The
ABSTRACT
The underage offenders can not be treated as adult criminals. Children have more chances to change. A special court system for juveniles has created a service-delivery system that provides minors with education, guidance, and supervision. The courts for juveniles also differ from the ones for adults. Commonly, the juvenile courts are informal in order not to stress the child, but minors has still have less rights in the court than adults. Also children can be punished for the cases that are absolutely legal for adults, like possession of alcohol and tobacco and running away from home. Minors are rarely imprisoned, instead they ought to follow community corrections programs that are created to rehabilitate minors, educate them and make them productive adults in future.
Juvenile Community Corrections6
Juvenile Rights8
Difference in Adults and Juveniles Courts10
Summary12
Conclusion13
References14
Status offenders
Juvenile status offenses are the acts that are considered criminal only in case they are committed by the minors. In other words, status offenses are the conducts that are not considered crimes when they are committed by adults. So, some actions are the law violations only because the person has youth's status, commonly, it concerns people who are under 18 years of age. According to the statistics, nearly one-fifth of juvenile arrests is status offenses (Michon, K. “Juvenile Law: Status Offenses”).
The most widespread status offenses are:
- running away,
- violating a curfew of a city or the country,
- skipping school,
- underage possession of alcohol and tobacco,
- underage consumption of alcoholic beverages,
- underage usage of tobacco,
- ungovernability.
How Status Offenses Are Handled
Initially, only the juvenile justice system handled status offenses. Then in 1960-1970, a lot of states started viewing offense violations as a signal that a minor requires a better supervision and an assistance in order to escape run-ins with the law in the future. And this a reasonable point of view. The statistics say that status offenses are closely linked to later delinquency (Michon, K. “Juvenile Law: Status Offenses”). So, today, the state follows 3 major goals while dealing with status offenses:
- to guarantee the safety of the public,
- to preserve families, and
- to prevent minors from being involved into crimes in the future.
The Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act that was worked out in 1974 gave the prosecutors discretions to status offense cases and allowed other government agencies to influence on at-risk juveniles. In 1997, just 20 percent of status offense cases were processed by the courts (Michon, K. “Juvenile Law: Status Offenses”). Today, a few states give responsibility for such minors over to special state child welfare programs.
What Penalties Are Used for Status Offenses
The restrictions that are placed on minors should make them return home at a safe hour, attend school, avoid becoming addicted to alcohol, nicotine, or illegal drugs (Status Offenses). The penalties that the court can impose to the juveniles over a status offense varies from state to state. Here are common penalties for the status offense violations:
- making the minor pay a restitution or fine,
- making the minor attend an education program or counseling,
- suspending the driver's license of a minor,
- placing the minor in a group home, foster home and other.
Also, the courts can make the parents of the minors attend parenting classes and counseling sessions. In case the minors do not obey to the courts orders, they may by placed into a secure and locked facility.
Child in Need of Supervision Petition
The police, a school official and a parent can make a Child in Need of Supervision petition in order to help a minor who often commits the following status offenses: abusing school, skipping school, running away from home, acting violently and disrespectfully to guardians or parents, being in the areas that are forbidden by the police (Status Offenses).
The accused minor and the parents of this child should sign the petition under the guidance of the officer who tries to help the family to cope with the juvenile’s wrongful behavior.
Juvenile Community Corrections
Community correction encompasses methods of punishment instead of incarceration. Community corrections are imposed on adjudicated juveniles who occur in a community or residential setting outside of prison. As community correction programs differ from one another greatly, there is a certain difficulty in conducting evaluations of their effectiveness. So, there is no common opinion about what practices are more successful in reducing the rate of recidivism. Generally, community corrections programs are operated by probation agencies and parole agencies. Probation commonly requires rare monthly contacts with the supervising authority, while parole usually involves an intensive supervision of the juvenile, and includes a large number of rehabilitative services (“Community Corrections Programs Research Papers”).
Here are most popular juvenile community correction programs:
Functional Family Therapy (FFT)
This is an intervention and family-based prevention program for the minors from 11 to 18 years of age. High-adherent therapists have delivered this program that lowers risky behavior and improves children’s functioning across key life domains. It is considered to be effective, as the juveniles who have been treated there have low recidivism rates.
Kirkholt (England) Burglary Prevention Project
This program was worked out for the juveniles who committed burglary. It involves working with victims, people who are living nearby, potential offenders in order to lessen the motivation to commit burglary again. It was found out that most burglaries were committed by the first-time offenders, but there is no information about the crime displacement.
AMIkids Community-Based Day Treatment Services
This is a day treatment program that is based on community interventions that allow juveniles to live at home in case they attend daily services. This is a very promising program, but its effectiveness is not proved yet. But the statistics say that the treated minors are significantly less rarely were convicted for an offense during a year after the release.
Juvenile Aftercare Programs
This program includes various reintegrative services that are created to prepare juvenile offenders for reentry in the community. The main aim of the aftercare programs is to lessen the possibility of recidivism of the detained juveniles. This program is quite effective as there was a much lower percentage of the recidivism among the juveniles who took part in aftercare programs in comparison with the minors in the control group (“Corrections & Reentry”).
Juvenile Rights
Before the 1960s, the minors had very few due process rights. After the 1960s, the juvenile court proceedings became more formal and courts strengthened constitutional rights of juveniles. Nowadays, the procedural safeguards and Constitutional guarantees for the accused minor are generally the same as for adult defendants. The main difference is that the matters that happen in Juvenile Court take place without a jury before the Court. The accused minor and the parents should be informed of the child’s rights at the Initial Hearing or the Detention Hearing (“Juvenile Rights in Delinquency Proceedings”). A minor has the following rights:
- to be represented by counsel (In 1967, it was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court that juveniles have a right to have an attorney in proceedings. In case a juvenile can not afford an attorney, a state-appointed attorney can represent him or her.);
- to know the nature of the allegations;
- to confront the witnesses against her/him;
- to cross-examine witnesses against him (Although juvenile adjudication hearings are not formal criminal trials, the juveniles have the right to cross-examine and confront witnesses. It means that, with the assistance of an attorney, the juvenile has a chance to question the people who are called to testify by the state and challenge their testimony.);
- to have a speedy trial;
- to introduce evidence;
- not to testify against herself/himself (Juveniles in court proceedings can assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. That means that a juvenile can not testify against herself/himself.);
- to obtain evidence by a compulsory process;
- to have charges that are proved beyond any reasonable doubt (In case a minor faces adjudication and incarceration as "delinquent" after a juvenile court proceeding, the state should prove that the charges are beyond a reasonable doubt. When the penalties are surely needed, the charges should be proved by the "preponderance of evidence" standard.);
- to have a phone call (Commonly, juveniles are allowed to make a phone call in case they are not going to be released in the nearest time. The juvenile can call a guardian or parent, who may contact an attorney then. Also, a juvenile is allowed to contact an attorney directly. In case the police ignore the juvenile’s request for consultation with an attorney or parent, everything that he or she says to the police can be inadmissible in the court (Michon, K. “Constitutional Rights in Juvenile Cases”).
Minors do not have the right to bail. But still a lot of minors can be released to their guardians or parents before the arraignment in the court.
Police officers are not allowed to search for a juvenile who is suspected of violating a law and arrest him or her without a probable cause. But the public officials, like school personnel, have right to search minors even if they have a reasonable suspicion of a wrongdoing.
In most states, jury trials are not allowed in juvenile delinquency cases. Just a few U.S. states allow jury trials, but they are usually limited to certain types of juvenile cases.
A Public Defender can be appointed by the Juvenile Court in order to represent the juvenile for free. In case the court allows the minor to be represented by a Public Defender, the parents can be asked to pay a part of the costs or a full cost for the legal representation.
The juvenile does not have any jury trial rights and there can not be any jury trials in Juvenile Court. The Judge conducts the trials or the Factfinding Hearings and decides whether the minor has committed a delinquent act as well as decide how the juvenile should be punished (“Juvenile Rights in Delinquency Proceedings”).
Difference in Adults and Juveniles Courts
It is considered that minors who commit crimes have a complicated social status. As they are children, they have less understanding of the laws, and that is why they deserve special protection. Also, as they are not adults yet, they do not have all constitutional rights (“How do Juvenile Proceedings Differ from Adult Criminal Proceedings?”). The criminal justice systems for juveniles and adults who are suspected of a wrongdoing differ significantly. The systems are different in various states, but generally:
- Minors are accused of delinquent acts, but not for committing crimes. Only in case the delinquent act is very serious, it may is called a crime and the minor is tried in the adult system.
- Juvenile courts are less formal in comparison with the courts for adults. For instance, commonly, the rules of the admissibility of evidence are not as strict as those for adults.
- Juveniles are deprived of the right to the public trial by jury. The minor who is charged with a crime is judged by a judge who hears the evidence and rules on whether the juvenile is delinquent or not. Such trial is called an adjudication hearing. Also, juveniles do not have the right to a public trial and to bail.
- In case the minor is deemed delinquent, the court determines what action is better to be taken. The purpose of the action differs from the adult system, as in the adult system there is one main goal – to punish, while in the juvenile system, the main goals are to serve the juvenile’s best interest and rehabilitate the convicted minor (Clarke, P., 2015).
When a person is found guilty of a crime, the judge’s task is to find the best way of how to punish the criminal. The penalty should make it less likely for the convicted person to commit the same crime in the future. For adults, incarceration is the most common means of punishment. But for juveniles, probation and parole are frequently used as diversionary programs. Diversionary programs are different in various states. Most of them include consultations, performing community service and restitution to people who were harmed by the juvenile’s delinquent act. Also, some of these programs include special educational programs that prepare the offenders for the future life. Generally, the juvenile justice system should set the juveniles on another path that will keep them far away from adult prisons (Hirby, J).
Juveniles have extra protections in the juvenile court system that adults are deprived of. The records of the minors are sealed in such a way that they will not be haunted by juvenile offenses for their whole life. In case the juvenile meets certain conditions before he or she turns 18, the records are erased (“How do Juvenile Proceedings Differ from Adult Criminal Proceedings?”)
The main difference between the adult and juvenile justice systems is the aim of punishment. In the juvenile justice system, the main aims of the judgment are to reform the juvenile offenders and rehabilitate them in order to let them resume their further normal functioning in society. So, in most cases the juvenile escapes being kept in jail, and a judge is focused on such alternative sentences as parole, probation, and diversionary programs.
Similarities between the Adult and Juvenile Justice Systems
Although the difference between adult and juvenile criminal justice systems is evident, still there are certain similarities between them. Both juveniles and adults have the same rights, such as the right to have an attorney, the privilege against self-incrimination, the right to notice of the charges, the right to cross-examine and confront witnesses, and the right to not be convicted before there will be provided the proof of criminality beyond a reasonable doubt (Clarke, P., 2015).
Summary
It is evident that children committing crimes differ from adults. They are less blameworthy and potentially, they have more capacity to change. In order to respond to the difference between minors and adults, states have created a special court system for juveniles and worked out a separate service delivery system for minors that also has certain specifics and differs greatly from the one provided to adults.
The juvenile justice system has been growing since the first U.S. juvenile court was established in 1899 (“Youth in the Justice System: An Overview”). Initially, the process was not formal. It was like a conversation between the judge and a youth. That time the defendant did not have any legal representation. In order not to confine minors in jails for adults, the first juvenile courts invented a probation system and worked out a service-delivery system that provided juveniles with education, guidance, and supervision. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court established that youth should have some of the rights that adults have, like the right to confront witnesses against them and the right to have an attorney.
Nowadays, juvenile justice system still has rehabilitation as the main goal and differs from the criminal justice system significantly. Most states define delinquency as a criminal act committed by a child who is under 18 years old, though in some states minors can remain under the juvenile court’s supervision until they turn 21 years old (“Youth in the Justice System: An Overview”). Unlike criminal court proceedings for adults, juvenile courts are usually closed to the public and its records are confidential, that protects juveniles from carrying their childhood wrongdoings into adulthood. Therapeutic and educational programs can be provided in juvenile’s communities or minors can be ordered to be placed out of the home according to the residential program. The juvenile justice system is still developing today. Nowadays courts think about whether minors are competent to stand trial and whether a juvenile’s confession should be voluntary. The Juvenile Law Center’s work is to ensure that the accused minors have developmentally appropriate treatment, access to education, meaningful rights and possibility to become productive adults.
Conclusion
Children should be treated carefully even if they commit crimes. The juvenile justice system should not only find the way to punish the minor but also it should rehabilitate the child, teach him or her the right way to behave in society. Most severe kinds of punishment are not used for the minors or used very rarely. The juvenile justice system does everything to help the young offenders and even wipes out the data about the minor’s wrongdoings after they are 18 years old in order not to complicate their adult life.
References
Clarke, P. (2015, February 20). “Juvenile vs. Adult Criminal System”. General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/juvenile-vs-adult-criminal-system.html
“Community Corrections Programs Research Papers”. General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.papermasters.com/community-corrections-programs.html
“Corrections & Reentry”. General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=28
“Juvenile Rights in Delinquency Proceedings”. General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/juvenile/juvenile13.htm
Michon, K. “Constitutional Rights in Juvenile Cases”. General format.(n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/constitutional-rights-juvenile-proceedings-32224.html
Michon, K. “Juvenile Law: Status Offenses” General format. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/juvenile-law-status-offenses-32227.htm
Hirby, J. “Difference Between Juvenile And Adult Justice Systems”. General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://thelawdictionary.org/article/difference-between-juvenile-and-adult-justice-systems/
“How do Juvenile Proceedings Differ from Adult Criminal Proceedings?” General format. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://criminal.findlaw.com/juvenile-justice/how-do-juvenile-proceedings-differ-from-adult-criminal-proceeding.html
“Status Offenses”. General format. (n.d). Retrieved from http://public.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/status-offenses/
“Youth in the Justice System: An Overview”. General format. (n.d).Retrieved from http://jlc.org/news-room/media-resources/youth-justice-system-overview
