The ones in the larger group have only one or two brushes with the law and then straighten out as they mature, but the smaller group, the hardened chronic offenders, commit the majority of all violent juvenile crime. With respect to the first, larger group of juvenile offenders, the juvenile justice system must be better designed to deter them from committing additional crimes. The goal is to prevent juveniles in this group from becoming chronic offenders. Indeed, the success of the criminal justice system in preventing these juvenile offenders from becoming career criminals is perhaps the single greatest determinant of future levels of criminality. Such punishment actually benefits the juvenile more than lenient sanctions, or no sanctions at all.
Excessive leniency can result in additional transgressions, culminating in a life of crime.
The juvenile does not get the message that crime does not pay because he is not made to pay for his crime. A juvenile justice system that is too lenient can become, in effect, a conveyor belt for career criminals. In contrast, tough but fair sanctions can turn the juvenile around and stop the all too common pipeline from juvenile offender to adult offender. The challenge for the juvenile justice system is different with respect to that small segment of the juvenile population that commits most of the violent juvenile crime and progresses to become hardened career criminals. The task for a successful juvenile justice system is to identify this group of chronic offenders and incapacitate them through extended periods of incarceration.