Compare and contrast the Justice Model with the Welfare Model

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Traditionally, juvenile courts followed the welfare model. As states experienced the wave of increasing juvenile violence during the late 1950s and early 1960s, many responded by viewing juveniles not as having problems, but as being problems. These states called for a justice model whereby youths would be held accountable and, in some instances, punished. The call for an increasingly punitive juvenile justice system was pushed further still during the 1980s and 1990s, as a new wave of juvenile violence swept through the country.

Today, however, despite all of the rhetoric about "getting tough" on youth, most juvenile courts still operate much as they did before the 1980s.

Although this position is contrary to the social welfare philosophy of the traditional juvenile court, it is not necessarily contrary to the way that juvenile court judges have traditionally handled delinquent cases. Treating and caring for youthful criminals, rather than punishing them, is too contrary to our experience and too counterintuitive to be accepted by judges or the general public.

A philosophy that denies moral guilt and punishment and views criminals as innocent, hapless victims of bad social environments may be written into law, but this does not mean that it will be followed in practice. Law violators, young and old, should be punished for their crimes. Children understand punishment, and they understand fairness.