Individuals that have a turbulent illness are prone to challenges, whether it be internal or external. They seem to struggle with indicators and disablement that result from their illness. Children who are placed within the juvenile systems are tested and stereotyped by outsiders. Many individuals assume adolescents are inadequate of being submerged with their distresses at any time. It is important that as a society, we become aware of the effects stigmas can have on the mentally ill population. The high rates of mental illness and exposure to trauma among those in the juvenile penal system highlights the absence of parental protection, low self-esteem and a history of embedded traits from family genetics. Clearly, these components are very current social psychological issues that are easily overlooked with today’s world.
During the Dark Ages, or before knowledge of mental illnesses came about, children were given punishments that were crucial; youth were often taken care by their arens or another member of the community. Likewise, children who were an orphan seemed to be looked upon by society as a delinquent and were targeted to be arrested. Many of those children were also forced to fend for themselves against adults who tried beating them for wanting to find food and a place to lay their head.
The general of Court of Massachusetts Bay colony in 1964 in England passed the Stubborn Child Law, which stated that children who disobeyed their parents could be put to death”(Redding, R. E., Goldstein, N. E. S., & Heilbrun, K. (2005).Up until the early 1800s, juveniles were tried just like everyone else no matter how minor or massive the crime seem to be. Before the Progressive Era, children who were over the age of seven were put in jail with adults. Provided that the goal of a juvenile court system was the intention to improve the welfare and rehabilitation of youth being incarcerated.
A violent act towards other people can be considered a wrongdoing that breaks our trust in one another, regardless of age. However, when a wrongdoing is committed by a child, it tends to target an inner thought within that child, which is than label as a delinquent. The term delinquent can be expressed as a child who is under the age of 18 years old that commits an illegal act and who is processed officially through a family court.
There is a global memory that adolescents with mental illness needs are disproportionately are given in the juvenile penalty system. The number of mentally ill people in juveniles as known as detention centers has increased substantially over the last several decades. There are currently more people with mental illnesses behind bars than in mental hospitals. Thus, many individuals lack the accessibility of knowing little to anything about mental illness or the forensic and treatment issues that frequently arise with criminal defendants.
Consequently, both racial and ethnic minority youth and youth diagnosed with mental illness are likely to have run ins ’with the law. “Moreover, biological explanations of individual and social pathology rationalized the rise in crime and social disorder without questioning the justice or rationality of existing social arrangements” (Krisberg, B. 2005).
Multiple juveniles are tackled as adults and are barely given any form of adult human rights. Adults prisons are not the environment children should have to encounter, especially those sentenced for misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes. There are other ways to reducing juvenile crime instead of placing minors in adult prisons. The brain of children are not fully developed until they become a certain age, therefore things they did should not be held against them. Likewise most fail to see the beliefs of youths tend to do or in act what they see, in other words social learning plays a big factor on whether kids will embed good or bad traits.
In addition, the absence of parental protection can have a substantial effect on the psychological mindset of the child depending on their separation from the parent. Children without such care are being placed in institutions such as foster homes, being homeless or living with other family members. Those children were more likely prone to being excessively mistreated and abandoned, along with their well-being often being insufficiently monitored.
Parents are often known as a child’s primary role model, their actions can teach the child the social learning aspects of knowing right and wrong. As a result of being a role model, the love, care and knowledge and utilization of a parent provides a form of discipline that can help shape those individuals. With the lack of parental care , children are more likely to becoming pre-exposed to certain disorders and possibly committing crimes.
In short, parental mental illness poses biological, psychosocial and environmental risks for children but not every child will be negatively affected or prone to that illness. Thus, there are no genetic tests that can confirm a diagnosis of a mental disorder which is why experiences and environments play such an important role of a child. An individual having a certain illness does not guarantee that their child may get that illness. It is safe to say that if a child starts to show signs then they should be seen by a specialist. Mental illness can occur from the interaction of multiple genes and other factors such as stress, abuse or a traumatic event. Namely, due to those factors it can influence or trigger an illness in an individual who has an inherited trait susceptibility to that Illness.
Many young children with anger are dealing with mental illness issues begin to display symptoms such as acting out at home or in a classroom, or even showing a low interest in exercises that they had once enjoyed. Depression among many other illnesses can affect the duplex mindset of an adolescent. Over the years researchers has concluded common causes of mental illness strain from everyday things that most children experience with that time frame.
Children often feel as though the best way of defeating their inner frustration is to do whatever it takes regardless if they know it will cause them shame or guilt. As stated by Baumeister and Bushman, People create a site for themselves that presents them as they wish to be seen (Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2017).Obviously, kids deal with different attitudes almost every day, which forces something in their mind or body to be triggered causing them to want to shut everyone out and take on the role of antisocial behavior acts.
Furthermore, individuals living with mental illness are faced with humiliation of loneliness, they are overrepresented in the juvenile penal system which of course lacks the proper treatment needed for the proper support for them. Moreover, recent changes in the laws – mandatory penalties for drug crimes and lowering the age that juveniles can be tried as adults – have resulted in more juveniles than ever before serving time (Teplin LA, Abram KM, McClelland GM, Dulcan MK, Mericle AA ,2002).
Society does not communicate enough with younger generations, due to the inadequacy of companions. People tend to care less about issue if they are not the ones not being affected personally which is why the factor of where families are located plays a major part of culture and nature that a child can experience. Adolescents go through mood changes almost every second of the day and sometimes they will express such arousal by an act of violence. Clearly, as young people, it is always hard to fit in or feel like you belong due emotional intelligence that today’s society portray.
Statistics show that among those youth with a mental health diagnosis, 60.8% also met criteria for a substance use disorder” (Shufelt, J. L., & Cocozza, J. J. (2006). Co-occurring substance use disorders were most frequent among youth with a disruptive disorder, followed by youth with a mood disorder” (Shufelt, J. L., & Cocozza, J. J. (2006). There is a major crisis within the justice system itself but there is an even bigger issue when it comes to adolescents being mentally ill in the juvenile system.
Many youths in these centers are serving time as a solution rather than preventative measure such as counseling or behavioral therapy. Being though today’s kids are considered as the future we must be willing to understand exactly what traumatic events they are facing whether it be external or internal. By the same token if a child acts out in anger they are seek some sort of attention. Many of these youths are unnecessarily placed in or referred to the juvenile justice system for relatively minor, non-violent offenses, often in a misguided attempt to obtain treatment services that are lacking in the community.
Much less, youth with mental illness needs should be averted from entering or being in the juvenile system. Assessment, paired with diversion at an early stage in the juvenile justice process, is believed to be a promising way to prevent a juvenile’s further involvement in the system (Hammond, S. 2007). The importance of encouraging the safety of individuals in facilities that maybe mentally ill can decrease any chances of the youth partaking in the crime life again Many of these individuals need a form of structure in their life, even meaningful activities that they could engage in every day. Indeed, simple solutions in fact can go a very long way, which people seem not to understand, in trusting family and friends can be the first steps of many to better these youth in these systems.
Lastly, child and adolescent mental disorders, more so than many other illnesses, have long standing costs to society (Belfer,2008). The societal impact is magnified by lost economic productivity and potential destabilization of communities (Belfer,2008). Based from writing this paper I came to realization that many of these individuals tend to experience attitude polarization which seems to make it difficult for those in detention centers to have hope in seeing change.
Youth in the juvenile justice system experience substantially higher rates of mental health disorders than youth in the general population (Cocozza, Joseph J., Skowyra, Kathleen R. ,2000). By the same token treatments of children in the earlier decades were gruesome. Children during that period were automatically tried as an adult for a crime they commit. Instead of relying on the justice system to address a youth’s mental health needs, it is now recognized that the more appropriate and effective response involves community-based treatment interventions that engage youth and their families (John D. and Catherine T,3).
In conclusion, I believe that youth with mental illnesses shouldn’t be held in the juvenile penal system.These children are mentally unstable and should be able to express their creative side without being judged by others. In my opinion it is best that parents get to really know and understand their child, also try to find any early symptoms that show. They can also see any form of doctors like I stated earlier and get some test done to see whether their child has bipolar disorder which is very common in people or any other disorder.
Likewise, just with the slightest bit of changes such as having a higher increase of parental guidance can make a child feel extremely loved and also increasing their self-esteem. Though many people included myself believe that mental illnesses is a pre exposed trait that doesn’t get passed down the way genes do but people should still get tested. Also, people should check on one another, all family and friends no matter what the scenario is because people often say they are okay and put on this strong face but are actually dealing with multiple stressful factors. Clearly, people feel as though those stressors are way too much to deal and may commit suicide or turn to drugs to ease the pain.
