Prevention and Rehabilitation for Juveniles

As we all know by now, juvenile delinquency as posed major issues within our societies, which makes us ask the question when will this negative actions from juveniles be stopped, and how can actions like these be prevented? According to Michael D. Resnick, who is a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, suggested “the well being of adolescents still rests in that strong feeling of being cared for parents.” It was found that the more that the child felt cared and loved for, the more comfortable the child felt in school, which resulted in less teenagers engaging in problematic behaviors, such as drug abuse and violence. Children need to be nurtured at a young age and not abused by their parents because the behavior the child experienced against them is the same behavior they will put out towards other people. If the child is being abused at a young age, it is high chance he or she will be abusing others, however, if the child is loved and cared for, the child will portray the same loving and caring behavior towards others. Parenting programs which teach parents the right parenting skills and behaviors in order to raise a child who does not become delinquent is also very effective. If the parents are not teaching the child the proper skills, lessons, and behaviors a child must learn in order to be pro-social, then the child will become delinquent because it will be hard for the child to know what is right and what is wrong because of what the parents has or has not taught them. The parenting program is an effective tool in order to prevent juveniles in becoming delinquent because the parents know how to parent the child at an earlier age. The RAND Corporation indicated that “ early intention programs can prevent as many as 250 crimes per $1 million spent while the same amount spent in prisons would prevent only 60 such crimes a year.” So instead of waiting for the juvenile to commit crime and punishing them for it, why don’t we try and prevent it from even happening and save more lives and more money?

If a juvenile has already been caught with the crime that could have not been prevented, then there are programs of rehabilitation that can be offered. The rehabilitation programs, which prove to be the most effective and not incarceration, focuses primarily on the juveniles critical-thinking and cognitive –thinking skills. Critical-thinking and cognitive-thinking skills deal with the ability to make decisions. By counselors and rehabilitators honing and strengthening juvenile’s skills, the juveniles will start realizing what is the correct way to approach a situation and how to deal with it in a civil manner. The rehabilitation programs will also be hands-on, meaning the counselors will role play with the juvenile in dealing with certain situations which would usually get the juvenile in trouble, such as a confrontation with another juvenile. Once the juvenile is finally rehabilitated and able to be sent back into the community and attend school, the juvenile must be provided with positive programs, such as after-school activities, sports programs, and the Boys and Girls Club. According to Barbara Flicker, who provides counsel for accuses juveniles, suggests that these programs “provide a safe haven for children to go where they can build self-esteem, pro-social values and productive futures.” By attending programs after being set back within the community once again after committing a crime will ensure the juvenile stay out of trouble by staying in the presence of positive influences.

Adebeyo, A. "Rehabilitation and Control of Juvenile Delinquency Offenders." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Jan 2010. Found 18 April 2010. www.yale.edu/ynthi/curriculum.

McMillen, J. "Juvenile Delinquency: An Insider's View of Teen Rehabilitation. Lifestyle. 24 April 2007. Found 18 April 2010. www.associatedcontent.com/article/215051/juvenile_delinquency_an_insiders_view.

Ristow, G. "Juvenile Delinquency: Rehabilitation." BioInfo Bank Library. Nov 2009. Found 18 April 2010. www.lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:82906.

Substances Abused By Juveniles

Juvenile delinquents are more than likely to have experimented with alcohol and substances during their lifetime or to be under the influence of alcohol or some type of substance when committing a crime. According to a new report released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, four of every five children and teen arrestees in state juvenile justice systems are under the influence of alcohol or drugs while committing their crimes, test positive for drugs, are arrested for committing an alcohol or drug offense, admit having substance abuse and addiction problems, or share some combination of these characteristics. Drugs and alcohol abuse is a major factor which influences teenagers in committing crimes. In the most comprehensive study Criminal Neglect: Substance Abuse, Juvenile Justice and The Children Left Behind, which deals with juveniles within the juvenile systems in correlation with substance abuse reports that 1.9 million of 2.4 million juvenile arrests had substance abuse and addiction involvement and that only 68,600 juveniles receive substance abuse treatment. These statistics are astonishing, and should make all citizens wonder why teenagers are abusing so many substances at such a young age. Sadly enough, the juvenile justice system’s rehabilitation and treatment for these teenagers are not effective enough. Instead of tending to their needs by properly rehabilitating these teenagers by providing them with counseling or cognitive therapy in order to overcome substance abuse, the juvenile system simply punishes them by locking them up for a certain amount of time, which is not rehabilitating their substance issue.
When being arrested for a committed crime, juveniles are tested and found positive for many types of substances such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, non-prescribed prescription drugs, and even heroin. At least 92% of arrested juveniles have been tested positive for marijuana, which is the most abused illegal substance among all teenagers, besides the use of alcohol. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), there are 7.2% of juveniles who used cocaine, 2.3% of juveniles who used heroin, 4.4% who used meth, and 5.8% who used ecstasy. However, substances such as heroin and meth were not in juveniles systems upon arrests, but substances such as marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol was in their systems upon arrest. Although these juveniles were not under the influence of some of these substances, one can suggest that these drugs have had a negative impact on their cognitive thinking or their behavioral skills, and have caused a mental illnesses to some of these teenagers. According to CASA, up to of incarcerated 10 to 17 years-old have a diagnosable mental health disorder, which can be from the heavily abuse of substances at such an earlier age. As a community we must find ways in order to eliminate this issue of substance abuse among juveniles, and also find a cure which can be an effective rehabilitation in order to the further use of abusing substances by juveniles.

Burns, Keri. "Juvenile Issues." Juvenile Substance Abuse Issues. 10 April 2010. Feb 2006. www.karisable.com.

Thomas, Buddy. "Most Juvenile Offenders Use Drugs, Alcohol." About.com. 10 April 2010. Jul 2010. www.alcoholism.about.com/od/teens/a/blcasa041007.htm

Male and Female Delinquents

Male and Female Juvenile Delinquency
Males are far more likely to be a juvenile offender rather than females. According to the 1996 Sourcebook, every one out of four juvenile arrests are female, while every four out of five juvenile arrests are male. Ever since the beginning of human kind, it was proven that males do commit more crimes. According to Criminal Statistics in 2001, males rather than females were more likely to commit crimes such as theft, drug offenses, violence against a person, burglary, criminal damage, robbery and sexual offenses. The one crime that males and females had in common was theft and handling of stolen goods. According to the Violent Crime Index, the male offender is more likely to be convicted of violent crimes such as murder, sexual assault and forcible rape, however, the female is more likely to be convicted for property crimes such as burglary, larceny theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Males and females are similar, but yet different with factors which change them from being innocent to a delinquent. Similarly, males and females can become delinquent with specific factors such as poverty and growing up in a neighborhood with high crimes, most likely to belong in an ethnic group like Hispanic or African-American, a history of poor educational performance or a high school dropout, and abused drugs and alcohol (October, 1998). However, other factors which can lead to females being delinquent are the physical changes of puberty coincide with enormous emotional and psychological changes, according to Brooks Gunn & Reiter in 1990. During female teenage years, females become more separated from their families by finding their own identity, exploring their sexuality, and transforming into adulthood, which is a very difficult transformation considering the negative images from the media on how a female should look like, such as skinny, big breasts, small waist, blonde hair, etc. These false images from the media makes it very difficult for a female to gain a high self-esteem because a majority of females cannot achieve this Hollywood image, which depresses them and gives them a low self-esteem, thus resulting in criminal behavior. On the other hand, males have a far less difficult time than females when dealing with puberty during their adolescent years because males do not undergo such an enormous emotional and psychological change. The major factor for males becoming delinquent is not the outside factors that trigger emotional and psychological changes during adolescence such as low self-esteem; it is the need for a positive male role model to develop a healthy identity as a male (Davis, 1997). Males do not dwell so much upon their self-image and less likely to be engulfed in a low self-esteem due to their image, thus making them less-susceptible to some crimes.
Correspondingly, males and females are virtually the same with the needs that must be satisfied in order to eliminate juvenile delinquency. Both male and female need physical safety and healthy physical development; need trust, respect, love, validation from caring adults; need for positive role models; and need of belongingness and worthiness (Acoca, 1995). With these specific needs enforced and implemented on juveniles, both male and female should not turn to a life of delinquency.

Miller, Taylor. "Female Juvenile Delinquents." Guiding Principles for Promising Female Programs. 2 April 2010. Oct 1998.

Whales, John. "Crime: Gender Archive." Office for National Statistics. 2 April 2010. 8 Jan 2004.

The History of Juvenile Delinquency System, and How it Evolved to What it is Today

Prior to the nineteenth century, children were considered to be adults, thus creating the belief that a child should act and behave as one. The justice system had little patience for the child’s behavior because he or she was to act civil like an adult. If the child was to behave in this negative manner, the justice system would convict the child as an adult by enforcing harsh punishments. During this century, any child offender who was over the age of seven would be incarcerated and placed in prisons with the adult offenders. Many socialists and political activists viewed this as cruel and unusual punishment, and decided to fight against these policies and reform them to something more humane. Psychologists began to recognize that in fact, children and adults were completely two different categories, and could not be compared with each other, especially in the justice system. Psychologists recognized that instead of incarcerating child offenders with adults, one must try and rehabilitate the child offender by nurturing, loving, and caring for them.

It is in the Progressive Reform Era in which society were enlightened, and realized the harsh punishments bestowed on child offenders by the justice system were cruel and inhumane. Socialists and political activists focused more on child offender rehabilitation rather than imprisonment. They found rehabilitation to be more of a useful and productive technique than just locking a child up with adult offenders. In 1824, reformers built the New York House of Refuge for child offenders, which was similar to an orphanage a child would live in today. The child offenders who were placed in prison with adult offenders would be transferred into these houses of reformation in order to seek the proper rehabilitation that a child would need in order to eliminate his or her life of criminality. A multitude of reform houses similar to the New York House of Refuge was built after the positive success that was emitted from these houses. After society experienced first hand-experience from the success of the reformation houses, no longer were child offenders placed in the same prisons as adults.

Society liked the new change within the justice system when dealing with child offenders, thus caused socialists and political activists to create more laws and polices in order to protect child offenders against cruel, inhumane, and unusual punishment such as that prior to the Progressive Reform Era. The juvenile justice system created a law called “parens patriae,” which simply means the state would act as a parent or a guardian role to a child. The state would support the child until he or she has been positively rehabilitated, and was able to function civilly within the community, or until the child became an adult. The Parens patriae policy made it official that child offenders will no longer be tried as an adult, thus making the court and judicial process for children more informal than that of an adult offender.

Another policy that was created to ensure child offenders receive equality and fairness when they are convicted was “In re Gault.” This policy ensured that the child offender’s due process was not violated by the court system. The child offender had the right to receive notice of charges, obtain legal counsel, confront and cross-examine, privilege against self-incrimination, etc. More policies were being created such as the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Control Act of 1968 and The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. These acts were created mainly to rehabilitate juvenile offenders and prevent them from seeking the life of criminality, which was also a major break through within the juvenile justice systems.

Suddenly, a change within the juvenile justice system occurred between the late 1980’s and mid-1990’s, with the enactment of the “get tough on crime” laws. These laws allowed serious, violent juvenile offenders to be tried as adults. For the juvenile offender to be tried as an adult, the juvenile must have been convicted for a violent crime or a possession of weapon violation, thus imprisoning the juvenile offenders with the adult offenders. Rehabilitation for these juvenile offenders is highly unlikely because the justice system incarcerates them. This change in shift from rehabilitation for youth offenders to imprisoning youth offenders has raised much controversy. The same negativity child offenders faced prior to the Progressive Era was believed by society to have never been seen again during this day in age, is unfortunately, slowly starting to make it way around once more.

Manny, S. "Facts, Stats, & History." Frontline:Juvenile Justice. 2010. 12 Mar 2010. www.pbs.org/wgbh.

Rank, J. "Trying Juveniles as Adults." Juvenile Law-History. 2010. 12 Mar 2010. www.law.org.

The Races and Ethnicities That Encompasses Juvenile Delinquency

There is not only one specific race or ethnicity that commits juvenile offenses in communities. There are many stereotypes about African-Americans, Latinos, and races of color, which states they are the ones who commit the most juvenile crimes. According to former Education Secretary and Drug Czar William Bennet African-Americans do commit most crime, as he stated in this highly controversial statement, “You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." (Huffington Post). Some might believe this statement to be fact, but others believe it is wrongful and stereotypical. There is much dynamics that go into making a particular arrest. Many say that the colored race are treated much differently by officers who display inequality and hate towards the arrested juveniles, but others say everyone is being treated equal when arrested. Nonetheless, according to researchers Carl Pope and Richard Feyerherm for the Justice Department, "two-thirds of the studies of state and local juvenile justice systems they analyzed found that there was a 'race effect' at some stage of the juvenile justice process that affected outcomes for minorities for the worse." (The Huffington Post).

In reality, all the crimes committed by juveniles consists of all different types of races and ethnicities, and not specified to only one particular group, such as only the people of color. The races and ethnicities who commit juvenile offenses consist of Whites, which includes Hispanics, African-Americans, American-Indians, and Asian-Americans. These race groups are the majority of juveniles who commit crimes today. These crimes committed by these groups include DUI cases, gambling cases, violent crimes cases, and weapons violation cases.

The most recently recorded statistics by the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series states White youths, which includes Hispanics, were arrested for 72% of the crime, and made up 79% of the youth population. The majority of the arrests were due to DUI cases, which consisted of 92% of it. Following right behind it were weapons violations with 68% of the arrests, then 57% of the arrests were for violent crimes, and 16% gambling cases.

The Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series also recorded that African-Americans were arrested for 25% of the crime and made up 16% of the total youth population. Unlike White arrests, the majority of juveniles African-American arrests were due to gambling with a total of 81%. It is followed by violent crimes with a 41% arrest rate, then 30% of arrests due to weapons violations. Surprisingly, there were only 5% arrests made due to DUI cases.

Also, from the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series, it stated that American-Indians composed of 1% of the juvenile population, and were arrested for 1% of the crime. The most arrests for American-Indian crimes were due to liquor-law violations which consisted of 3% of the arrests. Weapons violations and violent crimes both came in at 1%, and American-Indians were not arrested for any gambling, embezzlement, or suspicion cases.

Lastly, the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series stated that Asian-American Youths made up 4% of the youth population with a total of 2% of the overall arrests. The majority of the arrests for Asian-Americans were runaway cases which made up 4% of the arrests. Then it was followed by weapon violations and violent crime cases which both made up 2% of the arrests, and only 1% of the arrests were due to drug abuse offenses.

There statistics display the majority of juveniles offenses come from Whites, but Hispanics are also included. The statics are somewhat vague due to the fact we are not sure how much of the arrests were made up by Caucasians, and how of the arrests were made up of Hispanics, though we still know the particular ethnicity made up most of the arrest. Then the next ethnicity who was arrested most was African-Americans, followed by Asian-Americans, then the American-Indians. The only way we will ever know if inequality and injustice is being displayed by officers against people of color is conducting more research, but until then, right now it is proven to be that Whites and Hispanics is the ethnicity who commits most crimes.


Edelman, Marian. “Promising Models for Reforming Juvenile Justice Systems.”

The Huffington Post. (2009). 28 Feb 2010. www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-

wrighte.


Jones, Van. “Are Blacks A Criminal Race? Surprising Statistics.” The Huffington Post.

(2005). 28 Feb 2010. www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/are-blacks-

a-criminal.

How Teenages Turn into Delinquents

What is causing children to act like animals by destroying and causing havoc in our streets? There are many theories and answers to the question of why juvenile delinquents continue to be born; I will be stating the main points. The main causes for children to become juvenile delinquents is childhood trauma, which involves child abuse, either sexual or physical; socio-economic status, usually children living in poverty and ghetto areas; peer influences, which is peer-pressure by the child or teenager from negative and pessimistic children or teenagers; and awful, terrible parenting from non-experienced parents. With all these reasons given, we will come to realize that these are the major topics citizens should focus on in order to eliminate juvenile delinquency.

A child growing up who is abused by a parent, relative, or a grown-up is highly likely to become a juvenile delinquent. If the child is being continuously beaten by their parent, or being continuously sexually abused, the child will be permanently damaged and scarred for life. Whether it is mental, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, there is no doubt the child will be negatively affected, and sadly, the abuse is usually with an adult who is trusted by the child, such as a parent, uncle, teacher, or another relative, which greatly contributes to the child’s delinquent behavior. According to Siegfried, Ko, and Kelley, in 2004, “Numerous studies over the past 10 years have shown a clear relationship between youth victimization and a variety of problems in later life, including mental health problems, substance abuse, impaired social relationships, suicide, and delinquency”(p.5). This is not a surprising fact, which explains why children act delinquently. If children are abused, they are mentally and psychologically damaged, which means they believe the abused acts committed to them is normal and usual, thus resulting in those children committing criminal acts within a community, such as truancy, substance abuse, physical abuse amongst other peers, and even sexual abuse towards other siblings or younger children.

A juvenile’s socio-economic status also plays a major role in juvenile delinquency. A juvenile growing up in a poverty-filled, ghetto community will have other juveniles just like him or her. In these poverty-filled communities, statistics show that juveniles are more than likely to be raised by one guardian, usually the mother, and the child is abandoned by the father, thus leaving the child unsupervised because the mother will be working to make ends meet. The child will have much unsupervised time by him or herself, meaning no punishments for committing delinquent acts by a parent or guardian. This is when peer-influences play a major role in a juvenile’s delinquent act. With families facing the same issues in a poverty-filled community with only one guardian, juveniles will roam freely throughout the streets finding something fun to get into, such as negative fun. There are many street-gangs in communities that are filled with poverty, so the juvenile might join a gang committing drive-by shootings or drug-trafficking, or find another delinquent to commit burglaries with to make money because his or her mother is not making enough money at work to put food on the table. On the other hand, if a juvenile engages in positive acts when he or she is unsupervised by his or her guardian, such as athletics or art drawings and things of that nature, then there is a higher chance of the juvenile not committing in delinquent behaviors. The juvenile conducting in positive day-to-day activities will positively affect his lifestyle, thus he or she will stay away from a life of crime. During this stage of a juvenile’s life, a guardian plays a significant role in one’s life by providing them with the correct parenting.

The correct parenting technique’s is very crucial in the stage of a teenager’s life. This stage in a teenager’s life, he or she is going through puberty and experiencing many physical and mental changes in one’s body, which need correct supervision and parenting in order for the teenager to walk down the correct path, a path away from criminality. According to Matherene and Thomas, both suggests that a positive family influence with strong emotional bonding and positive communication strategies can mitigate the influence of deviant peers in a young person’s life. If the guardians do not properly communicate with the teenager during this stage of one’s life, the teenager will go out and do whatever he or she wants, such as delinquent acts with other peers, usually involving substance abuse, which can lead to robberies, burglaries, and gang activity. By the guardian not communicating properly and punishing the teenager for committing criminal acts, the teenager is more than likely to continue with criminality. With positive family influence and a strong, emotional bond with positive communication between the teenager and the guardian, the teenager will neglect the negative influences faced in this stage of one’s life. The teenager will have more trust with the guardian or parent, and will not want to disappoint or upset his or her parents because the teenager and the guardian communicated what are the right and the wrong things to do.

The reasons are clear to why adolescents end up in the life of crime. Abused children and teenagers, whether physical or sexual seem to be the major reason to why they commit acts of delinquency. The juvenile’s social environment, such as living in poverty-filled areas, does not help the situation because other teenagers will influence one another within the community to commit in acts of delinquency as well. Once these teenagers start committing in acts of delinquency, it is a must that they are correctly punished immediately, or else they will continue in the life of criminality, and sadly, this is the way society has been headed to, thus resulting in more juvenile delinquents.

Matherne, M, & Thomas, A. “Family Environment as a Predictor of Adolescent

Delinquency.” Adolescence, 36(144), 655-664, 2002.

Siegfried, C. B., Ko, S. J., & Kelley, A. “Victimization and Juvenile Offending.”

National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Jan 2004.

Walklate, S. Understanding Criminology – Current Theoretical Debates, 2nd edition.

Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2002.

Juvenile Delinquency: An Ongoing Issue Within Communities

Juvenile delinquency has posed major issues within communities everywhere. Many people are affected by the actions of delinquents throughout their daily lives, but usually cannot be seen clearly by the naked eye. Not only is the delinquent negatively affected by the crimes committed by oneself, but also the victim of the delinquent, the victims family, the delinquents family, the neighborhood, and the society. The delinquent who has committed the crime will be emotionally and psychologically affected because of the crime one just committed and arrested for. Once the delinquent is arrested, he or she will be placed in a correctional facility, such as Juvenile Hall, where one will be faced with more troubles and issues by inmate delinquents, which will result in more criminality to come by the delinquent just arrested. Remember the delinquent is still considered a child, and at this age one is very vulnerable and more prone to psychological, emotional, and mental issues. The delinquent’s family will also encounter many financial and emotional burdens because the delinquent most likely will not have a job, meaning no income, which means the guardians of the delinquent must pay for the fines and fees for the crimes committed, the lawyer’s hired, and the counseled sessions. The family might feel that they have failed in raising a proper child, which will also put a huge burden on the guardians, who will soon start to blame themselves for the delinquent’s wrongful upbringing.

The victim and the family will be emotionally and psychologically affected by the crime as well, and maybe even physically affected depending on what crime was committed. If the victim was raped by the juvenile delinquent, then not only will the victim be physically hurt, which will cost money to hospitalize the victim, but more importantly he or she will be emotionally scarred for life. There is no type of counseling or large sum of money that will erase the nasty memory of that crime from the victim’s memory. The victim will be forever reminded by the incident, and will never be able to let his or her guard down wherever one goes. Consequently, the family’s victim might want retribution against the delinquent, and take matters into their own hands by committing a crime against the delinquent or the delinquent’s family, which will only make matters worse. It is just one huge cycle that continues as life goes on, which ultimately affects the community as a whole.

Whether it is a drug, theft, burglary, robbery, arson, or even murder issues within the neighborhood, society will definitely be negatively impacted by juvenile delinquents. The community will feel unsafe to conduct normal everyday activities. Neighbors will not want to take their children to the parks in fear of delinquents smoking dope in front of them, or being a victim of a drive-by shooting in a drug-deal gone wrong. Neighbors within the community will not want to go to the store at night, and maybe even during the day in fear of being robbed or sexually assaulted on the way to the store or on their way back home. Parents will feel unsafe sending their child to school because some of these delinquents who have not been caught for their criminal acts might be attending the same classes and carrying firearms or other sorts of weapons, which will majorly affect the way the child positively learns in school. Parents will not let their child play outside and enjoy the environment in fear that their child will be hanging out with the wrong group of children, and might be enticed to join a gang. It would be as if the whole community had to be on lockdown, and not be able to leave their homes in fear of being a victim of crime by delinquent criminals, which is not a normal and practical way to live life.

It is very significant that one must stop juvenile delinquency as soon as it occurs because t if the criminal behavior is continued, there is a major chance the delinquent will not stop. If not stopped immediately, the delinquent will start believing that these negative actions and crimes are alright to commit. Delinquents will soon believe there is no other way to live life besides the life of crime, and will continue on committing burglaries, robberies, drug-dealings, thefts, gang-banging, and other ways to get themselves in serious trouble. The delinquents will continue on committing crimes until he or she is an adult, and if not caught for the criminal acts, there is a high chance the delinquent’s children, family, or acquaintances will learn these same behaviors and act similarly because their guardians do it, resulting in more criminals. If law enforcement agencies and the community do not stop this issue of juvenile delinquency as soon as possible, officers will be arresting these delinquents continuously and locking them up in prison when these juveniles turn into adults. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, California’s correction system is already facing an issue of overcrowding in prisons with 174,282 inmates and a cost of $11,399,786 per day, and will only continue to increase. Our hard earned tax dollars are paying to house these criminals, who all started their criminality as juveniles. The issue of overcrowding would not be such a problem if we would have stopped and changed the ways of juveniles at an early age. If we want to put our tax dollars to something more useful and productive, we must make a change immediately. The safety and security of our families, friends, and future children will be in great danger by these delinquents if not stopped and corrected instantly.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. Prison Stats for California. July 2008. 3 Feb 2010.

http://www.jailovercrowding.com

Fellner, Jamie. “Sexually Abused: The Nightmare of Juveniles in Confinement.”

The Huffington Post. Feb 2010. 5 Feb 2010.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-fellner/sexually-abused-the-night..

U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. July 2008. 3 Feb 2010.

http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/programs/ProgSummary.asp.