The origins of juvenile justice, root causes of juvenile delinquency, theories of it, probation, corrections and techniques people in the field use are some of the items covered in the Juvenile Justice class at Odessa College taught by Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Will Bess.
Bess has been at OC a little more than seven years, is a military veteran and has 18 years of experience in state and federal probation.
There are about 1.5 million people nationwide in prison and at least a quarter of those are juveniles, Bess said.
In 2018, more than 728,000 juveniles were arrested and about 48,000 are incarcerated in juvenile facilities. Bess said just because they’re arrested doesn’t mean they’re incarcerated.
Juvenile detention centers are temporary. Those arrested might stay there for anywhere from a day to a couple of months, Bess said.
“But they go to school while they’re there. They go to counseling. They do things like that, but once they go to the facility, that’s more like … an adult prison just for juveniles,” he said.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is now over youth prisons. It was previously the Texas Youth Commission.
With juveniles, Bess said there are status and juvenile delinquency offenses. The juvenile delinquency offenses are more serious.
Status offenses are based on the age of the offender such as truancy, possession of alcohol, running away from home and breaking curfew. “These are crimes that are only crimes because of their age,” Bess said.
Juvenile delinquency makes up the more serious crimes.
“These are crimes that would be crimes even if an adult did them. So these are the ones that you hear — the murder, the robbery, the rape — all the grown-up crimes. That’s officially juvenile delinquency. So status offenses, it depends on what it is, for instance, breaking a curfew. There are times where parents can be fined if they’re accused of skipping school, breaking curfew; things of that nature,” Bess said.
Juveniles are considered 16 and under. When they are 17, they are considered adults in Texas. Bess noted that it varies from state to state.
Children as young as 8 or 9 can be detained, although this also varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, Bess said.
He added that judges don’t like to detain children that young, but if the offense is serious enough, they may do it.
“One of the main differences between the juvenile justice system and the adult system (is) the juvenile justice system is designed to look after what’s best for the child. The adult system is about punishment; it’s about victims; it’s about restitution, all that. So with juveniles, the courts take on the role of a parent and so it’s like we want to do what’s best for the child, not so much the crime that they committed; not so much the victim, but what’s best for the child,” Bess said.
“It is less formal. It’s more secretive; it’s more private because of their ages. If you’ve ever noticed on the news, you may hear a story about a young person who committed a crime and they don’t release the name for that reason, because it’s a juvenile and they don’t want to release the name because they want to avoid stigmatizing and labeling the juvenile,” Bess said.
If the child comes from a stable home and has a good support system, they may have just acted out, Bess said.
“The court may decide it’s in this child’s best interest to remain at home; maybe on probation; things of that nature, because that stability is going to be more helpful than harmful to the child,” Bess said.
If a child comes from a “really bad background, a really unstable volatile home,” the court may decide to detain that child for the safety of that child and not so much to punish the child.
“It’s rarely about punishment and it’s more about how can we help this child be better; how can we help the child move on. We don’t want to give up on children, so that’s why the system is like it is with children,” Bess said.
The terminology is different for juveniles and adults, even though it means the same thing, he said.
“For instance, if we got in trouble, we would be arrested, the juvenile is detained or taken into custody,” Bess said.
Adults are found guilty and juveniles are adjudicated.
“It’s a different terminology because they try very hard not to attach labels and stigmas to it,” Bess said.
If a parent or guardian does not turn up at a juvenile hearing, the juvenile can be detained.
They may be a runaway, their home life may not be suitable. They might be homeless and not have a family or any support system, so the state has to take custody of them.
“They may be detained simply because they don’t have anywhere else to stay because the court is not going to just release a minor to the streets,” Bess said.
They can place them at High Sky Children’s Ranch, for instance.
Foster families are not normally asked to take children involved in the criminal justice system. They are more used when a child is a victim of abuse, for example, Bess said.
There used to be a time when the vast majority of crimes committed by young people were property crimes, like theft, or breaking into houses and cars.
“But now it’s more assaultive crimes. So the number one crime for juveniles being detained is assault; not necessarily aggravated, but simple assault; getting into fights and assaulting someone. And then the second thing would be drug offenses; then it would be property crimes,” Bess said.
Ironically, he said, the adult and juvenile crime rates have declined.
“But violent crimes by juveniles have actually increased by like 3 percent (nationwide),” Bess said.
Bess said what juveniles are doing is a reflection of society.
“Children don’t necessarily act differently than the adults in society. So if you look at our society as a whole, it is more violent. There are more mass shootings, there’s more all of that. So juveniles, they do as they see, and so I think it’s just a matter of them modeling the behavior, unfortunately, that they see in adults,” Bess said.
“When they see adults shooting up malls and churches and schools, they don’t see that as a deal breaker. It’s funny because you know, a lot of times people (say) what’s wrong with these kids. But who raised these kids? They’re a product of the generations prior to that,” he added.
It’s never just one thing, though, because mental health and social media are also factors.
“The truth of the matter is it’s probably harder being a child now than it ever has been. Sometimes that’s an overlooked factor. They face more danger than we’ve ever faced. The only people that had access to us were people that came in contact with us. But now because of technology, there are people in different countries who have access to children all over the world,” Bess said.
Social media also can be detrimental to children.
“Their self-esteem is based on what their peers think more so than what their parents think. It’s all about the comparison game and so they see things on social media, and they’re comparing their own lives to what they see,” Bess said.
Adults may realize that what they see on social media is not necessarily reality.
“Because people are trying to impress other people, and they’re trying to show the very best of everything. But for a young person, it seems to them that everybody’s having a fabulous life except them,” Bess said. “So the next thing you know, it’s affecting their self-esteem. It’s affecting their psychology. Depression starts to sink in because they think they’re the only one suffering in life because they look at all these glamorous pictures and these people traveling and having a good time and they think that’s how everybody else is living but them. We know that’s not the truth.”
