Justice for Juveniles under the current system

The main objective of implementing the juvenile justice system is for meting out punishment and providing justice to teenagers who are involved in criminal activities.   The goal is also to try to change the thinking of these youngsters so that they desist from further criminal activities.  The system includes imprisoning adolescents which has increased considerably since schools adopted zero-tolerance policies and which endorse severe penalties for any activities by students that endanger the learning environment. The juvenile lawbreaker is the focus of controversy because some experts are of the opinion that the system is unfair because it abuses children, and that the government usually deprives these children of their political and social rights.

The inconsistent increase in juvenile crime, raised considerable concern among the general public who feared that these criminal tendencies among adolescents must be effectively curtailed, especially violent crimes by imposing harsher punishments for juvenile crimes. This did bring about a decrease in juvenile offences, but the policies remained the same. However, some experts argued that trying to rehabilitate the offenders would be much more effective than harsher punishments. This resulted in the introduction of alternative programs in lieu of the juvenile court system for helping the students to develop into responsible and law abiding citizens

In the assessment of adolescent antisocial behavior, some very applicable factors for their aggressive behavior were not taken into consideration such as their domestic environment, their exposure to media violence, witnessing violent and aggressive acts within their community or being subject to violence. Other influencing factors include problems in their studies, low intelligence, learning disabilities, and psychopath tendencies. However, the absence of recognizing the influence of violent media upon the adolescent is a critical omission, yet it is not included in the empirical research as to the causes of aggressive behavior in adolescents.

Studies of the effects of media for the development of criminal tendencies have been limited because these studies have usually been conducted on youth from normal community populations and these studies have failed to assess appropriately as to what can be considered as antisocial and criminal behavior and the influence that media exerts in the adaption of adolescents to these behaviors. Media and the other factors given here are not the exclusive reasons for juvenile delinquency, but these are the major factors which contribute to violent and aggressive tendencies among teenagers and turn them into hardened criminals as adults.