Juvenile Justice System: Article Analysis

The juvenile justice system is a foundation in society that is granted certain powers and responsibilities. It faces several different tasks, among the most important is maintaining order and preserving constitutional rights. When a juvenile is arrested and charged with committing a crime there are many different factors that will come in to play during the course of his arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, and rehabilitation process. This paper examines the Juvenile Justice System’s court process in the State of New Jersey and the State of California.

Placing a juvenile in a detention center early in the court process increases the risk that youths will be found to be delinquent and damage their prospects for future success. A majority of the youths that are placed in these facilities pose little or no threat to the public and essentially do not need to be there. This portion of the juvenile court process is detrimental to the future and mental aspects of a youth’s life. We desperately need to change the way that we handle the juvenile court system because we are only reinforcing the delinquent behavior that these youths have been exposed to. We need to focus on the rehabilitation and prevention efforts for these youths not the punishment aspect and until then (insert a better ending).

The research done for this paper examines different studies of juveniles and their place in the United States’ justice system based on their race, gender, and social class, as well as looks into policing tactics that may be beneficial to the affected youths. By looking at a wide variety of academic journals and books it was clear to see that youths are looked upon and treated differently depending on what their race is, the sex that they were born, or their family’s economic standing. Resulting in the outcome of these youths being treated more harshly than others due to aspects about themselves that are out of their control. Doing further research into the juvenile justice system and how it is structured to help certain youths while neglecting others, it is clear that the treatment of minority youths is entirely unjust and that a reform of this system is, without question, necessary, not only to maintain an even and fair justice system for juveniles, but also to help these minority youths strive in their lifetime rather than fall victim to a life of crime.

The juvenile justice system was subject to a lot of corruption and civil rights violations in its early stages. Juveniles did not have the same rights as adults and could be forced into terrible living or working conditions. With no child labor laws, delinquent juveniles could be sentenced to forced labor in factories or to houses of refuge. With the ruling of Ex Parte Crouse, the state took ultimate responsibility of children and send them to these institutions, even against the will of the parents. Some of these institutions, such as houses of refuge may have started with good intention, but they ultimately led to rampart corruption and abuse of juveniles.

Sentencing should be fair. In the past years juveniles have been getting life sentencing, why should which change now? In the article “Rethinking juvenile justice: after years of moving in the opposite direction, many states are now making it harder to try teen offenders in the adult justice system” by Schwartz, John, we see many cases of teens who were tried as adults for committing crimes, he states, “Several factors are behind the shift, experts say: a decline in juvenile crime, concerns about the costs of adult prisons, and a growing understanding that adolescents have a greater potential for rehabilitation than adults do” (Schwartz 1). This meaning for the past years change has been made in order for teens to be able to get better. But

The juvenile justice system is similar to the criminal justice system. This system is where juveniles are processed, and may be arrested after referrals for juvenile delinquency. Juvenile justice is very different in every state and can be very similar as well because every system has limited jurisdiction and that most focus on the offenders and not their offenses. Therefore, there are 51 juvenile justice systems in the United States. The United States has the juvenile justice system because children are very different than adults – in that they can be better receptive for change and also being easier to rehabilitate. Moreover, the main goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation (Juvenile Law Center). The juvenile justice system is made up of police, courts, corrections, probation and parole services, as well as community-based programs to name a few (book).

In the academic article, Oklahoma’s juvenile justice system neglects to consider for the deviations in the liability and the rehabilitative potential among adults and children, and it carries numerous financial and social costs. Although adults and children are treated differently by the law, in the criminal context, these differences have faded over the past 40 years. The social costs of making a criminal out of a child who made bad decisions as a kid are often overlooked. Instead, we could turn that cost and direct it to make that child a contributing member of society. In my opinion, I feel that this article makes a strong point that we use all this money to keep these children incarcerated while hurting them instead of actually correcting

If a fourteen-year old child murders another person should they be tried in an adult court with the possibility of a life in prison without parole? According to a Gallup Poll conducted in 2003, 59% of people surveyed that they support harsher sentences for serious crimes committed by a minor. The juvenile courts can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a way to prevent the children of a growing immigrant population from falling victim to a life of crime. Despite the original intentions of the juvenile system, the recidivism rate for minors continues to rise at an alarming rate meaning that convicted youth are trapped in a viscous cycle of incarceration that never allows them to grow and prosper. This paper discusses the foundation and intention of the juvenile court system as well as focusing on three issue areas that are complicating the court system: the advancement of neurological studies such as Laurence Steinberg’s, A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking, a lack of proper education and resources necessary to teach the incarcerated youth causing them to fall behind those who have attended a normal school, and an ineffective or complete lack of a rehabilitation plan for convicted juveniles. Finally, this paper discusses the Supreme Court case of Miller v. Alabama (2012) that rendered a 5-4 decision that declared charging a minor life in prison without parole unconstitutional.

Juvenile fire setting is not really an issue I know much about. However, after doing some reading on the topic I could like to believe that I have learned some interesting things. Charles T. Putnam and John T. Kirkpatrick report some very interesting facts on Juvenile Fire setting on the Juvenile Justice Bulletin. It’s quite alarming how in a year 300 people can die due to arson. Not to mention that $300 million dollars’ worth of property is destroyed. And that out of every hundred lives that are lost 85 of these lives lost are children. The reading that we were assigned gave us a cornucopia of knowledge of firesetting from the terminology to theoretical formulations related to Juvenile fire setting. In 2002, the National association of

The Juvenile Justice System, are one of the toughest difficult situation to hand. We have seen the crime rate tripled in younger offenders over the years, majority of these offender suffer in many area of there life's with the lack of good role model, living in very poverty area in a city, homeless and etc. All these things play a major part in why these younger offenders commit such crime and end up in tough situation all these thing must be taken in consideration to get the proper help they need. However, there are some common factors that must be present for juvenile's transfer, along with evidence that must be considered in the transfer hearing. Such as, a judicial wavier, that gives the juvenile courts judges discretion to waive juvenile

Due process is a right guaranteed by the several Amendments to the U.S. Constitution assuring a defendant (adult or juvenile) the right to receive counsel, be proven innocent/guilty by an impartial judge/jury and the right to fair and equal treatment and protection of the laws in judicial or administrative proceedings (Siegel & Welsh, 2014).

The juvenile justice system has gone through several periods which contributed and helped with the evolution of the juvenile justice system. The first was known as the Puritan Period which consisted of poor laws and the forced apprenticeship system for poor and neglected children. British common law allowed children seven years of age or older to receive public punishment. This period included the centuries-old philosophy of patria postestas, which gave fathers absolute authority over all family matters and justifying harsh consequences for children that misbehaved. In this period, juvenile delinquency was handled by the family with the help of the church.

The author explores different means to achieve justice in this novel. While on the surface, this story is about the particular case of Cole Matthews and his own path to redemption, the author constantly makes comments on the current justice system's inadequacies and how alternative forms of justice could serve the criminals and society as a whole much better. Garvey, who works in the juvenile justice system, frequently comments how people go to prison for years, but

Since the inception of the juvenile court in 1899, the transfer of an adolescent offender to the adult court was guided by statues throughout the nation that “emphasized reformation in place of retribution” (Schmalleger, 2015, p.547). It was not until the 1990s that the public’s trust in the ability of the juvenile system decreased and it began to demand change to the juvenile justice system due to the concerns about the increase in juvenile crime and the perception that juveniles were becoming more violent, thus leading to the “adultification” of the juvenile criminal justice system. In the 1990s, society’s attitude toward juvenile delinquents became more intolerant developing into this preconceived idea that if a minor can commit serious

The criminal justice system is the same for juveniles as it is for adults in that it revolves around three important aspects of operation, which are police, courts and corrections. The justice system is dependent on the results from the encounters juveniles have with police. Police are often viewed as the “gatekeepers” (Jacoby & Ratledge, 2006) in both the adult and juvenile systems; this is because police are responsible for how incidents involving juveniles are handled. The justice system functions with values and beliefs that over the years have been misunderstood and wrongfully implemented by police officers. Juveniles have learned to distrust and rebel against it, creating a higher demand and need for a multidisciplinary team. This is what makes the role of a police officer important, which will be discussed further on through my research and findings along with key elements comprehensive programs need in order to be effective.