Consider the goals of the juvenile justice system, which focus on reintegrating juveniles into the community as productive members of society. Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapters 8 and 9 of Introduction to Juvenile Justice. In addition,

• Read Youth Pathways to Placement: The Influence of Gender, Mental Health Needs and Trauma on Confinement in the Juvenile Justice SystemLinks to an external site.
• Read Treatment Services in the Juvenile Justice System: Examining the Use and Funding of Services by Youth on ProbationLinks to an external site.
• Read The Impact of Victimization and Mental Health Symptoms on Recidivism for Early System-Involved Juvenile OffendersLinks to an external site.
• Read Research Review: Independent Living Programmes: The Influence on Youth Ageing out of CareLinks to an external site.
• Watch Juvenile Justice Links to an external site..

You are also encouraged to review the Week 4 Recommended Resources.

Compare and contrast treatment options for special populations identified in our text (i.e., early starters, juvenile gangs, or juvenile sex offenders) and advocate for, or against, shifting juveniles in this category to treatment options outside normal juvenile delinquency programs. You should identify a specific category identified as being part of special populations and a treatment option as part of the discussion. What are the benefits to this program in addressing the special population? Are there drawbacks, if so what are they? How are outcomes identified and measured?

Note: this discussion format will differ from formats in prior courses. The goal of this discussion forum is to have a single conversation about the topic of treatment for special populations of juvenile offenders, not a series of separate conversations. You must post in the discussion on at least three separate days by Day 7; your total word count for your posts should be a minimum of 600 words. There is no required word count for individual posts as long as your combined posts total at least 600 words. However, you must use at least one in-text citation to support your claims and properly cite any references.

Guided Response: Only start a new thread if you want to address a new theme within the topic and only post after carefully reading what others have written. For example, if the first post is talking about juvenile sex offenders and you are talking about early starters. In other words, not every student will directly answer the question in the original discussion prompt; however, each of you should be focusing on one category of the special population and comparing prior posts’ evaluation of treatment options to the one you researched. Do not repeat what your classmates have already said and respond to any questions you are asked. Try to keep the conversation moving forward.

The purpose of the conversation is to help each other reach a better understanding of the issues. To that end, you should respectfully critique your classmates’ reasoning. Identify and challenge their assumptions, question their reasoning, and push them to the next level. Push yourself, too. Use this as a forum to help you better understand the week’s material. Continue to monitor the discussion forum throughout the day on Day 7 of the week, and respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your posts.