Dealing with Troubled Youths 3.5on any given day and find an article describing such behaviors. What follows is an
illustration of how serious these problems can be.
Jill is a 14-year-old high school student who is currently facing criminal charges for
being an accomplice to murder. Jill has a history of running with the wrong crowd.
Many of the crowd's activities include drinking, doing drugs, and skipping school. She
has a long history of truant behavior.
During the time Jill was away from school, she was burglarizing local neighborhood
homes to support her drug habit. On one particular occasion, she was with her boyfriend,
Mike, burglarizing a nearby residence. They were in the midst of robbing the house when
the resident surprised them. Startled and scared, Mike pulled out his gun and shot the
victim to death. Jill exemplifies how a life of drugs, truancy, and crime can lead to a
tragic ending.Historically, the tradition has been that the police assume ultimate responsibil-
ity for fighting crime and maintaining order. When dealing with wayward youths,
the aim has been to rehabilitate the youngster, rather than to punish them. Crime
statistics indicate that juvenile crime is on the rise (R. Lundman, 1993). The per-
spective regarding rehabilitation versus retribution for these offenders is sometimes
challenged by those who feel that the criminal justice system needs to resort to
punishing offenders for their crimes. Police organizations nationwide are currently
questioning the effectiveness of the early strategies of crime control, which date
back to the turn of the century. At present these agencies are exploring ways
to combat the problem of dealing with troubled youths, either through retribu-
tive or rehabilitative measures. Police strategies to address this issue vary with
each jurisdiction. Some agencies are implementing programs that target specific
at-risk behaviors such as drinking and driving and drug abuse. In this section,
the focus is on truant youths and juvenile delinquency. Several examples explain-
ing how various law enforcement agencies nationwide confront these issues are
presented.
Literature Review
As early as the 1800s, social reformers recognized the link between truancy and
delinquency (Gavin, 1997). Truant behavior has been correlated with crimes such as
burglary, vandalism, motor vehicle theft, and robbery. As a result of this relationship,
law enforcement officials, community agencies, and school administrators have
worked on developing various programs to address truant behavior as well as the
resulting delinquent acts. The majority of these programs attempt to keep youngsters
in school and to control daytime crimes. With a focus on rehabilitation, many of
these programs strive to offer alternative choices for youths. The aim is to keep them
out of the juvenile justice system. Depending on the policies and procedures of law
enforcement and school agencies, combating truant behavior varies. The truant