I do think that courts should consider other factors, like the severity of the crime, the juvenile's previous criminal record and their upbringing, before determining if they should be tried as an adult. But, it should still be the goal of the court system to attempt to educate juveniles, rather than throwing in the towel at the first sign of violence, and sending them to prison with even more violent, hardened criminals. Some say that children who commit adult crimes such as murder should be tried as adults. Then you should be tried as an adult no matter your age. If you take a life from one you should suffer the same punishment if your 15 or if your 43.
Although politicians claim that the public demands tough policies, moral panics tend to dissipate when the crisis passes. Many around the country would argue because of more serious crimes committed by adults has fashioned an umbrella on the juvenile system which imposes robust crimes for the juvenile themselves. Now when a juvenile has committed a crime, the next step is the procedures of handling the juvenile physically and mental status. Following the arrest of a juvenile offender, a law enforcement officer has the discretion to release the juvenile to his or her parents, or take the offender to juvenile
The first one is the judicial waiver. A judicial waiver “occurs when a juvenile court judge transfers ca case from juvenile court to adult court in order to deny the juvenile the protections that juvenile jurisdictions provide” http://criminal.findlaw.com/juvenile-justice/juvenile-waiver-transfer-to-adult-court.html. Next is statutory exclusion which is “provisions in the law to exclude some offenses” http://criminal.findlaw.com/juvenile-justice/juvenile-waiver-transfer-to-adult-court.html. The final mechanism is concurrent jurisdiction which “allows the prosecutor to file a juvenile case in both juvenile and adult court because the offense and the age of the accused meet certain criteria” http://criminal.findlaw.com/juvenile-justice/juvenile-waiver-transfer-to-adult-court.html. 46 states use the judicial waiver, 29 states use statutory exclusion and 15 states use concurrent jurisdiction.
Juvenile justice can be defined as the sector of the law applicable to persons not of legal age. Complying with the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of the Child, the juvenile justice system aims to combine the welfare and justice approaches to youth crime, in order to keep the best interests of the child as the most prominent of priorities. However, there remains a considerable list of aims to be addressed when the issue of responding to juvenile justice arises. These include decreasing rates of recidivism, providing rehabilitation into society, and ultimately recognizing that due to mental immaturity and lack of legal knowledge, young offenders require a degree of protection. The extent to which our legal system is able to adequately provide this is at times, questionable.
The juvenile system is the collection of government agencies that function to investigate, supervise, adjudicate, care for, or confine youthful offenders and other children subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court (Schmallegar, 2011). Juvenile offenders can be described as delinquents or status offenders which have some key likenesses and differences. There are many elements that relate with juvenile crime rates. There are many differences and similarities between the juvenile court system and the adult court system. One of the differences is that juveniles do not have the right to a trial by a jury.
In most juvenile homicide cases, they are automatically put into the adult justice system for committing the adult-like crime. Some of these children are receiving punishments such as life in prison, even life in prison without parole. Although, the kids may have committed the “adult” crime it is unethical for youths to be tried as adults. Youths should not be tried as adults because they are too young to understand the adult criminal court and could receive cruelty from the state penitentiaries. Also, instead of sending the juveniles
Nevertheless, when the wholesale transfer to criminal court of various classes of juvenile offenders that are defined solely by the charged offense starts to become the rule rather than the exception, we need to stop and take stock of what we are doing. I say this because this represents a fundamental challenge to the developmental premise on which the juvenile court was founded that adolescents and adults are different in ways that warrant their differential treatment under the law. Even though juveniles have different psychological thoughts they should still be trialed as adults because they are considered delinquents and I believe if they commit the crimes they should be trialed as any other adult would be. Juveniles sometimes
This study will also try to offer suggestions as to how further studies can be improved and how to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency. It will also present some of the limitations that can be faced when conducting studies on this topic of juvenile delinquency. Definition of terms Juvenile delinquency- this is the broad-based term given to juveniles who commit crimes. Juveniles are defined as individuals who haven’t reached adulthood or the age of majority. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-juvenile-delinquency.htm) Delinquency- this is defined as, failure or omission of duty; a fault; a misdeed; an offense; a misdemeanor; a crime.
The officer then may place the juvenile in a detention center or in some cases a foster home (Bartollas & Miller, 2008, p.18). Unlike adults juveniles can be arrested for noncriminal acts that are classified as juvenile offenses. Meaning there are different laws for minors then there are for
The purpose of this paper is to exhibit the major factors of punishing juvenile offenders and the outcome these punishments produce. It is apparent that juvenile crime is a prevalent problem in the United States in which society should not disregard. On the contrary, the dilemma needs to be dealt with in a civilized manner that is in harmony with the universal standards of justice. There is a highly controversial debate regarding juvenile crime and the punishments allocated to the young offenders. However, when a child engages in criminal activity the degree of the sentence received should coincide with offense .The central emphasis of this content is to illustrate the effects of retribution by holding the juvenile justice system responsible for precisely applying the appropriate sanctions toward deserving individuals.