In Chapter 4 of the text, our author talks about risk factors and protective factors. Select a juvenile of your choice or one that we have already studied (such as Greg Ousley, Colt Lundy, or Paul Gingerich from the video in Week One, “Young Kids, Hard Time”) and conduct a search for additional information on their case, their trial, and their situation. Give us a short history of the individual selected, and then identify the risk factors and protective factors you see with the juvenile. Evaluate these factors through the lens of the lifecourse theory. Does the concept of persistence or desistence come into play with this juvenile?

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts who use a different juvenile than from your initial post by Day 7. Continue to support your arguments with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources.

Review your classmates’ opinions in light of your understanding of the juvenile justice system. In your response post, you must evaluate the juvenile based on one of the theories found in Chapter 3. Identify the theory you intend to use and give a short explanation of the theory. Explain how it applies to the case of the juvenile identified in the original post of your classmate. Does the theory in Chapter 3, or the lifecourse theory, better explain the delinquency of the individual?                     

 
Read either the case study at the beginning of Chapter 5 about the “Juveniles at the Plaza” or the case study about drug searches in schools. Both of these cases deal with the legal rights of juveniles and interpretations of law by the U.S. Supreme Court. Review the Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and identify the rights addressed in one of the case studies. How is the right adjusted to accommodate for juveniles? Why do juveniles have a modified right compared to adults? How do these modifications change the roles and priorities of police when dealing with juveniles? Should social justice concepts of dealing with juveniles take precedence over criminal justice?

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7 and continue to support your arguments with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources.

Review your classmates’ opinions in light of your understanding of the juvenile justice system. In your response post, your focus is on the concept of discretion. Take a look at the range of discretionary choices of police officers. Though every instance in which the police contact the public is unique, the range of response may vary considerably when dealing with juveniles, and the concept of discretion plays a part in this interaction. Should police have this wide range of discretion? What types of abuse can discretion lead to when dealing with the public? Should police discretionary choices be limited by factors such as the juvenile’s race, social class, gender, demeanor or hostility, level of intoxication, perceived mental status, or relationship to the victim or suspect? How can jurisdictions guard against this type of abuse of authority?

3. Statistical Analysis Presentation

Present a PowerPoint slide presentation or a written report (you do not have to do both) depicting your analysis of historical juvenile crime data for a specific category of crime, or criminal issue. As an alternative to PowerPoint, you can use one of the presentation applications listed here, or one approved by your instructor: MoveNote, VoiceThread, Prezi, or Google Present.

Select one component of the criminal justice system (e.g., law enforcement, courts, or corrections) to focus your research. The data and charts you develop may be used in your Final Paper. For this Week Two assignment, you will:

1. Present national juvenile data and trends based on the FBI – Uniform Crime Reports and the Bureau of Justice Statistics – Crime Type, or other comparable nationally recognized data bases, such as the U.S. Department of Education data on campus crime. Make sure you standardize your data – usually 1:1000; 1:10,000; or 1: 100,000 and incorporate the scale in a key for each chart.
2. Present local data from a city, county, or state for three comparable locations in size from three different regions of the country (e.g., Indianapolis, Austin, and San Francisco). This information should be found on official government websites.
3. Obtain data on at least three demographics such as: crime, education levels, gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, education, or socio-economic data where available.
4. Develop questions you would like to address based on the data you retrieved? (Note you do not have to answer these questions for this assignment.) What juvenile delinquency programs or initiatives are available to potentially address the crime or criminal justice issue?

PowerPoint Presentation must be 10 slides and graphically display the statistical data developed for three comparable cities, counties, or states. Your presentation must incorporate national statistics for comparison. Your assessment may be in bullet or paragraph format and will be provided in the notes section of the presentation.

The Written Report must be five pages and graphically display the statistical data developed for three comparable cities, counties, or states. It must incorporate national statistics for comparison. Your assessment may be in bullet or paragraph format below the graphic display.

Your paper or presentation must include a cover slide/title page and reference slide/reference page in APA format. You must use at least three scholarly resources from the Ashford University Library, other than the textbook, to support your claims. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.