Status Offenders
Throughout modern history, society has struggled with how to handle children and adolescents who committed crimes. Historically, juveniles who came to the attention of the courts have been considered less guilty, because of their age, than adults (Klein, 1998). This in turn developed into an attitude at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century that the appropriate role for police and the courts was to guide the young person to a better path. This in turn encouraged the idea of "status offenses" -- that is, offenses that would not be crimes if committed by an adult. For example, a 15-year-old could be considered truant if he or she stopped attending school, but an 18-year-old who dropped out of high school without graduating would not be truant.
The change from adult to juvenile courts for youthful offenders, however, took some time to accomplish. Until 1899 youth drawn I by the legal system were served by the same courts that served adult offenders. In addition, some rules were quite harsh: in 1827, the age for criminal responsibility was ten years old in Illinois (Wolcott, 2001).
By the end of the nineteenth century, however, people working in various aspects of social reform were concerned that when children went through the adult courts they were treated as if they were adults and fully responsible for what was often a childish choice of action (Wolcott, 2001). The police were perceived as too quick to arrest adolescents on any pretext -- not only such things as theft, but for vague status offenses such as the youth's inability to explain why he or she was in a certain place, or even "just to keep him out of mischief" (Wolcott, 2001).
The first juvenile court, created in 1899, served to separate youths from adults in the legal system. Led by social workers such as Jane Hull as well as the...
At the same time, it is not clear that more stringent laws or punishments would do much to alter the situation, and short of creating a school system that is as closely guarded as a prison it will be all but impossible to keep all students at school all the time. Laws in this area are this an adequate mix of liberal policy and expedience. It is not likely that
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice The juvenile justice system has a unique position in the American justice system as a whole. Its function should be to rehabilitate the juvenile offender before he or she becomes an adult criminal. Juvenile records are expunged when the individual becomes an adult. There are, of course, some exceptions of when a juvenile who commits a very serious crime and is charged as an adult, but
Canada deserves principal power status in the world. As a nation, Canada has proven to be a leader in all respects of human endeavor. The nation has one of the world's most robust economies both in terms of raw size and per capita strength. It is a production economy rather than simply a consumer one. Canada is a leader in both fossil fuel and renewable energy production. Canada has long
Juvenile Crime Issues in the Criminal Justice System Similar to the concept of childhood, the legal idea of the juvenile justice system or status is relatively new. In the United States, the juvenile court system was established approximately 200 years ago with the first juvenile court instituted in 1899. Before the inception of the first juvenile court, children and the youth were regarded as small adults and were therefore prosecuted and
Juvenile Justice Juvenile delinquency is the misdemeanors or the breach of law that is committed by an American or a person living in America but still under the age of 18 years old. This is the common age limit that exists across most states except in Wyoming where the age is 19 years or younger (Whitehead & Lab, 1999). It is worth noting that by 2006, there were 92,854 juvenile delinquents
Court-Mandated Educational Course for First-Time, Juvenile Offenders Using education as a means for combating juvenile delinquency issues is nothing new. In fact New York State is launching a program that allows juvenile offenders to keep a portion of their high school credits even when they're incarcerated so that when they do return to school, they can return on a steady progression towards graduation: "Starting this fall, the program, called Close to
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