Preventing and Responding to Juvenile Crime: Importance of Intervention and Rehabilitation

With about 2.1 million juveniles arrested per year, it is important for researchers and juvenile justice employees to consider, protect and maximize the full potential of juveniles from their early adolescence up until release from detention centers or foster care. This paper highlights early traits and behaviors consistent in juveniles who commit crime as well as factors that may contribute to crime. While focusing on early indicators that may lead to juvenile crime, the paper also discusses rehabilitation and intervention after juvenile crime has been committed. After discussing the research on preventing and responding to juvenile crime, the paper outlines careers within the scope of juvenile crime and how these careers are ongoing and developing to provide maximum treatment and positive outcomes for the youth. The careers reviewed in this paper range from preliminary intervention careers, such as social workers for the Department of Children and Families, to juvenile probation officers assigned after a juvenile appears in court. Overall this paper discusses why juvenile crime occurs and how we can work to provide treatment and rehabilitation and decrease reoffending