underage drinking, running away, and habitual truancy

underage drinking, running away, and habitual truancy

From a legal perspective, status offenses are a class of actions that are prohibited for a particular group of people. Often, these offenses are put in place to guide the behavior of minors as they involve conduct that cannot be deemed a crime. As such, if an adult performs these acts, they cannot be charged in a court of law. Thus, these actions are noncriminal and are only deemed to be violations when they are undertaken by individuals considered to be minors. Usually, status offenses reflect underlying familial, personal, or communal issues that crop up in the life of children, making them behave in an undesirable manner. For this paper, underage drinking, running away, and habitual truancy are going to be examined as to why they are a severe status offense.

Underage Drinking

In the United States of America, this conduct typically involves youths who are yet to attain the age of twenty-one but who are already engaged in the possession and consumption of alcohol. Other than taking alcoholic beverages in church or religious functions, underage drinking becomes a status offense where a minor attempt to buy, is in possession or has consumed alcohol. In the current generation, underage drinking has become rampant and a norm among youths.

However, it is crucial to note that if a minor consumes alcohol in a private establishment or party or during lawful employment with a licensed retailer, manufacturer, or wholesaler of alcohol, such a minor cannot be charged for having committed a status offense. Similarly, an underage individual who is in possession of alcohol meant for medical purposes after being administered by a licensed health practitioner cannot be held liable for committing a status offense.

Underage drinking is viewed as a juvenile offense due to the various adverse effects it can cause. Excessive consumption of alcohol is likely to cause death due to the internal injuries it causes to the developing body organs of the minors. Moreover, young individuals have a higher likelihood of getting addicted to the use of alcohol. By drinking, the individual’s body is affected and can suffer from hangovers, and worse, in case of alcoholic poisoning, the user is likely to die. Similarly, drinking too much alcohol harms the growing brain, thus affecting the reasoning capacity. While it also plays a role in risky sexual activities among the youth, drinking also affects the risk judgment of the child and can result in fatal crashes while driving. When a minor is found guilty of possession and consumption of alcohol, he or she may be charged with a criminal offense and can be sentenced to a jail term. Also, he can either be fined, can be subjected to hours of community service, or can be subjected to supervised counseling.

Running Away

Minors run away from home for various reasons. Some reasons may seem to be justifiable, while others appear to be unreasonable. Unlike throwaways who have been chased away from home by their parents, runaways and their parents can both be charged in a court of law. It is because the parent or guardian must be responsible for the safety of their minor children. However, if a child runs away once, the minor is likely to be returned to his parents, but if it becomes a norm that the child keeps running away, then the police are allowed to take the child into custody.

Among the reasons why children run away is the likelihood of parental abuse and neglect, family dynamics such as remarriage, divorce, foster care challenges as well as problems with their siblings. Moreover, self-harm, suicidal tendencies, conflict on one’s sexuality, and probable medical or mental health problems are likely to make a minor to run away from home. Besides, some children decide to run away from home just for an adventure, or due to peer pressure.

Similar to underage drinking, running away from home is not a crime. Still, due to the age of the children, it becomes a status offense since the minors are exposed to various challenges that affect their personal lives. These adverse challenges include exposure to human trafficking, lack of money hence a lack of food, exposure to health problems that are also made worse by the lack of access to medical services. Runaways may resort to stealing, abusing and selling drugs while some can be sexually exploited by being coerced to engage in immoral activities such as prostitution or even production of adult movies for the sole purpose of making money. If taken to custody, such minors can be accompanied back home, or their parents are convinced to let them stay at their friends’ place for a while. Also, hey can be taken to shelters made for runaways, or even be held at juvenile detentions for a while.

Habitual Truancy

Truancy refers to a minor’s deliberate, unapproved, unjustified, and illegal absence from school and often underlines personal problems that make a child act inappropriately. Despite that all individuals have the right to decide what to do and what not to do, children are viewed as individuals who are developing, and as such, until they reach the majority age, they are expected to observe rules that are a bit different from those of adults. One of those laws is the need to attend mandatory classes daily for as long as the schooling session is open. Failure to attend compulsory education can result in the prosecution of the minor and his parents or guardians.

Often, for a child to be considered truant, he or she has missed school for more than a specified number of times and without notification by the parents or guardians. Thus, if a child is habitually absent with permission requested by the parent and granted by the school’s administration, the child cannot be seen as truant. However, if the minor continues to miss a class or habitually enters a class late, he or she is seen as truant, and the parents can be answerable in a court of law while the child can be subjected to the juvenile justice system.

Truancy is a serious offense since it denotes an underlying problem. Truancy is often because of individual or family problems. Typically, a minor is likely to miss class either due to engaging in crime, drugs, and substance abuse, peer pressure, harassment, or bullying. Moreover, family matters such as abuse or neglect may affect an individual’s willingness to attend school. Consequently, the juvenile system might opt to subject the minor to additional classes, drug testing, probation, or counseling. However, if truancy is because of illegal activities, the minor can be subjected to detention while the parents or guardians can be ordered to pay some fine or penalty.

Conclusion

While the offenses under consideration are not criminal, these conducts are not tolerated to guide the behavior of the young individuals with the sole purpose of instilling discipline and assisting minors to become reliable members of the society. Despite it being the minors’ liability, parents and guardians are compelled to ensure that the children avoid such unwanted behaviors.