manner. The money involved in court costs pay for things such as legal documents, filing, and man hours involved in the actual court process. The amount of court cost is often set based on the charge being heard and the amount of time it will take to physically complete the work involved in filing and completing the case. Court costs are different than court fines in regards to how they are used. Costs pay for services while a fine is part of a consequence related to a charge.

31 Juvenile Court Process Community Service Community Service Webster s Dictionary states that Community service is defined as unpaid work intended to aid the community that is often required as an alternative to going to prison. While community service is often required as a part of probation, it can also be seen as an additional cost to the person who is charged with the community service as they are providing free labor. Any work that they could be doing for money is now being done for free which is known as economic loss. For example, someone who makes $10.00 an hour has to miss work and complete 16 hours of community service as part of probation. That person has lost $160 in money that they could be making at their normal job.

32 Juvenile Court Process You may also be subjected to the following while on probation. Random drug screenings regardless of your charge Face to face progress meetings with a probation officer A strict curfew that does not allow you outside unsupervised Restrictions on where you can be regardless of supervision

33 Juvenile Court Process You may meet with you probation officer during your probationary period to determine if he or she feels that you are meeting all of your goals. Your probation officer may require that you attend a hearing to be released from probation, or you may be placed on probation for a set period of time. This is decided by the court and not by how fast you progress through your probation requirements.

34 Juvenile Court Process Your probation officer is the only person who can determine if you have met probation requirements. Many people believe that the will no longer be on probation if they turn 18 before meeting all of the requirements to successfully complete probation. This is not true. Court systems often have transition plans in place to move teens from juvenile to adult probation once they turn 18.

35 Delinquency Education Now that you have completed this portion of the presentation. Please proceed to the online test portion of the course. This can be found at The course is not completed until you have taken the online course and received a completion certificate.

36 References Department of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2014 data: alcohol-impaired driving. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Department of Justice (US), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Crime in the United States 2014: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington (DC): FBI; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2015). Behavioral health trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The ABCs of BAC, (2005) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

37 Resources Alcoholics Anonymous: Narcotics Anonymous: Above The Influence: Center For Disease Control: