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- Creators: Samuelson, Melissa
- Creators: Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
While children and adolescents are the most vulnerable members of society, juvenile offenders face interventions that mirror the punitive and retributive nature of the criminal justice system. These interventions contribute to high recidivism rates, disproportionately impact low-income and minority youth, and result in negative collateral consequences, preventing effective reintegration into their communities. In this thesis, I devise a system based on decriminalization and sociologically-focused rehabilitation that should be applied to the Arizona juvenile justice system and beyond.
Literature review of existing prison-based programs meant to reduce the post-release likelihood of recidivism. Upon completion of the literature, this paper leverages criminology theories to explore the potential causes of program correlations to recidivism.