Purpose Of The Juvenile Justice System

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).

It has been understood by society that juveniles have been committing more serious crimes while the juvenile justice system had also become lenient with juvenile offenders. They were only getting a ‘slap on the risk’ as some members of society interpreted it, by the juvenile justice. This therefore led to a massive response from many state legislators who decided to enforced punitive laws to control juvenile serious crimes (Witehead & Lab, 2015) These laws have been enforced to prevent future juvenile offenders from committing serious crimes. Additionally some of the punitive laws which were implemented enable juvenile offenders who have committed serious crimes to be removed from the juvenile justice system to the adult justice system. Some also suggested that the justice system is to treat juveniles who have committed serious crimes as criminals within their jurisdiction in the juvenile courts. This they suggested will be as an example to other juveniles who intended to commit serious in the future to be treated as criminals and in some states prosecutors can file some cases directly in the criminal court than in the juvenile court (Lawrence & Hesse, 2009 Pg. 21).

Currently each state and territory in Australia has its own individual legislation concerning juvenile crime. All state and territory laws do not conform to the Conventions on the Right of the Child and it is crucial that these laws are amended to better protect juveniles. The most effective reform that could be made is for each state and territory to amend their individual legislations to increase the minimum age to be criminally responsible from 10 to 12 with the doli incapax doctrine still being applied. Although it has been acknowledged that under the common law doctrine doli incapax, children between 10 and 14 are only criminally responsible if the individual is mature enough to realise the consequences of their actions, this assessment is left to the judge, often without expert knowledge from a phycologist (Amnesty International, 2015). Furthermore, it is crucial for Queensland to raise their maximum age from 17 to 18. This amendment will allow Australia to keep up with international standards while reducing Aboriginal crime in areas where crime rates are

The main reason for having the two different justice systems is that children cannot be held to the same punishment levels as an adult. Even though a child has committed the same crime an adult may commit, not every child has a mental understanding to make mature adult like decisions. The juvenile

Most of the time, the system has proven itself to be unsuccessful in dealing with juvenile crimeMost often, the system is unsuccessful. “There are kids who are five times more likely to be raped or otherwise sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities. The risk of suicide is likewise much higher for juveniles in adult jails.”(How to reduce crime Pg 3). When juveniles are sent to jail, they are still relatively impressionable from people in the prison, and may go back into crime after they’re released, hindering rehabilitation and just creating another violent criminal in the world. The court sentencing the criminal is also at

When it comes to discussing the criminal justice system and juveniles, there have been many landmark cases that have made a significant impact on the juvenile justice system. The cases arise from dealing with certain aspects that comes from handling juveniles entering the system. Since juveniles are very different from adults they have to deal with them a certain way and a case by case basis. The court cases concerning juveniles and the decisions that have come from them is what has made what the juvenile justice system is today. Juveniles are not treated the same as adults since juveniles are not ad developed as adults common sense wise. They don’t always know what is right from wrong and sometimes they do not have guidance or good influences around them helping them in the right direction. In class we have learned that instead of punishing them, the goal of the juvenile justice system is based on rehabilitation. For instance, juveniles cannot be sentenced to death if under the age of 18 and also can not be given the sentences of life without parole because they consider these punishments cruel and unusual for juveniles. If the system is able to rehabilitate them and give them the tools they need, they have a second chance at changing their lives for the better and getting away from all of the crimes. They rather try to send them to programs or to complete community service to better themselves instead of giving them hard time. The court cases that I will discuss is what

In the last 42 years little to no changes have been made to correct the standards that govern punitive measures towards juvenile delinquency. Today juvenile law is governed by state and many states have enacted a juvenile code. However, in numerous cases, juveniles are transferred to adult court when juvenile courts waive or relinquish jurisdiction. Adolescents should not be tried in the adult court system or sentenced to adult penitentiary's on account of: teen brains are not mature which causes a lack of understanding towards the system, incarceration in an adult facility increases juvenile crime, and children that are sentenced to adult prison are vulnerable to abuse and rape.

The Australian criminal justice system acknowledges the immaturity of young offenders compared with that of adult offenders, and thus impose system in which their crimes are dealt with. A criminal conviction relies upon a two-fold basis whereby the actus rea and mens rea must be proved, however young offenders are treated with a different level of responsibility as they have not reached adulthood. Referred to as juvenile justice, offenders under the age of 18 are recognised as requiring a greater level of protection and assistance due to their state of dependancy. Such programs are specifically geared to protect young offenders and aim to deal with youth in a more effective manner due to their increased vulnerable state.This protection is consistent throughout the criminal trial process and covers all stages starting from acknowledging the age of responsibility.

When thinking of reforming the juvenile justice system one has to think; what can we do to make this better for everyone involve? There are some programs that can be implemented when trying to make a change in the juvenile system. The main thing is getting parents or the guardian more involved in the child’s whereabouts. Secondly the community where the youth will have a place to go and have something more constructive to do to keep them out of trouble. Law enforcement can get involved in giving ride along and having visits to the local jails or prisons from the youth to talk to some of the inmates. Crime in life isn’t racist at all it has a no age limit, no certain gender and no social status for most of those whom decide to partake in a criminal activity. From the beginning juveniles have been an issue with law enforcement, the question has always arisen of whom will take control without cruel and unusual punishment and assist with the rehabilitation and prevention future crime actions.

Being put within a system at a young age will lead them to more and dangerous lives to live. Juvenile justice laws varies in the United States. My paper is to discuss the difference in jurisdictions among these three states, Maryland, New York and South Carolina. Where the ages vary of a juvenile offender can be prosecuted as an adult between the ages 15-17. The State of MD, average youth offender age is 17 years old. All court cases involving youth excluded from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court based on age and offense criteria at the time of arrest. So this means if this your first time the courts may take all of that into consideration.

One may argue that if juveniles are to commit an adult crime, they should be punished as an adult. Defensively, there are many reasons why they are mistaken. The juvenile justice system has the right to keep an adjudicated delinquent imprisoned until their 21st birthday. This punishment is just for those in juvenile prisons. “It is certainly long enough to serve the needs of public protection, and enough time to rehabilitate a child. Indeed, studies routinely show that in these cases, the juvenile justice system protects the public better than the criminal justice system” (Schwartz). Likewise, the opposing side may also believe a juvenile who commits a felony should be punished as an adult. This statement is wrong juveniles brains are not fully

This report will outline the changes made in the Youth Justice and other Legislation Amendment Act (2014). Juvenile Justice is the section of law applicable to people not old enough to be held accountable for adult crimes. The Juvenile Justice System in Queensland involves “Juveniles” aged 10-16, anyone older than 17 is at mercy of the Adult Justice System, but anyone under 10 cannot be charged for anything and are not seen as accountable for their actions. There was an increase of 4651 juveniles detained in Australia from 2011 to 2013 – and 85.8% of all these juveniles were found guilty or pleaded guilty. (Queensland Courts, 2013)

This response holds young people accountable for their actions, encourages their reintegration into the community whilst also promoting community safety." (http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/youth-justice) " The current policy the Youth Justice Act 1992 (QLD), which was introduced in 1993; has been given several amendments since it was introduced, these amendments occurred in 1996, 2002 and 2010." (http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/youth-justice) " This Act provides police with procedures, provides diversionary options such as cautions, provides a range of sentencing options, provides the outline as to how courts deal with young people and this Act also provides procedures for the operation of youth detention centres."

The study of juveniles is very important because children and adolescents are supposed to be the future of our world. Not only that, but we, the citizens of the United States, should pay more attention to the juveniles and create a new set of laws that would prevent juveniles from committing any source of crimes. If we do something about it before any further problems get involved, we can reduce the crimes of our communities by starting working with our juveniles. This involves some rehabilitation and some specific programs that can help our juveniles not to get in problems.

The purposes of the Childrens (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 and the Young Offender's Act 1997 is rehabilitation and is intended to be the primary concern for the criminal justice system when dealing with Young Offenders. Statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology show that the rate of detention for young offenders has decreased since 1981 by over 50%. However a study by the AIC found that there was no difference in the rates of reoffending, the report states that the adverse effects of imprisonment on employment outcomes and the evidence that custodial sentencing acts as a deterrent suggests these types of penalties should hardly be used yet 900-1000 young people are held in custody each day. The Young Offender's Act has been