The Juvenile Court each year focuses less on children in danger, and more on dangerous children, locking more away, sending more to be tried as adults, imposing stiffer sentences. And still, the fear grows; […] the fear of our own children”1. Chronicling his time as a counselor and writing teacher for delinquents in the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles, Inglewood, and Pomona; Edward Humes, author of No Matter How Loud I Shout, tracks the inefficiency and failures of the Juvenile Court systems. Although his book follows the stories of seven kids in the mid 1990’s, the inefficiencies and flaws Humes identifies are widespread as the issues are prevalent in past cases dating back to the beginning of the United States Juvenile Court system. By using the individual stories of Carla James, John Sloan, Andre and Elias Elizando, Ronald Duncan, Geri Vance, and George Trevino; as well as, many other inserts of other children, Humes critiques the errors made due to illogical laws and those with their own agenda.…
Ward’s writing is honest and eye-opening. This book is based off of history and its pages are filled with historical accounts of the juvenile justice system. It is obvious to the reader that the subject was very carefully researched because of his use of not only major historical events, but minor events that were going on behind the scenes and unbeknownst to the public. His writing is national in scope, but broad chronologically. He covers a large period of time and does not skimp on detail. His original does was to write a “contemporary statistical study of race and juvenile justice with a brief historical background section” (p. 1), but became preoccupied with the historical significance of the subject and felt the need to cover the absence of a historical background on the topic. The terminology of this book is very technical and could be difficult for non-academics to understand without a search engine or dictionary next to them, but overall his scholarly and critical writing style was easy to follow, as his opinions were made very clear.…
Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, non-fiction, and true crime writer. Of his twelve books, five involve the criminal justice system. In this work, Humes takes on the sizeable task of examining the complicated juvenile justice system, chronicling the stories of several juvenile offenders and juvenile justice officials, and how they navigate the confusing and often arbitrary laws of the California juvenile justice system. Humes delivers an informative, eye-opening, and often dispiriting account of what goes on in the halls of America’s juvenile courts and correctional facilities.…
The United States government is based on a checks and balances type system. The three main parts of this system are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. This judicial system’s job is to uphold the law of the land. Law can be defined as a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct (Wikipedia.org, 2005). This is a very wide and all encompassing definition of the law and the governing judicial system. Just like the United States government the judicial system is broken up into different checks, balances, and systems. Two of these main systems are the juvenile justices system and the adult justice system. The obvious difference between these two courts is that the juvenile system is designed to handle youth offenders and the adult system is designed to handle adult offenders. Both of these two systems despite their difference have the same end goal; to administer justice. In the pages to follow we will discuss the big picture of the juvenile justice system, go over a point by point comparison between the juvenile system and the adult system, touch on both the benefits and disadvantages to being tried as a minor in the juvenile court from the perspective of a minor, and review the societal implication of abolishing the juvenile court system.…
Juveniles in the criminal justice system are a special population. Throughout history juveniles have been looked at as needing to be protected from the harsh realities that face adults daily. The juvenile justice system has primarily operated in a parens patriae capacity and protected the rights of those that were legally incapable of protecting themselves such as minor children and the mentally ill. From 1987-1993 the juvenile homicide rate doubled causing critics and conservatives to questions the approach of the juvenile justice community calling it ‘soft on crime’ Steiner &…
There are many juveniles who enter the legal system and just get recycled, or never make it out. Some enter the system and actually make a turn around and are either successful in work or school, or they are a boon to spreading awareness to other juveniles about how they don’t want to end up being circulated through the juvenile justice system. Despite the problems being made to help juvenile stay on the straight and narrow there have been improvements on the juvenile justice system in the United States. Although other countries may not use our ways of dealing with juveniles, by using troubled teens help other troubled teens get on the right track we have drastically changed how our juvenile system.…
By the 1950s and 1960s public concern grew about the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system, because of the disparities in treatment that resulted from the absolute discretion of juvenile court judges. Similarly situated youths could receive vastly different sentences based on the mood, temperament, or personal philosophy of individual judges.…
a. Changing Court Structures – Discuss how courts are changing from prior models to integrate more with family courts and other divisions of the courts to streamline juvenile processing and afford more basic rights to the…
The future of children 's rights lie in the hands of every state. The history of the juvenile justice system has brought its own political, economic, and social challenges, their will always be conservational issues. The future of the system is that children now have the real opportunity to express their voice and ideas on how they can improve their…
On June 25, 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles who committed crime could not be sentenced to life in prison. This ruling has been disagreed by some people in the past. I agree with the Supreme Court's ruling on how juveniles cannot be sentenced to life in prison. This is the right thing to do for them because their brains are not fully developed. Also when the juveniles are in prison they should get some sort of help or counseling so when they get out they got the help they needed.…
In recent discussion of Juvenile Justice, a controversial issue has been whether juveniles should be tried as adults in adult courts for heinous crimes they have committed. On one hand, some argue that they should not be tried as adults and do not deserve harsh sentences but as children seeking help. On the other hand, however, others argue that those who commit such heinous crimes ought to be punished no matter the age. The juvenile court was created to handle juvenile offenders on the basis of their youth rather than their crimes. The purpose of juvenile court is treatment and guidance rather than punishment. Juveniles don't have the knowledgeable or moral capacity to understand the consequences of their actions; similarly, they lack the same capacity to be trial defendants. Juveniles today are more knowledgeable and cultured at a younger age; they understand the implications of violence and how violent weapons are used. It is irrational to argue that a juvenile, who sees the effect of violence around him in the news every day, does not understand what killing really is. The fact that “adolescent killers” know how to load and shoot a gun or use a knife to kill is an indicator that they understand exactly what they're doing.…
Over time, there has been extensive research done on juveniles in the justice system. The way to deal with mental illness is to identify and treat the disorder. According to the National Conference of State Legislation, studies show that 70% of juveniles in the system suffer from some form of mental disease or defect. About 20% of them suffer from an illness so severe that it can lead to ongoing delinquency and eventually criminality in adulthood. When our juvenile justice system takes a mentally ill, underdeveloped minor and puts them in jail instead of a treatment facility, it can only make the situation worse. Idaho, Nevada and Texas all have laws that require mental health and/or substance screenings for all juveniles taken into custody.…
Controversies dealing with juveniles’ age in which they can be charged as adults, giving them life sentences in prison without parole, the application of neuroscience, and the roles both the federal and state governments have played in shaping the policies towards justice reform have been discussed at length for the better half of United States (U.S.) History (755). Dating as far back as 1825, the United States of America has delved into the topic of juvenile justice (755). Today, advocates of the youth and victims’ rights still provide strong interest in criminal justice reform. From lobbying for light sentencing standards for the youth, to making them accountable for their actions, the controversies and arguments towards reforming juvenile…
“I have some great news kids! Since all of you seem very enthusiastic about learning about the criminal justice system, I will be starting a ‘Teen’s Court’ at school” said Miss May. I was beating my plushy mallet against the seat in front of me as were all my other classmates in excitement. We had no idea what “Teen’s Court” fully meant but we were just enthralled by the mention of learning more about the criminal justice system.…
Meyer, J.F. and Grant, D.R. (2003). The Courts in our Crimal Justice System. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall.…