278 10 Corrections and Prison Practices—Juvenile ForensicsJohnny is 13 years old and currently lives with ,i foster family. He was 8 years old
when his parents were divorced, at which time he decided to reside with his mother.
When Johnny was 10, his mother remarried, and he suddenly had a stepfather, Derek.
Within the first 2 months of living in the same house, Derek began entering johnny s
room in the middle of the night. Derek sodomized and forced Johnny to orally copulate
him an average of three times a week for the next 3 years. After years of enduring such
abuse, Johnny ran away from home. Johnny was arrested not even 1 mile away from his
home, where he was sitting behind a vacant store. Johnny spent 2 weeks in juvenile hall.
I.ike most children who are sexually abused, Johnny was too frightened to tell anyone
about the molestation. Upon release from juvenile hall, Johnny was returned home to
his mother and stepfather. One week after Johnny returned home, Derek began the
molestations again. Johnny ran away from home two more times before he disclosed the
abuse. On each occasion, he was arrested and incarcerated in juvenile hall. Following
his report of the molestation, a medical exam was conducted which confirmed Johnny's
story. Johnny was removed from his home and placed in foster care, where he remains
todayLiterature ReviewJohnny's case illustrates the complex psychological dynamics that are involved in the
lives of many status offenders. The critical issue for forensic psychologists to address
is whether juveniles like Johnny are more appropriately dealt with as delinquents
or victims of child abuse. With juvenile crime occurring at an alarming rate in the
United States, the legislature and the public are increasingly more inclined to deliver
stiffer sentences to juvenile offenders. However, perhaps it is wholly inappropriate
to apply a blanket approach to the punishment of adolescent offenders.
The literature surrounding the incarceration of status offenders is extremely
scant. The research in this area was conducted primarily in the 1980s. Gary Melton
spoke on behalf of the American Psychological Association in 1991, during which
time he stated "a search of the PsychLit database failed to uncover a single article on
status offenses or status offenders published after 1988" (Melton et al., 1997, p. 438).
He suggests that the real issue at hand is a lack of services available to families and
troubled youths. Melton concluded his testimony by suggesting that petitions to
incarcerate status offenders "are clear exemplars of blaming the victim—subjecting
a child who already may have a traumatic history to a quasi-punitive process because
of a lack of adequate services" (Melton et al., 1997, p. 439).
Thus, given the dearth of recent research, this review of the literature relies
on somewhat dated material. An historical analysis of status offenders reveals that
around 1960, New York and California amended their statutes concerning juve-
nile delinquents in order to differentiate between delinquents and status offenders
(Zatz, 1982). At that time it was acknowledged that status offenders were more
in need of community-based programs designed to address psychological issues;
however, such programs were not established. In 1974, the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act further addressed the issue of dealing with