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Juvenile Justice History Essay

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Juvenile Justice History
Jozatte Hill
Grantham University

There are five periods of juvenile justice history. The first period is considered the Puritan period then there is the Refuge period, Juvenile Court period, Juvenile Rights period, and last the Crime Control period. I will be discussing these periods and their significance. These periods begin in 1646 and go into the present. The Puritan period was from 1646 to the year of 1824 and it utilized laws from England. Juvenile control was mainly the responsibility of family, church and other social institutions. Children over the age of five were treated as small adults or property. By the age of seven, children could be sentenced in criminal courts. In 1646 Massachusetts Stubborn Child Law was established and stated that parents to use corporal punishment when children disobeyed them and the children could be kept out of school. The Refuge period started in 1824 and ended in 1899. In this period the Society for Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency made way for separating juveniles from adult offenders. Then facilities for juveniles were established in most major cities to reform …show more content…

This time period focuses on the best interests of society overrule best interests of youthful offenders. There is also an addition of two more D’s which are Deterrence and Deserts. Deterrence is the punishment or threat of punishment to deter delinquent acts of crime and Deserts is punishment as revenge. In my opinion I would say that the Juvenile Rights Period was the most influential time in the evolution of the juvenile justice system. I think this because of all the positive changes that took place to help the youth rather then to just discipline them. Children make mistakes and I don’t think it would be fair to institutionalize them at such an early age or punish them harshly for bad decisions that would affect them in a negative way throughout

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