Washington Institute for Public Policy

Before the 20^th century, there used to be various problems pertaining to the rehabilitation of the young group of people. These problems extended in the sense that there were no properly defined means of handling the juveniles in as much as they also formed part of the criminals. Due to these problems, various pieces of legislation activities were introduced to shape the treatment of juvenile offenders in the 20^th century.

Amongst the various pieces of legislation introduced, the first piece that has facilitated the juvenile treatment is referred to as Federal Delinquency Juvenile Act (Aos, 2002). Through this movement, the adult criminals were separated from the children who were found guilty of criminal offences. This movement further facilitated that children are not supposed to be sentenced for a period extending beyond their 20^th age mark. Movement ensued that the sentences charged of the juvenile should in totality differ from that under which the adults are exposed.

In the legislation acts, there are various aspects which were introduced in the 20th century to help curb crime amongst the juveniles. One of the most renowned arts of legislation was the Drug Act that was put in place to help to reduce the hooliganism and drug abuse amongst the youths. This piece of legislation is referred to as the “Marijuana legislation and Casual drug use in British Colombia.” Through this legislation policy, handling the drug related juvenile cases was aided possible (Egelko, 2001). All juveniles who were charged with drug related cases now could be subjected to the Marijuana legislation act which provides well laid down strategies on how the charges should be passed.

Another item of legislation in this context is the “No child left behind Act.” This act of legislation was geared towards shaping the life of students and advocated that no students should boycott school at all for whatever reason. The “No child left behind legislation policy” was introduced by President George W. Bush during his reign. Through his schemes, he was committed towards creating a better future for the students (Egelko, 2001). Through this piece of legislation, it has been very easy to enact strategies of treating the juvenile offenders. Students not willing to comply with the school attendance could then be handled as per to the requirement of the law (Egelko, 2001).

Another movement that aided the shaping up of the juvenile offenders is referred to as the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The main reason as to why this movement was created was top help curb the cases of failing rates of rehabilitation. The movement therefore fostered to boost the rehabilitation of all the criminals falling in the age group below 18 years (Aos, 2002). Through this act, all states as well as the local governments were granted with the resources to help in the planning and actual venture in the projects to help to facilitate training and educating the juveniles (Aos, 2002).

In respect to the today’s system of handling the juveniles, most countries in the world have ventured in separation of the adults prisons from those of children. In addition to that, there are a lot of ideas draw from the legislation policies as well as these movements. The first case is evident in the establishment of training grounds common in most juvenile prisons worldwide. Apart from the training activities, there are also various rehabilitation forums in the juvenile treatment systems.