Juvenile diversion, intervention, and prevention programs

Juvenile Diversions in South Carolina

A juvenile diversion, intervention, or prevention program in a court justice system is a type of sentence in which the offender, a minor, joins a rehabilitation program. The rehabilitation program helps remedy the conduct leading to the original arrest, allows the offender to avoid conviction, and in certain jurisdictions, hide the criminal record (Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, 2019). There are several juvenile diversion programs in South Carolina, which include group therapy, treatment programs, court sessions, or community sessions. The commonly used programs are group therapy and community service.

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Community Service

Community service order refers to an order given by a court requiring a criminal offender, found guilty of an offense, to perform unpaid public work within the community for the community’s benefit. Community service is referred to as one form of the restorative justice system (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020). The main goal of community service is to ensure that the offenders compensate the victims and the community for the crimes they committed. Additionally, the offenders get to acquire life skills and knowledge as well as provide service where needed. The main objective of community service is to integrate the youthful offender back into the community successfully. Community service focusses on improving an offender’s discernment on what is right hence helping them improve their accountability to their actions, therefore, making this its primary tenet (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020).

Community service helps reduce crime by allowing the offender to witness the results of their offense. In return, this can help evoke a sense of responsibility in the offender and also the limits for social tolerance. Moreover, since the offender is provided with proactive and constructive means of repairing the injuries caused by their offenses, it helps improve their sense of self-worth, which will deter them from repeating the crime (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020).

Since community service involves the disruptive engagement of the offender with the community, it helps improve the interpersonal relationship between the offender and the people (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020). Given that most youths join gangs to have a sense of belonging, the offender will have a lower chance of joining a gang as they can quickly get along with other people. Also, having witnessed first-hand what injuries certain offenses cause to the victims, the offenders having gained a sense of empathy, responsibility, and accountability during the community service program, will avoid any unlawful act such as joining a gang. As a result, this will drastically reduce juvenile gang violence.

The key participants in community service are the offenders and a community supervision officer. The supervision officer ensures that the juvenile offender adheres and complies with the court-ordered conditions. Also, they are entitled to keeping progress records of the program. These officers are also required to provide the juvenile offender with effective means that will help them repair any personal harm and even repair the damage inflicted on the community by the crime (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020).

Group Therapy

Group therapy is a form of a juvenile justice system that involves the meeting of juveniles convicted of certain offenses in the presence of a professional counselor; hence the critical participants of the therapy are the juvenile offenders and a professional counselor (Karam et al., 2017). Group therapy is more of a psychotherapy process. Group therapy has been found useful in many types of behavior problems in children. It is also helpful as it makes therapy available for a large number of juvenile offenders, and it closely resembles actual life situations. Given that offenders in the group have committed almost similar offenses, it is easier for them to share their experiences and challenge each other to be better people (Karam et al., 2017).  The counselor’s role in group therapy is to ensure that the members learn to trust each other and also provide professional advice to the offenders. The counselor also moderates the group’s session.

The goal of group therapy is to understand individual concerns and relating them to other people’s experiences. As such, it helps the juveniles see what their current behavior might lead them into as been shared in the group. The fundamental objective of group therapy is the initiation of a sense of belonging, which is achieved by the sharing of experiences. Developing a sense of belonging helps juvenile offenders deal with emotional difficulties that trigger certain behaviors as they receive positive feedback from the group members. This sense of belonging helps them get along with other group members as friends hence reducing the chances of joining gangs, which reduces gang-related violence. Lastly, the central tenet of group therapy is providing offenders with a supportive environment of peers with similar life experiences in this counseling program (Karam et al., 2017).

Group therapy helps reduce crime incidences through the sharing of personal experiences of offenses and the consequences that followed. The diversion helps deter more juveniles from repeating the same offense. Additionally, peer influence is considered to be very powerful and has a lot of impact on the group members. Group therapy, which involves counseling, helps the juvenile offenders come up with their solution on behaviors or feelings that trigger them into doing unlawful acts hence reducing the number of minor crimes (Karam et al., 2017).

Role of law enforcement in Juvenile Justice System

Law enforcement participates majorly in the Juvenile Judicial System. Police officers are responsible for bringing in and summoning young offenders as well as referring them to juvenile courts and routing them out to the justice system, such as community service. Law enforcement agents also bring in juveniles for questioning, give them a warning, and release them in the presence of an adult or a guardian. Police officers also partner up with teachers on educating students on different topics, such as the effects of drug abuse and violence. Law enforcements mainly focus on the return of juveniles to the community (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020).

Why community service is a better program

Community service is a better program as it helps improve the juvenile’s relationship with the victims of their offenses and the community as the program mainly aims at repairing the harm done by the offender as well as an apology to the victim. Additionally, during the program, juvenile offenders improve their skills and knowledge, which significantly helps them when the program is over. Community service also helps provide free services hence saving on the government’s resources. In conclusion, community service is better as it does not only improve the individual’s behavior alone but also free services provided benefit the community at large (Center for Justice and Reconciliation, 2020). In contrast, group therapy only helps juvenile offenders leaving out the victims or community that got harmed by their offenses.

References

Center for Justice and Reconciliation. (2020). Community service. Retrieved from https://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/tutorial-intro-to-restorative-justice/lesson-3-programs/community-service/#sthash.U41o6r3r.dpbs

Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office. (2019, December 30). Diversion programs. Retrieved from https://www.scsolicitor5.org/diversion-programs/

Karam, E. A., Sterrett, E. M., & Kiaer, L. (2017). The integration of family and group therapy as an alternative to juvenile incarceration: A quasi‐experimental evaluation using Parenting with Love and Limits. Family Process, 56(2), 331-347.