Question: Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Reality Meets the Theoretical

In Chapter 4 of the text, our author talks about risk factors and protective factors. Select a juvenile of your choice or one that we have already studied (such as Greg Ousley, Colt Lundy, or Paul Gingerich from the video in Week 1, "Young Kids, Hard Time") and conduct a search for additional information on their case, their trial, and their situation. Give us a short history of the individual selected, and then identify the risk factors and protective factors you see with the juvenile. Evaluate these factors through the lens of the lifecourse theory. Does the concept of persistence or desistence come into play with this juvenile?

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates' posts who use a different juvenile than from your initial post by Day 7. Continue to support your arguments with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources.

Review your classmates' opinions in light of your understanding of the juvenile justice system. In your response post, you must evaluate the juvenile based on one of the theories found in Chapter 3. Identify the theory you intend to use and give a short explanation of the theory. Explain how it applies to the case of the juvenile identified in the original post of your classmate. Does the theory in Chapter 3, or the lifecourse theory, better explain the delinquency of the individual?