Explain how society in America values Juvenile Diversion Programs

A diversion program is a kind is sentence within the criminal justice system that sends the criminal offender to a rehabilitation program in the aiming of helping the criminal offender to remediate their behaviour leading to an original arrest thus avoiding them getting convicted and having a criminal record. Juvenile diversion programs are intervention strategies which redirect the people and youths within the juvenile age bracket as defined by law from the juvenile justice system’s formal criminal processing whilst holding them responsible and accountable for their criminal actions (Brown et. al. 2015). In America, juvenile diversion programs are well accepted, embraced and valued by the society owing to two major arguments and generalizations which include:

• Redirecting youth who have conferred minor offenses far from the framework and towards group based treatment and bolster choices is a more suitable reaction than constrainment, and a more beneficial method for tending to and avoiding future delinquency, and
• Formally preparing youth through the adolescent equity framework accomplishes more damage than great by sustaining misconduct through identifying, presenting and exposing youth to conditions inside adolescent/juvenile and grown-up restorative organizations that may really expand wrongdoing and delinquency (Akers, 2013).

 

The American society value juvenile diversion programs as better means to addressing delinquent behaviour informally within and in the society with an eye not to propagate crime tolerance but to prevent subsequent offending. The American society embraces and highly values juvenile diversion programs for their ability to reduce premature juvenile involvement in the very ‘deep ends’ of the juvenile delinquency justice system ‘pool’. In addition, juvenile diversion programs are instrumental in the reduction of placements out of home for juveniles and help in the maintenance of youth inter-connectedness and profitable engagement in the society for they keep youths and juveniles within and around their community. Juvenile intervention programs are a huge save of the society’s funds too. This is because they are a humongous cost-reduction and cost effective yet effective techniques as compared to court processes and/or secure placements (Berman, 2015).

 

Explain how the state of Virginia diversion programs can be improved

With efficient and effective juvenile diversion and intervention programs, the society and the nation as a whole benefit. It is therefore highly advisable to improve such programs which the state of Virginia can achieve by:

• Establishing and building a forward-focused juvenile judicial system model that is well-organized around management of risks and one which is in support of a developed individualized disposition plan guided by a disposition matrix. This should be encouraged by the juvenile justice system administrators to ensure well-structured decision making tools with the program continuum getting populated with a framework of graduated sanctions thus increased system capacity (Lipsey et. al., 2010).
• The legislators in Virginia should also help improve the juvenile diversion programs through legislating mandatory juvenile and youth service programming which is evidence-based and also based on research but not uninformed generalizations (No Author, 2012
• Juvenile judges should act as a driving force to bring together the diversified individuals and agencies who variously compromise the juvenile service systems within and in the State in order to provide, develop and implement meaningful and updated reforms. Judges, in company with treatment providers, should foster a positive influence to establish very clear expectations through the application of evidence-based juvenile justice services with their jurisdiction (Blanco, Miller, & Peck, 2007).
• Also to improve the state of Virginia diversion programs, measure should be put in place such that diversion programs can be initiated at earlier ages and in schools for many of the juvenile cases and charges originate from schools. Also, there should be a line drawn between juveniles whose needs are metal affiliated and the truly criminal juveniles to ensure some pure and dedicate measures on juvenile crime without a confusion with mental health cases (No Author, 2012).