Deck 15: Juvenile Justice

Question 1

What is the jurisdiction of the juvenile court system?

Answer 1

Juvenile court:
A court's jurisdiction is defined by law as juveniles, status offenders, or alleged to be delinquent deals in the juvenile court. This court handles criminal violations of the children who fall under the age group of 16 years independently. It also cares for dependents, neglected, and wayward youths.
Those who are involved in serious offences such as murder and rape are not handled by "juvenile justice system." They are automatically included in the adults' violence.
Jurisdiction of juvenile court system:
Commonly, juvenile court has only narrow jurisdiction while comparing the adult's court. However, this court has specialized set of rules and regulations for trial and punishment. The jurisdiction of juvenile court is based on two factors.
First consideration is the age of client. The intention of juvenile court is to protect children from various adult criminal laws. Hence, an offender who belongs to age of below sixteen is protected by the juvenile court based on age factor.
However, juvenile court has another jurisdiction based on categories of cases. These categories include four cases such as status offences from their family, neglect, delinquency, and dependency. Hence, the cases from the age below sixteen and those belonging to the above four categories are provided jurisdiction in juvenile court system

Question 2

What are the major processes in the juvenile justice system?

Answer 2

Juvenile justice:
Juvenile justice is the area of criminal law set to the citizen those whose cannot be included in the criminal law for being punished. Most of the countries consider individuals up-to the age of eighteen under this juvenile justice. Hence, the law provides relaxations to the culprit on consideration of age.
Major processes in juvenile justice system:
Juvenile justice system is a combination of police, courts, and correctional officers. This system especially focuses to rehabilitate the children from their criminal behavior. The processes of juvenile justice system starts from police interface. Many police departments have particular units for juveniles especially in cities.
This unit accepts the cases that arise due to juveniles. Then, the case is presented in juvenile court as a petition. Hence, police cannot arrest a child before the court verdict him/her as an offender. Then, court follows pretrial procedures for detention hearing. This hearing determines a child to be in custody or released to adjudication.
If the child committed serious felony, then the case will waive to adult court. Otherwise, the court will conduct trial and adjudicate the decision. In case the court finds a delinquency, then court will consider disposition of sentence. This disposition is conducted after examining the predisposition report provided by probation officer.
This report contains treatment plans developed for the child. In the disposition stage, four choices are available for a child. They are probation, community treatment, custodial care, and intermediate sanctions. Therefore, these are the major processes in juvenile justice system.

Question 3

What are the sentencing and institutional alternatives for juveniles who are judged delinquent?

Answer 3

Juvenile court:
A court's jurisdiction is defined by law as juveniles, status offenders, or alleged to be delinquent deals in the juvenile court. This court handles criminal violations of the children who fall under the age group of 16 years independently. It also cares for dependents, neglected, and wayward youths.
Those who are involved in serious offences such as murder and rape are not handled by "juvenile justice system." They are automatically included in the adults' violence.
Sentences and institutional alternatives for juveniles:
Delinquents have separate sentences that are less intensive than adult's sentences. Intention of juvenile's sentencing rehabilitates children than punish them. Hence, custodial care, community treatment, probation, and intermediate sanctions are the major sentences charges behind juveniles.
Custodial care is a type of incarceration that prohibits societal life of juveniles. In the sentence of community treatment , court admits delinquent in detention centers or training schools to rehabilitate criminal behavior. Probation is same as the probation of adults. Court strictly orders to undergo same with education and counseling in the probationary period.
Delinquent also requires to pays fine in the terms of probation. Intermediate sanction is another sentence that compels delinquent to engage in compulsory social work or monitor child behavior in school and community.
Without these sentences, some other institutional alternatives are created for juveniles those who are delinquent. They are institutional programs such as counseling, vocational training, and education.
These programs helps to modify the behavior ( counseling ), to develop specific work skills ( vocational training ), and to develop new culture ( education ) among delinquents. Therefore, these are the sentences and institutional alternatives of juveniles.

Question 4

What due process rights do juveniles have?

Question 5

What are the major historical periods of juvenile justice in the United States?