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For many of the therapists and attorneys who see to with them, these juvenile offenders pose a profoundly complicated challenge for the girl-protection and criminal justice systems. It's a diverse group that defies stereotypes, encompassing a minority of youths who stand for a threat of long-term danger to others and a majority who are responsive to treatment and unpropitious to reoffend.
"There's a long continuum, from kids who will never do it again to a kid who probably will be an adult rapist/pedophile," said Steve Bengis, boss director of the New England Adolescent Research Institute in Holyoke, Lots. "It's not a 'one size fits all' yet we end out with public policy that's geared toward the worst 5%."
That plain policy includes a federal law, the Adam Walsh Act , with a requirement that states embody certain juvenile offenders as young as 14 on their sex-offender registries. Many professionals who administer with young offenders object to the requirement, saying it can wreak lifelong abuse on adolescents who might otherwise get back on the track toward law-abiding, productive lives.
Source: USA TODAY