Juvenile And Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis
Juvenile and Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis
Juvenile and Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis The United States Court system is much the same for Juvenile Court, as it is for Adult Court. The main differences are that Adult court adjudicates offenders over the age of 18. Juvenile court adjudicates minors, or persons under the age of 18. However, certain circumstances like the severity of crime, and age of individual, and number of occurrences can present a case, which a minor is tried as an adult and sent to adult court.
Juvenile Courts
Juvenile Courts were designed to allow children under the age of 18 a chance to be tried in a more reasonable court system as it is for adults. Their age is taking into consideration …show more content…
and factored in if the individual is old enough to understand the situation and face the consequences of such actions (Champion, 2010). These cases are typically referred, by a social worker, parent, teacher, or by law enforcement. Depending on the crime, the judge determines if the juvenile will be tried in a juvenile court or in an adult court. After an arrest, evidence is collected against the person, the juvenile is assigned an attorney, and they must face a judge to determine the actions against him or her. The juvenile can face detention, probation, or the case can be dismissed if it does not merit prosecuting. A few things can happen; they will be taken into custody of social services, or go to juvenile detention after the more formal proceedings have taken place. Juveniles may also be given other sanctions, such as restitution, or they may be placed in some confined setting such as correctional facilities (Meyer & Grant, 2003, p. 502).
In more severe cases of convicted juveniles, they may be tried as an adult and go to a prison, if the child has not expressed any remorse when professionals have determined if he or she has expressed no interest in rehabilitation. This is a severe alternative to the purpose of deviating children in the right path and makes them responsible for their actions. Juvenile offenders should not always be treated as an adult. An adult can understand consequences and rebuttals; however, young children sometimes cannot.
Comparison of Juvenile & Adults Courts
“You cannot teach old dog new tricks” is a common phrase that explains that it is extremely difficult to teach someone a new behavior as his or her age decreases. The juvenile court system focuses on rehabilitation and detention, so that the youthful offender also referred to as the delinquent, will learn from their bad decision, and make better choices. Included in their juvenile court process, is the judge only trial, reviewing, and taking into consideration the background, and special circumstances that may cause the judge’s decision to be more lenient. In the adult court system, the offender is referred to as the criminal and the objective is to protect the society or local community from the criminal, while punishing them.
Adult Court and Juvenile Court
Different from the juvenile court, there is a judge and jury reviewing and considering the case presented before them in the adult court system.
Some of the processes for both of the courts are similar; however, they use different terminology, such as adults have bail hearings whereas juveniles have detention hearings, adults with trials and juveniles with fact-finding hearings. An adult has a complaint or indictment filed against them, although a juvenile is accused with a petition being filed against them. The adult is identified as the defendant in the court, but the juvenile is referred to as the respondent. The verdict is agreed upon by the jury in the adult court system, whereas the judge makes a ruling, referred to as the adjudication. In an adult court case, the defendant is found to be guilty or not guilty, however the juveniles are found to be delinquent or involved. While the differences exist amongst the two court systems, the adult and juvenile courts share similarities such as, both the criminal and the delinquent have the right to an attorney.. Delinquents have the privilege against self-incrimination, just as criminals have the same right, including the right to receive the notice of charges, and lastly the prosecution must provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt before a person can be …show more content…
convicted.
Juvenile Adjudication Process
Over the past two decades, the United States has expanded legislation in permitting juveniles to be prosecuted in adult criminal court.
The adjudication process in which a juvenile is transferred to the adult court system can take place in several ways, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Transfer laws vary state to state; however, such transfers fall under three basic categories, the judicial waiver laws, prosecutorial discretion or concurrent laws, and statutory exclusion laws. Judicial waiver law is the most common transfer used and is done on a case-by-case basis (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2011). This transfer allows the juvenile case to be filed in juvenile court but is transferred to adult court with the approval of the juvenile judge. The prosecutorial discretion or concurrent law gives the prosecutor sole discretion on whether to file charges in juvenile or adult court. No hearings that take place with this process ( (OJJDP, 2011). The statutory exclusion law grants adult courts exclusive jurisdiction over classes of cases involving juvenile offenders. This law requires juvenile courts to waive jurisdiction cases that meet specific age/offense or prior record criteria (OJJDP,
2011).
Juvenile Court in California
In the state of California, this process is referred to as a Fitness Motion. In California, the prosecuting attorney will file a fitness motion requesting that the juvenile be found unfit to be tried in juvenile court indicating charges should be transferred over to adult court. In determining if the juvenile is unfit, the judge must take into consideration the offenders age and record (Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, 2009). The judge will need to consider the juveniles criminal sophistication, whether the juvenile can be rehabilitated in the time available with juvenile court, the juveniles past delinquent history, the number of successful attempts at rehabilitating the juvenile, and the circumstances and gravity of the juvenile’s offense (Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, 2009).
The Implications of Increasing the Use of Waivers
The office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention provides statistics of the number of juvenile cases form 1985-2010. The statistics demonstrate that waivers of juvenile cases sent to adult courts peeked in 1994 at 13,300 cases before it started to decline to just 6,000 in 2010 (OJJDP, 2010). Still the seriousness of some crimes committed by juveniles has been so severe that many legislators had to make changes to their state laws. For example, many states mandate transfer to adult courts certain crimes committed by juveniles at a certain age. There are six states have lower the minimum age for juveniles to be transfer to age 14, 10 States have set the age at 16, and three states to 15 years of age (OJJDP, 2011). Additionally, more states will automatically mandate certain violent crimes to adult courts.
The Implications of Remanding Juveniles to Adult Courts
The OJJDP states the factors include the seriousness of the alleged offense and the need to protect the community is dependent on whether the alleged offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or in a willful manner. If the alleged offense was against a person or property, the merit of the complaint, the juvenile 's associates will be tried in adult criminal court. The juvenile 's sophistication, maturity, record, and previous history and the reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation are all taking into account to remanding the juvenile into the adult court system (OJJDP, 2011) .
As some states have had a larger problem with gun related crimes. Juveniles must be prosecuted in adult courts in Mississippi, Indiana, and Oregon being such states. Once the adult courts process the juveniles, some may result in adult prisons where he or she may feel the impact of his or her actions to the fullest. Juveniles sent to adult prisons have the same or higher rate of recidivism, have a higher rate of being sexually assaulted, twice the rate of being assaulted by staff, and 50 percent greater chance of being attack with a weapon (OJJDP, 2010).
Societal Implications of Abolishing Juvenile Court
The juvenile justice system specifically the juvenile court has a major effect on the lives of Juvenile delinquents. If the juvenile courts are abolished from the criminal justice system, some will see a major difference in the treatment, handling, and sentencing of juvenile delinquents. This can cause several issues for juvenile delinquents. Many rehabilitation programs in the adult courts and prisons system are not designed for juveniles. The society has the responsibility for the welfare of the juveniles. A society does this by supporting functions that support the juvenile in schools, social organizations (Boys and Girls Club, etc) and the juveniles families. If the juvenile court was abolished the following could result in several societal implications. The rise of crime committed by juveniles, arrest rates higher from the rise of criminal acts committed, rising dropout rates for schools, and higher cost for court proceedings in the criminal justice system to handle both adults and juveniles. A study found that, “The juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate reached a historic low in 2010 and is down 55% since its 1994 peak” (OJJDP, 2010, p. 1) These crimes would no doubtingly rise if the juvenile justice system no longer were used in the criminal justice system. Without the juvenile justice, system developing, and implementing programs that would continue to lower these crime rates it would be seen that the crime rate would increase very rapidly. Without rehabilitation, programs for troubled teen’s dropout rates would increase without the juvenile justice implementing those programs as well. The juvenile justice system helps juveniles to get away from the negative influence and not live a life of crime. If the juvenile justice system no longer existed, the programs to detour criminal behavior would no longer be implemented. In turn, more court proceedings, and corrections facilities would be needed.
Conclusion
While the Bill of Rights was created to protect both old and young citizens of the United States, the procedures and policies followed by the juvenile and adult courts are not identical. Regardless, if the crime is severe as murder or less brutal to include larceny, the offenders are not treated equally and seem to take separate paths. The juveniles are seen as having a chance to start again, while the adults are punished to the full extent of the law, as if they cannot be rehabilitated. As laws continued to be revised, and crimes committed by juvenile become more calculating. Perhaps, the justice system will review those on a case-by-case basis, finding that not all juveniles can be rehabilitated. Today 's Juvenile offenders are most certainly dictating the path for those who will commit future crimes, as standards are being set for those following the example.
References
Champion, D. (2010). The juvenile justice system: Delinquency, processing, and the law (6 ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Komisaruk, K. (2007). Differences between juvenile and adult court. Retrieved from Just cause law collection: http://www.lawcollective.org/article.php?id=64
LaMance, K. (2012, May). How doe sthe juvenile criminal system differ from adult criminal system. Retrieved from Legal match: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/juvenile-vs-adult-criminal-system.html
Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R. (2003). The courts in our criminal justice system. Prentice Hall.
Office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. (2011). Retrieved from Trying juveniles as adults: An analysis of states tranfser laws and reporting: Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/232434.pdf
OJJDP . (2010). Juvenile arrests rate trends. Retrieved from http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05201
Pacific juvenile defender center. (2009). Retrieved from California juvenile court process for delinquency cases: Retrieved from http://www.pjdc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Fact-Sheet-for-Upload-Juvenile-Court-Process.pdf
Juvenile and Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis The United States Court system is much the same for Juvenile Court, as it is for Adult Court. The main differences are that Adult court adjudicates offenders over the age of 18. Juvenile court adjudicates minors, or persons under the age of 18. However, certain circumstances like the severity of crime, and age of individual, and number of occurrences can present a case, which a minor is tried as an adult and sent to adult court.
Juvenile Courts
Juvenile Courts were designed to allow children under the age of 18 a chance to be tried in a more reasonable court system as it is for adults. Their age is taking into consideration …show more content…
and factored in if the individual is old enough to understand the situation and face the consequences of such actions (Champion, 2010). These cases are typically referred, by a social worker, parent, teacher, or by law enforcement. Depending on the crime, the judge determines if the juvenile will be tried in a juvenile court or in an adult court. After an arrest, evidence is collected against the person, the juvenile is assigned an attorney, and they must face a judge to determine the actions against him or her. The juvenile can face detention, probation, or the case can be dismissed if it does not merit prosecuting. A few things can happen; they will be taken into custody of social services, or go to juvenile detention after the more formal proceedings have taken place. Juveniles may also be given other sanctions, such as restitution, or they may be placed in some confined setting such as correctional facilities (Meyer & Grant, 2003, p. 502).
In more severe cases of convicted juveniles, they may be tried as an adult and go to a prison, if the child has not expressed any remorse when professionals have determined if he or she has expressed no interest in rehabilitation. This is a severe alternative to the purpose of deviating children in the right path and makes them responsible for their actions. Juvenile offenders should not always be treated as an adult. An adult can understand consequences and rebuttals; however, young children sometimes cannot.
Comparison of Juvenile & Adults Courts
“You cannot teach old dog new tricks” is a common phrase that explains that it is extremely difficult to teach someone a new behavior as his or her age decreases. The juvenile court system focuses on rehabilitation and detention, so that the youthful offender also referred to as the delinquent, will learn from their bad decision, and make better choices. Included in their juvenile court process, is the judge only trial, reviewing, and taking into consideration the background, and special circumstances that may cause the judge’s decision to be more lenient. In the adult court system, the offender is referred to as the criminal and the objective is to protect the society or local community from the criminal, while punishing them.
Adult Court and Juvenile Court
Different from the juvenile court, there is a judge and jury reviewing and considering the case presented before them in the adult court system.
Some of the processes for both of the courts are similar; however, they use different terminology, such as adults have bail hearings whereas juveniles have detention hearings, adults with trials and juveniles with fact-finding hearings. An adult has a complaint or indictment filed against them, although a juvenile is accused with a petition being filed against them. The adult is identified as the defendant in the court, but the juvenile is referred to as the respondent. The verdict is agreed upon by the jury in the adult court system, whereas the judge makes a ruling, referred to as the adjudication. In an adult court case, the defendant is found to be guilty or not guilty, however the juveniles are found to be delinquent or involved. While the differences exist amongst the two court systems, the adult and juvenile courts share similarities such as, both the criminal and the delinquent have the right to an attorney.. Delinquents have the privilege against self-incrimination, just as criminals have the same right, including the right to receive the notice of charges, and lastly the prosecution must provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt before a person can be …show more content…
convicted.
Juvenile Adjudication Process
Over the past two decades, the United States has expanded legislation in permitting juveniles to be prosecuted in adult criminal court.
The adjudication process in which a juvenile is transferred to the adult court system can take place in several ways, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Transfer laws vary state to state; however, such transfers fall under three basic categories, the judicial waiver laws, prosecutorial discretion or concurrent laws, and statutory exclusion laws. Judicial waiver law is the most common transfer used and is done on a case-by-case basis (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2011). This transfer allows the juvenile case to be filed in juvenile court but is transferred to adult court with the approval of the juvenile judge. The prosecutorial discretion or concurrent law gives the prosecutor sole discretion on whether to file charges in juvenile or adult court. No hearings that take place with this process ( (OJJDP, 2011). The statutory exclusion law grants adult courts exclusive jurisdiction over classes of cases involving juvenile offenders. This law requires juvenile courts to waive jurisdiction cases that meet specific age/offense or prior record criteria (OJJDP,
2011).
Juvenile Court in California
In the state of California, this process is referred to as a Fitness Motion. In California, the prosecuting attorney will file a fitness motion requesting that the juvenile be found unfit to be tried in juvenile court indicating charges should be transferred over to adult court. In determining if the juvenile is unfit, the judge must take into consideration the offenders age and record (Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, 2009). The judge will need to consider the juveniles criminal sophistication, whether the juvenile can be rehabilitated in the time available with juvenile court, the juveniles past delinquent history, the number of successful attempts at rehabilitating the juvenile, and the circumstances and gravity of the juvenile’s offense (Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, 2009).
The Implications of Increasing the Use of Waivers
The office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention provides statistics of the number of juvenile cases form 1985-2010. The statistics demonstrate that waivers of juvenile cases sent to adult courts peeked in 1994 at 13,300 cases before it started to decline to just 6,000 in 2010 (OJJDP, 2010). Still the seriousness of some crimes committed by juveniles has been so severe that many legislators had to make changes to their state laws. For example, many states mandate transfer to adult courts certain crimes committed by juveniles at a certain age. There are six states have lower the minimum age for juveniles to be transfer to age 14, 10 States have set the age at 16, and three states to 15 years of age (OJJDP, 2011). Additionally, more states will automatically mandate certain violent crimes to adult courts.
The Implications of Remanding Juveniles to Adult Courts
The OJJDP states the factors include the seriousness of the alleged offense and the need to protect the community is dependent on whether the alleged offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or in a willful manner. If the alleged offense was against a person or property, the merit of the complaint, the juvenile 's associates will be tried in adult criminal court. The juvenile 's sophistication, maturity, record, and previous history and the reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation are all taking into account to remanding the juvenile into the adult court system (OJJDP, 2011) .
As some states have had a larger problem with gun related crimes. Juveniles must be prosecuted in adult courts in Mississippi, Indiana, and Oregon being such states. Once the adult courts process the juveniles, some may result in adult prisons where he or she may feel the impact of his or her actions to the fullest. Juveniles sent to adult prisons have the same or higher rate of recidivism, have a higher rate of being sexually assaulted, twice the rate of being assaulted by staff, and 50 percent greater chance of being attack with a weapon (OJJDP, 2010).
Societal Implications of Abolishing Juvenile Court
The juvenile justice system specifically the juvenile court has a major effect on the lives of Juvenile delinquents. If the juvenile courts are abolished from the criminal justice system, some will see a major difference in the treatment, handling, and sentencing of juvenile delinquents. This can cause several issues for juvenile delinquents. Many rehabilitation programs in the adult courts and prisons system are not designed for juveniles. The society has the responsibility for the welfare of the juveniles. A society does this by supporting functions that support the juvenile in schools, social organizations (Boys and Girls Club, etc) and the juveniles families. If the juvenile court was abolished the following could result in several societal implications. The rise of crime committed by juveniles, arrest rates higher from the rise of criminal acts committed, rising dropout rates for schools, and higher cost for court proceedings in the criminal justice system to handle both adults and juveniles. A study found that, “The juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate reached a historic low in 2010 and is down 55% since its 1994 peak” (OJJDP, 2010, p. 1) These crimes would no doubtingly rise if the juvenile justice system no longer were used in the criminal justice system. Without the juvenile justice, system developing, and implementing programs that would continue to lower these crime rates it would be seen that the crime rate would increase very rapidly. Without rehabilitation, programs for troubled teen’s dropout rates would increase without the juvenile justice implementing those programs as well. The juvenile justice system helps juveniles to get away from the negative influence and not live a life of crime. If the juvenile justice system no longer existed, the programs to detour criminal behavior would no longer be implemented. In turn, more court proceedings, and corrections facilities would be needed.
Conclusion
While the Bill of Rights was created to protect both old and young citizens of the United States, the procedures and policies followed by the juvenile and adult courts are not identical. Regardless, if the crime is severe as murder or less brutal to include larceny, the offenders are not treated equally and seem to take separate paths. The juveniles are seen as having a chance to start again, while the adults are punished to the full extent of the law, as if they cannot be rehabilitated. As laws continued to be revised, and crimes committed by juvenile become more calculating. Perhaps, the justice system will review those on a case-by-case basis, finding that not all juveniles can be rehabilitated. Today 's Juvenile offenders are most certainly dictating the path for those who will commit future crimes, as standards are being set for those following the example.
References
Champion, D. (2010). The juvenile justice system: Delinquency, processing, and the law (6 ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Komisaruk, K. (2007). Differences between juvenile and adult court. Retrieved from Just cause law collection: http://www.lawcollective.org/article.php?id=64
LaMance, K. (2012, May). How doe sthe juvenile criminal system differ from adult criminal system. Retrieved from Legal match: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/juvenile-vs-adult-criminal-system.html
Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R. (2003). The courts in our criminal justice system. Prentice Hall.
Office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. (2011). Retrieved from Trying juveniles as adults: An analysis of states tranfser laws and reporting: Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/232434.pdf
OJJDP . (2010). Juvenile arrests rate trends. Retrieved from http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05201
Pacific juvenile defender center. (2009). Retrieved from California juvenile court process for delinquency cases: Retrieved from http://www.pjdc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Fact-Sheet-for-Upload-Juvenile-Court-Process.pdf