iving Up on the Young," juveniles are being deferred into court at lower and lower ages(519). This can be seen in Wisconsin where ten-year-old children can be tried as adults for murder(519). Does imprisonment deter youth crime? Some people believe it is the only way to go, others disagree. Males and Docuyanan are among those who disagree, bringing up the point that, "If more prisons and surer sentences were the solutions to crime and delinquency, California should be a haven where citizens leave doors unlocked and stroll midnight streets unmenaced(521)." This is ironic because California having the third largest inmate system in the world, has failed to deter youth crime. Evidence for this is seen in California's youth murder-arrest rate; it is one of the highest in the world(520). The fact that poverty-level minorities comprise the majority of youth criminals, proves that imprisonment's failure to deter crime is a consequent of poverty's inability of being policed. Although time consuming and somewhat arduous, evaluating youth criminals cases for correlations can help us understand where the criminals are coming from socially and economically. One common denominator in many of the youth criminals case's as mentioned above, is poverty. Evidence for this strong correlation discussed by Males and Docuyanan, is seen in the cities like Los Angeles where economic gaps are well pronounced. Los Angeles, home to 200,000 poverty stricken adolescents, had more teen murders reported, than the whole state of California(520). Along with poverty, another similarity in these cases is that of race. African American and Hispanic youth account for six out of seven juvenile arrests(520). When these strong correlations are presented, the focus moves from the youth criminal as an individal to youth criminals as a poverty-level minority. Society's obligations are being questioned here as part of our socity is seen to be struggling to survive. Although some ...
