Lecture Questions 1

"Overview of Juvenile Justice"
 

1. Explain the origins and meaning of parens patriae.
 

2. How has the age of criminal responsibility changed over time?
 

3. What does Thomas Bernard mean by "the cycle of juvenile justice?"
 

4. Contrast the "get tough" and "go soft" approaches.
 

5. Explain the concept of the "dangerous poor."
 

6. Explain the application of the four correctional models Bartollas and Miller describe in their text.

7. What basic challenges do the authors see facing the juvenile justice system?
 

8. What are James Finckenauer's "four Ds" that have changed the direction of juvenile justice since the 1960s? (From the handouts)
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 2

"Measuring Juvenile Crime"
 

1. For what crimes are the greatest numbers of juveniles arrested?
 

2. What have been the important trends in juvenile arrest rates over the past decade?
 

3. What are the common status offenses for which juveniles are arrested?
 

4. What do juvenile court statistics say generally about the processing of juvenile cases?
 

5. Explain how self-report and cohort studies are done. Why are Marvin Wolfgang's Philadelphia cohort studies so important? What are "chronic offenders?"
 

6. What have been the recent trends regarding drug use among juveniles?
 

7. How do the results of self-report studies compare with official crime statistics?
 

8. Explain these important dimensions of juvenile criminality: age of onset, escalation, specialization, desistance, and transition to adult crime.
 

9. How widespread is the threat of school violence as a social problem? 
 

10. What is the image of the "superpredator?"
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 3

"Types of Juvenile Offenders"
 

1. What is "at-risk" behavior among adolescents? What is the authors' estimate of participation?
 

2. According to the classification scheme used by Bartollas and Miller, what are the two types of noncriminal youths?
 

3. What is the typical background of a status offender?
 

4. Explain what the authors mean by "naive offenders."
 

5. What are the characteristics of emotionally disturbed juvenile offenders?
 

6. What motivates juvenile "situational offenders?"
 

7. What factors seem to make a juvenile high risk for chronic substance abuse?
 

8. How does a juvenile become a chronic offender?
 

9. What two types of offenders do the authors discuss as typical chronic offenders?
 

10. What is the background of juvenile sex offenders?
 

11. What flaws can you point out in trying to apply classification schemes to juvenile criminal behavior?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 4

"Theories of Delinquency"
 

1. Explain the basic doctrine of the classical school of criminology.
 

2. How do the varieties of rational choice theory relate to the classical school?
 

3. What are the basic assumptions of positivism?
 

4. Briefly describe these different positivist approaches:

biological

psychological

sociological
 

5. What are examples of current "integrated theories" of crime?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 5

"Juvenile Gangs"
 

1. How long have researchers been studying street gangs?
 

2. What were the main "supergangs" in 1960s Chicago?
 

3. How have street gangs changed from the 1960s to today?
 

4. What are the different types of urban gangs?
 

5. What are the different varieties of gang organization and structure?
 

6. How does gang membership relate to juvenile criminality and violence?
 

7. Describe the process through which "emergent" street gangs develop in cities.
 

8. What different strategies of intervention can be used to reduce gang problems? Which seem most effective?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 6

"Police Work with Juveniles"
 

1. What is the history of police work with juveniles?
 

2. What do juveniles think about the police?
 

3. What are the important factors influencing police discretion in handling individual juvenile cases?
 

4. Describe several informal and formal dispositional alternatives commonly used by police.
 

5. Are juveniles' legal rights (in police processing) different from adults? Explain.
 

6. What specialized juvenile programs might you find in a larger police department today?
 

7. How effective are DARE programs?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 7

"Juvenile Court Laws"
 

1. Why was the juvenile court created at the end of the 1800s?
 

2. How was the operation of the Chicago juvenile court different from adult criminal court?
 

3. How is the terminology of the juvenile court different?
 

4. What are the three types of cases processed by the juvenile courts?
 

5. How are status offenders different from delinquents, in terms of legal processing?
 

6. What is deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO) and where does it come from?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 8

"Juvenile Court Procedures"
 

1. Describe the subject and effect of each of the following juvenile court cases:
 

Ex parte Crouse
 

Commonwealth v. Fisher
 

Kent v. United States
 

In re Gault
 

In re Winship
 

McKeiver v. Pennsylvania
 

Breed v. Jones
 

2. Describe the intake process. What options does the intake officer have?
 

3. Who are the key figures in the juvenile court? How have their roles changed in recent years?
 

4. What is the purpose of the detention hearing?
 

5. What else happens before the adjudication hearing?
 

6. Distinguish between the adjudication and disposition hearings.
 

7. What dispositional alternatives are available?
 

8. What are Thomas Geraghty's criticisms of the juvenile court and recommendations for achieving justice?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 9

"Juveniles in Adult Courts"
 

1. Describe what we mean by waiver or transfer of a juvenile to adult court? What would be the consequences of this procedure to the juvenile?
 

2. What are the three main types of waivers or certification?
 

3. What types of cases are typically waived; that is, when would a juvenile be sent into the adult criminal court?
 

4. Can juveniles be sentenced to adult prison time?
 

5. What was Donna Hamparian's proposal for a youthful offender system?
 

6. What do the results show about how waivers are actually used?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 10

"Louisiana Children's Code"
 

1. What does the Preamble of the Louisiana Children's Code emphasize?
 

2. What is a "child in need of care?"
 

3. What are the circumstances that would make a family "in need of services?"
 

4. What is a delinquent?
 

5. How are the informal adjustment agreement, petition, and deferred disposition agreement used?
 

6. What are the purposes of the adjudication and disposition hearings?
 

7. What is supposed to be the guiding principle in considering dispositional alternatives?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 11

"Juvenile Death Penalty"
 

1. What does the law allow, in giving juveniles death sentences?
 

2. Trace the Supreme Court's position through these cases: Eddings, Thompson, and Wilkins.
 

3. How frequently are juveniles given death sentences?
 

4. Explain Barry Feld's argument that youthful offenders should be tried in adult criminal court. What do you think of his scheme?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 12

"Juvenile Probation"
 

1. What is the history of the use of probation with juveniles?
 

2. What new themes of probation do the authors identify as having emerged in the 1990s?
 

3. How is juvenile probation administered today?
 

4. What are the three major functions of a juvenile probation office?
 

5. What models influenced the supervision function in the 1980s and 1990s?
 

6. What are some of the special options or programs often added into juvenile probation today?
 

7. What are some of the common problems experienced by juvenile probation officers? Why do successful officers succeed?
 

8. Tell me some of the good things about using volunteers in juvenile probation.
 

9. Is juvenile probation effective? Why or why not?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 13

"Community-Based Programs"
 

1. Explain the reintegration philosophy.
 

2. What did Massachusetts do in the 1970s that was considered dramatic at the time? Why did the state do it?
 

3. What do community corrections acts do?
 

4. Explain the different levels of delinquency prevention.
 

5. What examples of primary prevention programs does the text discuss?
 

6. What is diversion, and how does it operate? What are examples of specific programs?
 

7. Explain the operation of day treatment programs.
 

8. Describe the operation of a typical group home.
 

9. What do so-called "survival" programs have in common?
 

10. What does the evidence show about the effectiveness of community-based programs?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 14

"History of Juvenile Corrections"

1. Historically, how were juveniles confined?

2. What were the origins of the house of refuge?
 

3. What were the early training schools like?
 

4. What was the model of the industrial training school of the early 1900s?
 

5. What was the role of the detention center?
 

6. Outline the long-term confinement options open for juvenile placement today.
 

7. What comes under the heading of "programs" in juvenile training schools?
 

8. What do Bartollas and Miller call "troubling aspects" of juvenile institutionalization?
 

9. Do juveniles have a right to treatment?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 15

"Louisiana Juvenile Corrections"
 

1. What was most distinctive about the early history of Louisiana's juvenile training schools?
 

2. What significant events affecting juvenile justice took place in the 1970s?
 

3. How did the direction on juvenile justice change in the 1980s? What was responsible for this change of direction?
 

4. Describe the role of the S.T.O.P. program.
 

5. What had happened to the rehabilitative ideal by the end of the 1980s?
 

6. What problems marked Louisiana's LTIs during the 1990s?
 

7. What is "Project Zero Tolerance?"
 

8. What happened when the state attempted to transfer older juvenile inmates into the adult system?
 

9. How did Louisiana's experience with private juvenile prisons work out?
 

10. Where were we headed at the end of the decade?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 16

"Treatment"

1. What do the authors mean by the "treatment debate?"
 

2. Briefly describe the most important features of each of these common treatment modalities:
 

a. psychotherapy
 

b. transactional analysis
 

c. reality therapy
 

d. behavior modification
 

e. guided group interaction
 

3. What do such programs as law-related education and gang deactivation do?
 

4. What does the text identify as the features of an effective treatment program?
 

5. Explain the concept of the "template-matching technique."
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 17

"Aftercare"
 

1. What does aftercare mean? How is it used?
 

2. What predictor items are associated with failure or success after release from the training school?
 

3. How is the reentry process for juveniles different from that for adults?
 

4. How long are juveniles typically supervised on aftercare?
 

5. What are typical recidivism rates? Why do juveniles fail on aftercare?
 

6. Why is the relationship between the juvenile and the aftercare officer said to be a problem?
 

7. How can aftercare be made more effective?
 
 
 

Lecture Questions 18

"International Perspectives/The Future"
 

1. What are the Beijing Rules? What is their basic perspective?
 

2. Looking at juvenile justice in Canada, England, and Australia, what important similarities and differences do you see in the operation of juvenile justice?
 

3. China's approach to juvenile justice follows a very different approach. What are the basic elements of this approach?
 

4. In looking at all of the international systems described in this chapter, what important concepts do you see that we could use in this country?
 

5. What society problems do Bartollas and Miller see as important influences on at-risk youth?
 

6. What makes a youth high-risk?
 

7. What are the authors' four Hs for turning around the lives of juvenile offenders?
 

8. What problems do the authors see with the administration of the juvenile justice system?
 

9. What future trends in juvenile crime and justice do the authors predict?
 

10. What is the authors' vision of the systemic changes necessary for a better juvenile justice system?
 

11. What goals for the larger society do the authors propose?