Monday, May 26, 1997

Juvenile Crime: Nation needs to crack down

By Rep. BILL McCOLLUM

For Scripps Howard News Service

Headlines about teen-agers who lured two pizza deliverymen to a remote location to kill them sent shivers up the spine. These teens carried out a random, cold-blooded murder, teens who in most states would be considered too young to buy cigarettes or liquor. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.

America's juvenile justice system is broken. Violent juvenile crime is a national epidemic, and unless something is done, it will soon get worse. Offenders under the age of 18 commit more than one out of every five violent crimes in American. In 1995 they were responsible for almost 2 million violent crimes.

Eighteen year-old males commit more murders than any age group, and 17 year-olds commit more rapes. Juveniles 15 and younger were responsible for 64 percent of the violent offenses handled by the juvenile courts in 1994.

If these trends continue, juvenile arrests for violent crimes will more than double by 2010. By then, America will experience a 31 percent increase in teen-agers, including a wave of highly crime-prone males - teens from fatherless homes growing up in neighborhoods where gangs, drugs and violence are commonplace and consequences for misbehavior are almost nonexistent.

Our juvenile justice system is unprepared for this coming storm, and its failures have contributed to the magnitude of the present problem. In most states and communities only 10 percent of violent juvenile offenders receive any secure confinement. That small percentage is back on the street on average in 353 days.

Many juveniles receive no punishment at all; nearly 40 percent of violent juvenile offenders have their cases dismissed. It's not unusual for a youngster to come before a juvenile judge 10 or 12 times before any punishment is imposed.

Most experts agree if younger kids learn there are consequences to delinquent acts, they will be less likely to commit violent crimes as teens. That is why the primary objective of the just passed House Juvenile Crime Control Act of 1997 is to repair the nation's broken juvenile justice system and make certain there are consequences for every act of delinquency.

This legislation would reform the federal juvenile justice system and provide $1.5 billion in incentive grants to states and communities to hire more juvenile judges, probation officers or prosecutors and construct juvenile detention facilities. To qualify for a grant, a state would have to assure the Justice Department it has accomplished four core reforms.

n There must be a sanction such as community service, for the very first act of delinquency, with graduated sanctions thereafter. If kids see there are consequences early, fewer will evolve into violent criminals.

n Prosecutors must have the discretion to prosecute as adults juveniles 15 and older who commit serious violent crimes.

n States must establish a record-keeping system for delinquent juveniles. This system would treat the records of any young offender adjudicated a delinquent two or more times the same as adult criminal records.

n Juvenile judges need the authority to fine or sanction parents for not following court orders to act responsibly in overseeing a child's behavior.

These reforms are a critical step toward repairing our juvenile justice system.

Rep. McCollum, R-Fla., is chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime and sponsor of the juvenile crime control act of 1997.