Cunneen and White argue that, whilst the Australian Government espouses the rhetoric of restorative justice, juvenile justice reforms instituted in recent years have contributed to the further...

Juvenile Justice Systems in Australia
Running Head: JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AUSTRALIA
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JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AUSTRALIA
Juvenile Justice Systems in Australia
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Institution
Juvenile Justice Reforms in Australia
Introduction
The representation of young offenders has generated a lot of heat in Australia over the years. In many instances, juvenile issues are based on embellishment, stereotype ideas, and assumptions. Political views and media coverage depict young offenders as disrespectful and unfocused. Many incidences of youth gang are followed by a demand for bigger punishment to enable redemption. Youths are not expected to roam around the streets or visit each other. The society believes that youths need strict restrictions to grow up as mature and reasonable individuals. When the youth engage in inappropriate behaviour, the solution is harsh punishment in order to correct their ways. This twisted perspective on handling the youth’s behaviour reported on politics and media, has found its way in the juvenile justice system (Swain &, Rice, 2009).
The Challenges of the Juvenile System
Research indicates that hundreds of Australian youth are placed in juvenile detention centres every year. Other youths engage in crimes that warrant supervised bail, probation, parole, and pending detention. These young people are implicated in a complex justice system that aims at pulling them from ways of crime. Main areas of the current juvenile justice system have been improved in recent years to ensure that young people benefit from the system. This however, is not the case. According to Cunnen and White (2007, p. 105), juvenile justice system marginalises and criminalises the underprivileged youths. The socially disadvantaged young people are viewed as a problematic group and they face the callous realities of the system.
The Australian juvenile system is supervised from various territories namely, the youth agencies, and other justice groups like the police or courts. Researches in 2007 to 2008 indicate that an average of 4,708 youths was detained in juvenile centres on a daily basis. Thousands of other youths had some sort of supervision at some point in this period. The results also indicated that young people involved in crime increased drastically from 2004 to 2008. This shows that the juvenile system in Australia does not satisfactorily contribute to the reduction of crime among young individuals. The actual predicament here is that the majority of young people in detention did not have their cases reviewed and awaited their trails. The fact that the minority youth groups had pending cases is an issue that raised questions about the reliability of the justice system (Carrington & Pereira, 2010, p. 3-4).
Discrimination in Australian Juvenile System
The marginalised youth normally face discrimination in terms of class, social status and their family settings. The gap between the rich and the poor in Australia is huge. The job market is limited to a few young people as the minority youth are discriminated against and therefore seek to look for other means of survival. The minority youth in Australia come from certain ethnic backgrounds where basic resources are scarce. This means that education and state resources do not help these young people. These young people are represented in low incomes, poor education, unstable family settings and poor relationships. Most of these young people eventually find themselves in juvenile detention for various crimes (Fuller, 2012, p. 355-356).
The juvenile justice system has youths detained because of social inequality and this shows how the social structure is faulty. The system uses forceful measures to intervene the life of juveniles, making it difficult to change their unlawful conducts. The state does not treat equally the various social groups, as more under privileged youth are present in detention areas within Australia. Those from an African descent are also rampant in the prison walls. Dark coloured individuals are generally treated with disregard in England and the justice system is not an exception. This rooted institutional racism and poor distribution of communal resources shows how poorly the system is implemented. The society labels certain groups of young people as hopeless, low class, and criminals, a level of marginalisation experienced in the justice system (Cohen & Kluegel, 1978, pp. 162-163).
The society in Australia excludes young people based on family background, geographical location, racial standing and ethnic representation. The prison settings are crammed with people viewed as “useless” in the society. The youth learn to be hardheaded from the prison walls, thus making it difficult for them to change their lifestyles. Additionally, court cases are held depending on how popular or influential a certain individual stands in the society. This makes it difficult to value the life of prisoners in the setting through the tough economic times (Fuller, 2012, pp. 355-356).
Discrimination of Australian Natives or Aboriginals
According to Beresford, Partington and Gower (2012, pp. 237-238), native young Australians take in around 5% of the territory. However, 40% of juveniles in detention are indigenous. This over-representation of the natives in misdemeanour is disquieting. Further research indicates that young natives in Australia are...