According to the National Defense Fund, in a brochure on ‘Cease Fire: In the War Against Children‘, polls show people are concerned about crime. A gun takes the life of a child every two hours, which is the equivalent of a classroomful every two days. Homicide is now the third leading cause of death from elementary and middle school children aged 5 to 14. Between 1979 and 1991, nearly 50,000 children were killed by firearms. This is equivalent to the number of American battle casualties in the Vietnam War. Juveniles account for an appallingly high and rapidly growing share of homicide offenders as well as victims. The number of arrests for murder and non-negligent manslaughter for adults rose 11 percent between 1982 and 1991. The number of juvenile arrests rose 93 percent. Another generation of young men and women are being lost to drugs, crime and to crush hopes. The president and Congress scramble to support a crime bill that will spend 22 billion dollars over the next five years, mostly on police and prisons.
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There has been an increase in rates of many crimes in the United States over the last decade. The response to increased crime rate has been increased law enforcement activity, with the incarceration rate more than doubling. We are spending more on police, court and jails, but more babies continue to be born with drugs in their blood. Punishment alone hasn’t solved the problem. All of this has a direct impact on the children we serve because those children come to school. About 11 per cent of our children are enrolled in some kind of special class with some kind of handicap. An estimated 82 per cent of all American prisoners cost in excess of $20,000 per year per prisoner with some states sometimes reaching $75,000 per person per year. We’re closing schools and opening prisons. How in the world can we stay competitive if we give 100 per cent entitlement to prisoners and one in six children enter Head Start?. There is a direct correlation between states that have a high graduation rate and a low crime rate.
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We must succeed in our effort to stop self-destructive behavior. We must end our surrender to violence and ethical collapse because it destroy our youths. Violence as an American lifestyle whether it is done with tongue, gun, or pen must stop. This kind of behavior can lead to more serious problems that may become criminal in nature.
Many of us look at the children in New Haven and other urban cities as children at risk. Our youths must stand up and resist the violent culture. They must not continue to allow drugs and guns in their schools. We must teach our children to be good citizens. Our children need to learn about the law and the Constitution, so that they may be able to protect themselves.
Criminal activities are a way of life for many of our children. Their parents, relatives and friends need to be good role models. We’ve got to keep our children in school. How can we keep them in school? We must take back our children from violence, drugs and other crime. The long term solution to our problem of prison, is to increase the ability of our educational system to assure that young people will not drop-out before finishing high school.
Schools are often the forum in which delinquent behavior originates. Most delinquents perform poorly in school and are unhappy in the school environment. Many delinquents are dropouts who leave school at an early age but have no job opportunities. There are also many elements that delinquents share in their home lives. Their parents are frequently heavy drinkers who are involved in crime themselves and are unable to provide emotional or financial support for their children. Discipline is inconsistent and often relies on physical force.
WHAT IS CRIME?
Crime is a serious violation of the law. States and communities have the principal responsibility for public safety in America. The federal government, through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has jurisdiction over certain crimes, such as kidnapping, bank and robbery. State police have important highway safety responsibilities and cooperate with local authorities in the arresting of criminals. However, community police forces continue to be the principal mean of law enforcement and public safety. The sheriff and his deputies are still the principal enforcement and arresting officers in rural counties. States and communities also have the principal responsibility for maintaining prisons and correctional institutions.
Black youths are especially likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system. Black juveniles were five times more likely than their white peers to be arrested for violent crimes.
Nationally the number of Black youths in custody increased by 30 percent between 1985 and 1989, while the number of white youths held declined 26 percent. Black youths represented 42 percent of the youths in public juvenile facilities (primarily detention centers and training schools) on a one-day count in 1989.
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CRIME AND THE COURTS
Courts are political institutions that attempt to resolve conflicts in society. Some of the nation’s most important decisions have been made by courts rather than legislative or executive bodies.
At the lowest level are Minor Courts. These are minor courts. These may be municipal courts, magistrates courts, police courts, traffic courts, family courts, and small claims courts. They are presided over by justices of the peace, magistrates or police judges, who are not always trained in the law. These courts are concerned principally with traffic cases, small claims, divorce and child custody, juvenile offenses, and misdemeanors, although they may hold preliminary hearings to determine whether a person accused of a felony shall be held in jail or placed under bond.
Trial Courts, sometimes called district courts, circuit courts, superior courts, chancery courts, country courts, or common pleas courts handle major civil and criminal cases arising out of statutes, common law, and state constitutions. Juries are used in these courts, and judges are generally qualified in the law. These courts handle criminal cases involving felonies and important civil suits. A high percentage of cases decided by state courts originate in the major trial courts; trial courts make the initial decisions in cases before the supreme court gets involved.
Supreme Courts are the court of last resort. These courts consist of three to nine judges, and most of their work is devoted to cases that have already gone to courts before. These cases were not resolved, so they are called cases on appeal. These cases consider questions of law rather than questions of fact. These cases do not need a jury. State supreme courts are the most important and visible judicial bodies in the states.
The problem in law enforcement is the conflict between our commitment to due process, which is firmly embedded in the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution and our determination to control crime through police, prosecution, courts, and prisons. This kind of thinking suggests that we are faced with an on-going situation between limiting crime and maintaining civil liberty.
Research indicates that increasingly it seems that bureaucracy in the criminal justice system is responsible for problems in both crime control and due process.
Former Chief Justice Warren F. Burger (1970) argued that rising crime in America is partly due to inadequacies in our system of criminal justice. The present system of criminal justice does not deter criminal conduct.
