Solving the Juvenile Crime Problem:
A Prosecutor’s Perspective
By James C. Backstrom
Dakota County Attorney
Hastings, Minnesota
2005-2006
Powerpoint/SolvingJuvenileCrimeProblem
Juvenile Crime
Facts and Realties
It is a scary world
out there today
for our children and for us all.
The Warning:
(1996 Bipartisan Council on Crime in America)

By the year 2000, the huge increase in
14-17 year old males will cause violent
crime to “spiral out of control”.

These kids, far more dangerous and
violent than the generation before, will
be “like teenage wolf packs”.
-- [or “superpredators” as some have called them].
Juvenile Crime has our Attention

Juvenile crime skyrocketed to unparalleled
levels between 1980 and 1994:
• 150% increase in arrests for
murder
• 120% increase in arrests for
aggravated assault
• 67% increase in arrests for
all violent offenses
• 93% increase in arrests for weapons offenses

In 1996, 29% of all reported crime was
committed by a person under the age of 21.
Juvenile Crime: The Good News

Nationwide arrest rates of violent juvenile crime fell
slightly in 1995 and continue to decrease in all
levels of juvenile crime in the United States.
500
402
400
362
332
304
354
293
300
257
271
200
207
100
0
1997
1998
1999
Minnesota
2000
United States
Resource: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. FBI UCR, 1998-2001.
2001
Fear vs. Reality

6% of offenders cause more than 50%
of all serious and violent crime.

8% of juvenile offenders are responsible
for more than 50% of the repeat
offenses committed (Orange County,
California study of chronic juvenile
offender recidivism).
Rising Number of Youth

By the year 2005, there were 23%
more teenagers in the 14-17 year old
violence-prone age group than there
was in 1994, the year violent juvenile
crime peaked in America.
– 1998 Bureau of Census estimates show a
22% growth in juvenile population
between 1990 and 2010.
Violence In America’s Schools

Littleton, Colorado; Red Lake, Minnesota;
Pearl, Mississippi; Jonesboro, Arkansas; West
Paducah, Kentucky; Bethel, Alaska . . .
Shootings occurred at 30 schools across
America from 1996 to 2005, leaving 53
students, teachers and school officials dead
and over 110 wounded.

The suspects ranged in age from 6-18.

Nearly all of these tragedies occurred in
rural or suburban communities -- it
can happen anywhere.
What Does The Future Hold?

While juvenile crime rates are headed in
the right direction -- will these drops
offset the projected growth in juvenile
population in the next 10 years?

And keep in mind, despite the recent
drop, overall juvenile crime rates today
are 60% higher than they were in 1980.
Are we heading for a juvenile
crime Armageddon?
No – but, the
problem remains
-- and there is no
greater problem
facing our system
of criminal justice
in America.
Is the answer more prisons and
juvenile detention facilities?
No – although we need these in our
continuum of sanctions to address both
juvenile and adult crime.
Is the answer prosecuting more
juveniles as adults?
No – although
sometimes this is
appropriate and
necessary.
(Less than 1% of
juvenile offenders
are prosecuted as
adults.)
Abolish Juvenile Court?
No – but recent changes to
juvenile codes across America
were appropriate and necessary.

Greater emphasis on
protecting public safety and
crime victims – not only
what is in the best interest
of the child.

Some states have adopted
“blended sentencing”
models.
To find the answer to our
problems with juvenile crime, we
must recognize and resolve the
underlying reasons for why these
crimes are occurring.

We are at a critical
point today in our
efforts to effectively
respond to juvenile
crime in America.

We are also at a
crossroads of widening
the gap between
poverty and prosperity
in America.
Now is the time to act to protect our
future.

How can we solve our problems
with juvenile crime in America?
The answer is not that complex.
We need to:
Get back to the
basics of life.
Invest in our kids,
our greatest asset!
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
We need to:

Re-establish the sense of neighborhood
that we once took pride in, but which no
longer seems to exist in most of our
country. (There has been a lessening of
community involvement in ensuring the
well-being of our children over the past
thirty years. This needs to end.)
Assets # 4-13
We need to:

Re-establish community involvement
in the well-being of our youth:
– It takes a whole community to raise a child.
– The “me” generation needs to change its
focus.
Assets # 4-13, 18
We need to:

Ensure that there are proper levels of
supervision for young people in their
homes, in their schools, and on the
streets of our cities. Lack of adequate
supervision is a source of problems
for many youth today.
Assets # 1-3, 11
We need to:

Ensure that young
people have a
source of
consistent and
appropriate
discipline, and
proper supervision,
starting in the home.
-- We can help by providing guidelines and
assistance to parents if needed, i.e. curfew
ordinances.
Assets # 1-3, 11, 16
We need to:

Ensure that children develop a proper
sense of morality. Youth who are
raised with proper moral values in the
home and in our faith communities
will be much less likely to become
involved in criminal activity.
Assets # 26-31
We need to:

Ensure that every child, particularly
those in single parent families, has
access to positive adult role models.
• There has been a breakdown in American
families.
• 7 out of 10 kids in some major urban cities
have never lived with their natural father.
• This gap must be filled.
Assets # 3, 14
We need to:

Ensure that our
youth have access
to positive peer
influence.
– Without positive adult role models and
peers, many kids will look to gangs for the
support they need or begin to experiment
with drugs and alcohol.
Asset #15
We need to:

Do all we can to
discourage teenage and
illegitimate pregnancies.
The evidence shows that
children born and raised by
a young single mother are
more likely than those raised by two
parents to have difficulty in school, get
in trouble with the law, and experience
emotional and physical problems.
Assets # 35, 37
We need to:

Ensure that kids develop proper
social skills necessary to get by in
today’s world.
(These include
assertiveness skills, decision-making
skills,
friendship-making
skills,
planning skills, the development of
positive self esteem and good
judgment.)
Assets # 32, 35-39
We need to:

Aggressively pursue
truancy from school
and insure that all
children receive the
quality education
they require to
succeed in today’s
complex world.
Assets # 5, 12, 21-24, 38-40
We need to:

Recognize and deal with the increased
levels of stress that young people have
in their lives today.
– Youth need to know we care.
– Youth need access to advice from parents and
adults they can trust.
– Increased support mechanisms for kids are
needed.
Assets # 1-7, 14, 16
We need to:

Ensure that our young people grow
up with respect for our laws, for their
parents, for their elders, for our public
officials, and for each other.
Assets # 27-31, 35, 36
We need to:

Ensure that juveniles are held
accountable and responsible for their
own actions.
– With freedom, comes responsibility.
– With responsibility, comes accountability.
– With accountability, comes understanding.
– Without accountability, there can be no justice.
Assets # 26, 31

Accountability and responsibility must
start at an early age. The most critical
years of a child’s life (the years in which
he/she will develop their positive or
antisocial behaviors) are ages 1-10, the
earlier years being the most important.
– Bullying prevention is needed in elementary
schools.
• 160,000 kids are afraid to go to school each day.
• 60% of bullies will have a criminal record by age 24.
• 49% of parents see bullying as no big deal.
We need to:

Continue to make
it a priority to
ensure that our
young people
remain drug and
chemical free.
Assets # 1-3, 31, 37, 40
Drug Issues:
– Kids today get too many mixed
messages about drugs. (Illicit drugs
are bad; prescription drugs are good;
alcohol is all right, but only if you’re
over 21.)
– We have a cultural infatuation with
perfection and drugs (especially legal
ones) are seen as tools to this goal.
How can we get across the right
message about the dangers of
drug use?

The key is helping
kids develop a sense
of
passion
and
purpose.

Kids need to believe
they can make a
difference in the world.
Assets # 1-40
We need to:

Ensure that every child who is born
out of wedlock or who is part of a
family unit which ceases to exist as a
result of divorce, receives the child
support to which they are legally
entitled.

Ensure that all infants and preschool
children have access to quality
educational childcare programs.
We need to:

Ensure that school-age children,
especially teens, have access to
after-school, weekend and summer
youth development programs.

Help teens find jobs where they can
learn the importance and value of
developing a good work ethic and
earning a living.
– Parents do not do their kids a favor by giving
them too much.
We need to:

Help schools
identify troubled
and disruptive
children at an early
age and provide
these children and
their parents with
the counseling and
training necessary
to help these kids
get back on track.
We need to:

Improve deficient parenting and
protect children by offering in-home
parental coaching and counseling
services when appropriate.

Make sure every at-risk child in this
country has access to the mentoring
and counseling and educational
programs that they so desperately
require.
We need to:

Identify the mental health problems
and needs of youth and provide
effective treatment.
 30–90 % of juvenile offenders
(depending on the definition used)
suffer from mental health problems.
 Juvenile detention facilities and adult
prisons are not adequately equipped to
respond to mental health needs of
offenders.
We need to:

Do all we can to identify and protect
abused and neglected children.
– Raise awareness of mandatory and
voluntary reporting of these incidents.
– Recognize that children are also victims in
domestic violence situations.
– Break the cycle of violence.
We need to:

Continue efforts to address the
widespread portrayals of violence in
the
media
and
entertainment
industries.
– We have become desensitized to violence
in America.
– Parents must monitor the TV shows and
movies their kids watch, the video games
they play, and the music they listen to.
– The professional wrestling mentality to
solving disputes must be dispelled.
We need to:

Encourage businesses, especially the
technology,
entertainment
and
pharmaceutical industries of our
nation, to reinvest some of their profits
in our nation’s youth.

Ensure that police, prosecutors and
child
protection
workers
are
sufficiently funded and trained to
quickly and effectively intervene to
help and protect children who have
been abused or neglected.
We need to:

Ensure that Congress and the state
legislatures of America make funding
for early intervention and prevention
initiatives a priority.
Solving the Juvenile Crime
Problem:

Getting Back to the Basics of Life
Family Values
Moral Principles
Responsibility
Accountability
Respect

Investing In Kids
This is a non-profit national organization
comprised of police, prosecutors and
crime victims whose goal is to raise
awareness of the importance of early
intervention and prevention efforts to
reduce juvenile crime.
Fight Crime: Invest In Kids has endorsed
a Four-Point School and Youth Violence
Prevention Plan which includes:
School and Youth Violence Prevention Plan
1. Ensuring that preschool children with
working parents have access to quality
preschool and child care programs.
2. Ensuring that youth have access to
after school, weekend, and summer
youth development programs.
3. Helping schools identify troubled and
disruptive children at an early age.
4. Preventing child abuse and neglect.
can be reached in Washington, D.C.
at:
Toll Free:
800-245-6476
Telephone: 202-776-0027
www.fightcrime.org
We need: Community Involvement
We Need A Balanced Approach
To Juvenile Justice

While a prosecutor’s first commitment
must always remain protection of the
public safety and holding offenders
accountable for their crimes -- a
balanced approach is needed in
addressing juvenile crime.
Enforcement
Prevention
Prosecution
Intervention
Detention
Promotion of Responsible
Parenting
Protection of Public Safety
Core and Family Values
Accountability
Availability of Quality Child Care
and After-School Programs
Child Abuse Reduction
There are two main ways to
effectively reduce crime in
America:
1. Ensure that criminal offenders are
apprehended, prosecuted and held
appropriately accountable for their
acts.
2. Focus time and resources on early
intervention, education and crime
prevention efforts.
We need to Invest in our Kids.
An investment in our children
is an investment in our future.
No wiser investment can be made.
Remember the Importance of
Following Your Dream