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Juvenile Delinquency And The Law Of The United States Essay

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Definitions of juvenile delinquency vary everywhere you go in the world. The laws change from country to country and even from state to state. The United States Justice Department defines a juvenile as “a person who has not attained his eighteenth birthday”, and juvenile delinquency “as the violation of a law of the United States committed by a person prior to his eighteenth birthday, which would have been a crime if committed by an adult” (Office). The Justice Department also says, “A person over eighteen but under twenty-one years of age is also accorded juvenile treatment if the act of juvenile delinquency occurred prior to his eighteenth birthday” (Office). Many states have lowered the age of a juvenile to seventeen. The way a juvenile has been treated over the years has changed drastically.
We can trace the first penalties for crime against society, both property and personal, back to biblical times. The Old Testament is loaded with laws that led to immediate punishments, which ranged from public shame to death. The Bible was specific to make the punishment fit the crime. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 tells that if a man has a son that is rebellious, doesn’t obey his father or mother, and will not listen then he should be brought to the elders of the city. The son will be publically berated, all the men of the city will stone him, and he shall die. The evil would be taken away from them and fear would be on Israel (Bible). Age was not a major consideration for

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