Juvenile Offenders In The 18th Century
In the 18th century, the legal framework of the criminal justice treated adults and juveniles in the same way. Children faced quite serious charges in the criminal courts that were not even imposed in some cases over adults. Treating juveniles as adults were problematic in several ways. The absence of proper distinction between offenders using many relevant parameters saw jails teeming with adult and child criminals. Later, progressive reforms changed the idea of treating children like adults, and they did this through applying a simple philosophy: if a dearth of moral instruction and ideas lead children into crime, then keeping children out of crime required the provision of these things, not jailing them as though they were adults. Minors
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It did not take long before problems with the nascent juvenile courts emerged, though. A fundamental problem was that judges enjoy wide discretion in cases featuring juvenile offenders, and the lack of formal hearings created significant disparities in the fact that juvenile offenders faced. In the mid 20th century, the U.S Supreme Court decided several cases that helped to set new standards of procedure and the rights for those who found themselves in the juvenile justice …show more content…
Therefore, evaluating the effectiveness of taking a juvenile through the criminal justice system is important. A fundamental question is whether treating a juvenile as an adult deters him/her from committing a crime in the future. In one comprehensive study, Lambie and Randell (2013) found that prosecuting juveniles in the formal criminal justice system does not have a significant deterrent effect, and in a majority of the states, there has been an increase in recidivism rates. Data from 15 states shows that, at least in 8 out of 10 times, a juvenile that faced prosecution in adult court and completed serving his or sentence at a state prison was rearrested after leaving prison; in comparison, the adult counterparts of these juveniles were only rearrested in 2 out of 10 times (Zane, Welsh, and Mears,
It did not take long before problems with the nascent juvenile courts emerged, though. A fundamental problem was that judges enjoy wide discretion in cases featuring juvenile offenders, and the lack of formal hearings created significant disparities in the fact that juvenile offenders faced. In the mid 20th century, the U.S Supreme Court decided several cases that helped to set new standards of procedure and the rights for those who found themselves in the juvenile justice …show more content…
Therefore, evaluating the effectiveness of taking a juvenile through the criminal justice system is important. A fundamental question is whether treating a juvenile as an adult deters him/her from committing a crime in the future. In one comprehensive study, Lambie and Randell (2013) found that prosecuting juveniles in the formal criminal justice system does not have a significant deterrent effect, and in a majority of the states, there has been an increase in recidivism rates. Data from 15 states shows that, at least in 8 out of 10 times, a juvenile that faced prosecution in adult court and completed serving his or sentence at a state prison was rearrested after leaving prison; in comparison, the adult counterparts of these juveniles were only rearrested in 2 out of 10 times (Zane, Welsh, and Mears,