Counseling for Juveniles Convicted of Violent Crimes in the United States

Counseling for Juveniles Convicted of Violent Crimes in the United States
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Introduction
Juvenile crime is one of the serious social problems facing the U.S today. It is a growing concern since statistics shows that the issue is on the rise despite tougher legislation being passed by the government (OJJDP, 2012). Reformers view the rise to be as a result of poor intervention employed in rehabilitating most juvenile offenders. They are instead advocating for prevention of repeated crime as the option to reduce the high rates of juvenile crimes. Most of the policies related to juvenile crimes have not been effective because children are handled like adult offenders; juvenile justice systems have been criticized because of this arrangement (Sandra, 2005). However, counseling for juveniles convicted of violent crimes in the country is considered one of the promising strategies to help curb the situation. Although there exist different forms of counseling techniques, the cognitive behavior therapy technique is one of the approaches that seem to bear fruits in solving juvenile delinquency.
Juvenile justice systems process does not consider the child’s development needs that are important when transiting to adulthood. The dilemma faced by the legislature it how to balance the concerns versus the child’s future development .The dilemma faced by legislators is understandable because the law states that all offenders should be punished. However, psychologists argue that children who commit various crimes need support rather than punishment. Juvenile crime, if not kept on check, could eventually become a national crisis in the country. Looking at the current trends, there is need for immediate intervention. According to Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), approximately 2.27 million juvenile offenders were arrested in 2011 (OJJDP, 2012).
The Psychological Perspective to Juvenile Violent Crimes
Psychologist points out that when a child grows, certain cognitive and other social features of childhood influence the child’s growth. Researches have proven that human brain continues to develop throughout adolescence. The cortex of the brain responsible for executing the brain functions and reasoning in a complex way develops slowly with time. Since adolescence brain is not mature enough, they cannot make good judgment of issues. This leads to behaviors that eventually lead to criminal activities .This explains why most children end up being imprisoned because of the cognitive insufficiency. This also explains the fact that the juvenile justice system does not consider children below 10 years as offenders. According to cognitive behavior therapists, children below ten years do not have enough cognitive capabilities and life experiences to be involved in unlawful acts like crime (Santiago, Martinez-Catena, & Andrés-Pueyo, 2012). Cognitive behavior therapists further state that adolescence overestimates their understanding of situations and the possible outcomes; therefore, they usually make incorrect judgments to situations. Lack of experience makes most adolescence and children become more vulnerable. This drives them to engage in crime without knowing the extensive harm it can cause.
It is estimated that over two million young people under the age of 18 years were arrested in between 2008- 2011, with 90% of the juvenile offenders being accused of violent crimes (OJJDP, 2012). Out of these a total of 100,000 adolescences are serving jail terms. According to OJJDP, children under the age of 18 years old forms 1.6 million of all the arrests made in US (Santiagoet al., 2012).
The Importance of Cognitive Behavior Theory to Juvenile Offenders
Over the years, the impact of crime has been analyzed using the psychological viewpoint to develop polices. By using the approach, the number of juvenile offenders greatly reduces because psychologist believe that behaviors can be learnt at the same time the acquired behavior can be unlearned when guided by a professional, because psychological values requires that treatment is necessary before the behavior can lead to criminal offence. That is why current psychological treatments targeting youth offenders, focus on the social aspects of individuals. Recent reforms in the juvenile system are focusing on improving the mental health services for all young offenders (Shirelle & Lehman, 2004). The reforms suggested that by creating alternative ways from the old ways of residential placement, would go a long way in helping juvenile offenders transit easily to adulthood without difficulties. In the past, young offenders have been treated like adults especially the ones charged with serious offences like sexual assault. However, recent survey shows that juvenile offenders report to be experiencing mental problems like trauma. Furthermore, the juvenile justice system has been offering voluntary counseling in most of the correction facilities. Most of the young offenders do not seek for counseling services unless it is made mandatory by the court. (Shirelle & Lehman, 2004).
Within the government’s agenda for reforms, cognitive behavior theory emerged as the most appropriate strategies for mental illness apart from other broader range interventions employed by the government. Cognitive behavior theory has proven to be effective because of its attempt to reverse negative behavior by confronting them. Individuals who benefits from cognitive behavior theory learn how to reverse negative behavior to positive behavior. The positive behaviors are meant to support individual cope better in life, as it is one of the aims of counseling. In addition, the cognitive behavior theory lead individuals to be conscious of the thought process that may lead them to their negative past, causing harmful to their health (Mathis, 2009).
Cognitive behavior theory is a combination of cognitive and behavior theories combined to produce better cognitive outcomes in counseling. Behavior theory focuses on external factors while cognitive theory describes behavior to be more of an internal process. Cognitive behavior theory combines the two perspectives to look at both internal and internal factors that can explain behavior (Mathis, 2009). The theory is one of the theories that can effectively help individuals develop skills in order to live peacefully within a community by adopting behaviors that focuses towards positive outcome. Behavior as an important strategy enables individuals feel relieved because it opens up opportunity for one to see other possibilities and make better decisions in the future. This is because cognitive behavior theory employs thinking patterns to get to know what the causes of some of the common problems are. The most outstanding feature of cognitive behavior is that it combines the cognitive change of maintaining certain behaviors to produce new ways of behaving by reversing the old ways (Mathis, 2009).
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According to psychologists, our mental processes have great tendency of commi...