- Joined
- Dec 14, 2008
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Yeah. I was working directly with gang members when these laws passed. The problem is...legislators generally know very little about juvenile crime, and are responding in a knee-jerk fashion to appear as if they are doing something about a perceived problem. And, while juvenile crime was quite high in the late 80s-early 90s, it has since dropped by a considerable margin, for reasons that we haven't even been able to coherently explain yet.
The problem is that adult facilities, for the most part, aren't adequately equipped to handle 10 year old offenders. It poses a safety risk to the young offender, and in some cases, to older offenders.
Furthermore, very few juveniles commit violent crimes ALONE. The vast majority of juveniles arrested for felony offenses are arrested in the company of adult perpetrators.
You're treating this subject in a very generalized and slipshod fashion that i find disturbing coming from a professional in the field of juvenile justice.
You are ignoring the fact that we do not send juveniles to a state or Federal penitentiary until they reach the age of 18.
So it really is of no consequence.