Juvenile Justice System Currently Faces a Number Essay

Juvenile Justice System currently faces a number of challenges in dealing with delinquency. Many of those problems are underlying problems such as mental health issues, child abuse, child neglect, lack of funding, and the disconnection between professions dealing with children, all of which contribute to delinquency. The high incidence of child abuse and child neglect, in particularly, have been directly linked to delinquency and must be sufficiently addressed. In the future, the Juvenile Justice System must deal with all the current problems and its proper responses, including a multidisciplinary approach.

Challenges Faced By The Juvenile Justice System Today

Juvenile Justice System currently faces numerous problems. One judge who speaks about the most serious problems is Judge John Phillips of Harris County, Texas. Though he serves the juvenile justice system in one geographic area, he gives insights into the problems facing the entire juvenile justice system. Today's juvenile justice system must deal with the fact that juveniles with mental health problems make up a very high percentage of delinquents (Phillips, 2009, p. 1). Mental health services for juveniles are not well-funded; therefore, there are not sufficient community resources to help the juveniles, their families become frustrated and resort to the juvenile justice system to deal with those mental health issues (Phillips, 2009, p. 1). There is currently a disconnection between agencies that are supposed to deal with adolescents. In addition, juvenile justice institutions do not have the funding or other resources to adequately treat mental issues, so these institutions are punitive, isolate mentally ill juveniles, fail to deal with juveniles' mental issues and even makes those issues worse (Phillips, 2009, p. 1). Finally, there are high percentages of child abuse and child neglect in the United States, which are directly linked to mental health issues and delinquency problems (Sedlak, et al., 2010, p. 12). In sum, the Juvenile Justice System faces problems of juvenile mental illness, misuse of the system to treat mental illness, lack of funding, lack of other resources to treat mental illness, high percentages of child abuse and child neglect, and their direct influence on juvenile delinquency.

b. The impact the increasing number of child abuse and neglect cases has on the juvenile justice system (with specific data)

In 2003, Children's exposure to violence: A comprehensive national survey was published by the U.S. Department of Justice as the first attempt to document violence and neglect inflicted on children aged 17 and younger. The national survey found that 60.6% of all the children surveyed had some exposure to violence or neglect, 36.7% had been assaulted with no weapon or injury, 14.9% had been assaulted with a weapon and/or injury, 6.1% had been sexually victimized, and 10.2% had been "maltreated" (including neglect)(Finkelhor, Turner, Ormrod, Hamby, & Kracke, 2003, p. 4). Then in 2010, the Fourth national incidence study of child abuse and neglect (NIS-4) (2009-2010) - Report to Congress was published. The study found that between 1993 and the year 2005-2006, there were actually significant decreases in child abuse while there were significant increases in child neglect: physical abuse decreased by 22%, emotional abuse decreased by 43% but emotional neglect increased by 101% (Sedlak, et al., 2010, p.…