Essay On Juvenile Recidivism In The Philippines

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The Philippines did not give much thought to children in conflict with the law until 2006 when RA 9344 or “Juvenile Justice and Welfare” act was passed. Prior to that the juvenile justice system in the country is considered a grey area, an area that needs to be revisited and improved. In 2009, the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) reported a total of 11,000 CICL accused of committing petty crimes. And in that same year the National Statistical Coordination Board reported a total of 481 CICL served by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in central Visayas alone. Though there's not that much report on the percentage of CICL who became recidivist, it is still important to assess the factors that would lead these children from committing the same offense or perhaps committing a new one. Juvenile recidivist, although only committing petty
In the context of criminal justice, recidivism is “the return of an individual to a form of criminal conduct for which he/she was convicted and which assumably was corrected” (Maltz, 2001, p.1 as stated by Tica, 2014).

Numerous research has been conducted on juvenile recidivism, demographic

information like sex, gender, educational background and the family's socio-economic status really show a striking similarity in almost all children in conflict with the law. Majority of these children did not graduate high school and are living in poverty-stricken community. In a research conducted by Ryan, Abrams, & Huang, 2014, results showed that male youths are more likely to recidivate (re-offend) compared to female youths.

Despite the efforts of the local government to contain the situation, there is still a significant increase in juvenile recidivism, although proper documentation of each cases is considered an area that needs to be