Preview

Criminal Law Foundations evaluation paper

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1635 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Criminal Law Foundations evaluation paper
Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation
Georgette Heisterman
CJA/484
July 28, 2013
NIcholas Barbella

Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation

The Juvenile Justice System
Juvenile justice is the section of law that applies to persons under the age of 18 not capable of receiving sentencing in the adult court system or old enough to be responsible for criminal acts committed in society. In most states the age of criminal culpability is 18 however, the age requirement can be set lower in accordance to certain crimes and statutes set by the state the juvenile lives in. Juvenile law is primarily run by state law and most states enforce a specific juvenile code the system follows. The juvenile justice system primarily focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishment for youthful offenders. Society appears to concentrate that children are more capable of change than adult offenders more capable of knowing right from wrong ("Cornell University Law School," n.d.).
The statutes creating the juvenile court systems and methods of allocating with juvenile delinquency are run by courts as a suitable extension of state police power to warrant the safety and welfare of children in the system. The doctrine of parens patriae allows the state to promulgate for the safeguard, care, custody, and upkeep of children within its jurisdiction. In 1968 the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Control Act was put into effect, and in 1972 it was put into revision as the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act. This act set forth to assist states in dealing with juvenile delinquent acts and assist communities to prevent delinquency by providing services to the community and youths in high risk of subduing to criminal activity ("Cornell University Law School," n.d.).
The Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act describes juvenile delinquency as an act that is a criminal but is set forth by a youth under 18 years of age. It applies rules that state laws must abide by with concern to juvenile court processes and



References: Campaign for Youth Justice. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/UCLA-Literature-Review.pdf FindLaw. (2012). Retrieved from http://criminal.findlaw.com/juvenile-justice/juvenile-waiver-transfer-to-adult-court.html Jones, W. G. (2006). U.S. Departemnt of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/courts/chapterfour.cfm Just Cause Law Collective. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.lawcollective.org/article.php?id=64 MirandaWarning.org. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.mirandawarning.org/

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The article Rethinking Juvenile Status offense laws: consider for congressional review of the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention Act was written by Claire Shubik and Jessica Kendall. The article is mainly about congress reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act. The article gives an overview of the recent state-offense legislation and case law. The article also address issues that was raised by congress during the reauthorizing of the Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention act.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The main component of the juvenile justice system is that it is designed to cater to minors who break the law. The legal information institute categorizes it as; juvenile justice is the area of criminal law applicable to persons not old enough to be held responsible for criminal acts. In most states,…

    • 2342 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1973 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    No Author (2008). The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. “About Proposition 21.” Retrieved online on 04/24/2008 from, http://www.cjcj.org/jjic/prop_21.php.…

    • 2130 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Final Capstone Project

    • 5220 Words
    • 21 Pages

    The term juvenile delinquency refers to the antisocial or criminal activity of the child below 18 years of age and which violates the law. “Juvenile Delinquency is the broad-based term given to juveniles who commit crimes.…

    • 5220 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    . The purpose of the juvenile court system was to protect the public by providing a system that responded to delinquent acts committed by juveniles who were maturing into adulthood (Juvenile Law Center, n.d.) In most states delinquency is defined as the charge of a criminal act by a child who is under the age of 18 (Juvenile Law Center, n.d.). The juvenile court system was established in the United States to remove youth offenders to welfare agencies or social services (University of Phoenix, 2013). The states recognized that children who committed…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Parens patriae is the power of the state in which the juveniles resides to act as a guardian for juveniles that are unable to care for themselves. In order for the state to take power over a juvenile they must either be disabled or unable to take care of themselves. Under the parens patriae doctrine, a judge may change child support arraignments, custody of a minor, or any other area that that affects a child’s wellbeing, without the juveniles parental consent. Safeguards such as parens patriae give way for rehabilitation and change for juvenile catching themselves in the juvenile justice system (Education For Freedom, n.d.). The fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments in relation to juveniles are meant to protect them from the criminal justice system and rehabilitate them in an effort to keep them out of the system once and for all. The juvenile justice system has been created as a separate sector of the justice system with its own set of structured statutes aimed towards juvenile delinquents. Such statutes protecting juveniles were not always in place, at one point juveniles were deprived of liberty, later after extensive examination juveniles were extended such right as the right to counsel, the right against self-incrimination and the right to notice and cross-examining witnesses. It is important to remember that such safeguards have not always been in place to protect those accused of…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cjus 230 Final Paper

    • 4022 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Seigel, Larry J., Welsh, Brandon C., & Senna, Joseph J. (2002). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law…

    • 4022 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Persuasive Paper Part 1

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages

    From the 1980s to the 1990s there has been a surge in minors who commit violent crimes as shown in a research study conducted by the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Currently. The information was based on federal and state correctional data related to race, history and nature of crimes committed by minors. The study showed inmates under the age of 18 in state prisons has more than doubled from 1985-1997. The study also shows that 61% of those minors admitted were convicted of violent offenses1. The Juvenile Court Act was founded in 18992 when the idea of reforming minors took place and the majority of crimes committed by minors were of minor misconduct. The justice systems were separated because adults were treated as criminals and minors were treated for rehabilitation. , created to rehabilitate and protect minors. The courts intended the system to be more informal and treat the juveniles rather than punish them. This system was not developed to undertake the current rise of…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juvi Crime Paper

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The criminal justice system for juveniles in set up almost like the criminal justice system for adults. The one thing with the juvenile system they are in more hopes to salvage the youth that has gone wrong in their lives. Something like if a juvenile went into a store and thought it was a cool thing to steel something just to fit in better with their peers, but they got caught. This would be something that they would think they could salvage the juvenile from going wrong the rest of their lives. (Schmallenger, 2011)…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cases are allocated depending on age from the juvenile justice system to the criminal justice system. A "child" or "juvenile" meaning any person who is under the age of eighteen is placed by default in the juvenile justice system. Therefore, after defendants turn eighteen their cases fall under the criminal justice system unless convicted under the Youthful Offender act. Offender classification is the most significant phase in criminal proceedings as it can drastically change your punishment. Children as soon as the age of thirteen, may be classified under the Youthful Offender depending on the severity of the crime. Once a defendant is classified as a juvenile they are not tried in the criminal justice system. Significantly, Juveniles have…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Juvenile incarceration has created a lot of uncertainties in the legal justice system. This is because it is often assumed that indeed there are several persons that are underage that at the time of the crime did not have the proper mental reasoning to appreciate that indeed they were committing a crime. For this reason, there has been several problems regarding Juvenile incarceration and it has been argued that there is a need to re-evaluate and ensure that indeed the problems that affect the system are given the proper judicial involvement and justice. . This paper is going to examine how different it is from adults and juvenile when it comes to…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    juvenile justice

    • 6476 Words
    • 26 Pages

    In the United States we have two parallel systems that deal with individuals that commit crimes and or offenses against society. First we have the criminal justice system, a court which deals with adults who commit various crimes. Secondly, we have the juvenile justice system, a court designed especially for minors and is generally thought to help rehabilitate the offender. The salient difference between these two systems, as Mitcheal Ritter puts it, “is the use of distinct terminology to refer to their similar procedures. State and federal legislatures intended this terminological variation to avoid stigmatizing children as "criminals" and to dissociate the juvenile system from the criminal justice system” (Ritter 2010, 222).…

    • 6476 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juvenile Justice Reform

    • 1635 Words
    • 7 Pages

    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…

    • 1635 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal law can be found to go as far back as to the code of Hammurabi. This code was…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays