Ch. 8 Juvenile Justice

Juvenile justice is considered to be civil law rather than criminal law. One of the reasons for this distinction is because of how the courts are operated and the intended purpose of the courts. Adult court punishes the guilty while juvenile court wants to rehabilitate the juveniles so that they can become a contributing member of society. There are two different types of juveniles offenses. Status offenses are those that underage persons are not allowed to do. These include running away, smoking, truancy, and having sex. Minors, underage persons, are assumed to not have the mental capability or maturity to make these decisions. Delinquency offenses are those offenses that are criminal in an adult court. Some examples include murder, stealing, and vandalism. Some states have relinquished jurisdiction over status offenders to social service agencies. There are many different terms used in juvenile courts that differ from adult courts. A juvenile, defendant, can be held responsible, guilty, for a crime. Juveniles are not arrested they are detained. A trial is called a hearing in juvenile court. Sometimes due to the severity of the crime or the age of the juvenile the case can be waived to adult court. This means that the juvenile will be tried as an adult and will receive an adult level punishment. There will be no rehabilitation to integrate the juvenile into society. There have been trends in history where juveniles have been prosecuted more harshly and as well as periods that have seen a relaxing in the punishments of juveniles.

There has been a tendency of late to waive juvenile cases up to adult courts. This has cause some to question the need for a juvenile court system. They have posed the question that if all the juvenile cases are being waived there is no reason for a juvenile court system at all. To counter this position others have raised valid points on the maturity of the juveniles being prosecuted. Many believe that younger offenders do not fully understand the implications of what they are doing and that should be taken into account in the trial process. Others believe that the younger offenders should have their life ruined when they could be rehabilitated instead. Still others suggest that imprisoning the young offenders will just make them harden criminals. I tend to side with those who think the Juvenile court system should stay around but there are cases where some juveniles cannot be rehabilitated or their crimes are so hideous that they need to sequestered away from society. My mother raised the question about sociopathic/psychopathic juveniles who would by the defintion of their condition cannot be cured or rehabilitated. What good does the juvenile justice system do them? They will never be cured and unlikely to stop their behavior. They would be a danger to society. My question is that these individuals have learned to imitate normal human emotions and are usually very good actors. It would be hard to tell them from regular individuals.
Eight Yr. Old