History of the Juvenile Justice System (Essay Sample)

ISSUES IN THE JUVENILE SYSTEM
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History of the Juvenile Justice System
The juvenile justice system is a discrete justice system for young people (Barnes, J. C. 2014). The court is just over one hundred years old. It hears cases of young people who get in to trouble with the law and order of the country and are under the age of 18. The law has a difficult distinction between the adult offenders and the adult offenders. However, this has devolved over a number of years and the line has been drawn for distinct reason and places. According to Taylor, R. (2014), the origin of the law in America was influenced by the common law of England that administered the American colonies. Among the lawyers who contributed to the juvenile justice system was a William Blackstone, an English lawyer. His publication and commentaries on the England laws were greatly admired by the founders of the US.
A Novel System of Justice for Juvenile
In the nineteenth century, there was a change in the treatment of juveniles in the US. Social reformers started to build special facilities for juvenile who had troubled particularly in big cities. In the state of New York, the club for the deterrence of juvenile crimes formed the New York House of Refuge that housed the juvenile offenders in 1825. Chicago established a reform school in 1855. The main idea of forming the institutions was to protect the young offenders from the adult offenders. The first juvenile court to be established in the US was in Cook County, Illinois. The juvenile had the same ambition as reform schools. They wanted to acclimatize rather than castigate the young offenders.
Due process and Supreme Court Legislation
The due process of law states that individuals who are party to a legal proceeding are entitled to specific safeguards that are designed to ensure that the proceeding is fair and impartial. The US constitution defines the due process as guaranteeing individuals of the following: no person who can be tried for a stern crime unless charged by an outstanding jury, no self-incrimination in a criminal trial, and no one who can be dispossessed of liberty, life, or property without the due procedure of law (Cole, G., et al. 2015). The key elements of the due process includes: a right to a legal guidance, a right against self-accusation, a right to cross-examine witnesses and a notice of the charges against them (Barnes, J. C. 2014).
In early 1960's, the US Supreme Court heard numerous cases that would overwhelmingly change the chronicles in the juvenile courts. Such cases that shaped the process of juvenile courts included Kent v. United States (1966). Kent the offender had entered juvenile at 14 years old having been accused of housebreakings and purse snatching. After two years, his finger prints were discovered in an apartment belonging to a woman who had been raped and robbed. When he was incarcerated and cross-examined by the police, Kent admitted to the commitment of the crime. Her mother consulted the lawyer who arranged for a psychiatric examination. The results showed that Kent suffered from a sever psychopathology and it endorsed that Kent was to be retained in a psychiatric hospital for scrutiny.
The juvenile court judge had powers to waive jurisdiction in the case to a criminal court where Kent was to be tried as a grown-up (Stokes, M. L. et al. 2015). The lawyer opposed to the waiver arguing that Kent needed proper hospital care and thus he was eligible to be a candidate for recuperation. The juvenile court refused to respond to the motion by the lawyer and without a hearing waived prerogative to the criminal law. However, the Supreme Court decided to hear Kent case and reigned that he was permitted to a hearing and to a statement of explanations for the young court's choice to waive prerogative. He won the case as the Supreme Court ruled that Kent was denied the due process of law.
Juvenile System structures
The status offenses - are the acts that are deliberated as illegal or punishable only when they are done by a minor (Taylor, R. 2014). They are restrictions placed on a minor so that they can attend schools without failure, and avoid being addicted to drugs. Juvenile who are accused with committing a status offense must be accorded due-process rights, have a juvenile record if a court decides that the youth committed a status offense, and they are assigned a risk factor by the court if found to be a repeat offender. In the last case, they are given a severe punishment (Cole, G., et al. 2015). The following punishment can be imposed if the youth is found to have committed the offense. First, he may be given a deferred adjudication, he may be allowed to continue living at home but placed under probation, and a disposition can be reached at and the juvenile be booked at a state school for a specific time.
Felony – is a grave crime. They include murder, residential burglary, assault, kidnapping, and other violent crimes (Barnes, J. C. 2014). The punishment for conviction of felony may include jail for more than a year, life sentence, prison or probation. Death penalty is not applicable for minors or people under the age of 18 years old.
Misdemeanors –They are not serious offence as compared to felony. They are entitled to a jury trial. Conviction for such offence includes a jail term up to one year (Welsh, B. C. 2014). The minor may be placed for probation with specific terms such as community service hours or counseling. Misdemeanors offences include disorderly conduct, shoplifting, and trespassing, and criminal damage (Taylor, R. 2014).
Legal Inequalities
Legal Inequalities – The racial differences that are found in the criminal justice in the US deeply affect minors. The minority youths are usually over-represented at each juncture of the juvenile justice structure. The justice system plays a disparaging role in the lives of the minority groups. For the black and Hispanic children, the justice structure acts as a feeder structure into prisons and adults courts. The labeling of the minority groups as criminals starts at the juvenile justice structures (Welsh, B. C. et al. 2014). The depiction is self-fulfilling and counterproductive to label minors as criminals. Also, law enforcement practices by the police targeting low income neighborhoods and arrest the minors in groups can result to unequal minority contact. The black youths are normally arrested at higher rates than the white over crimes such as drugs or violent crimes. The results show that black minors commit more crimes than the white kids.
Juvenile Crime Trends
Theories of Delinquency – Delinquency is the process of figuring out why adolescents engage in crimes. The study is necessary as it provides the learner with reliable and well researched theories that aid to comprehend the intentions of juveniles. The theories can be categorized under three categories, psychological, biological, and sociological (Stokes, M. L., 2015). In biological theory, it is argued that those who grow up committing crimes have biochemical and genetic factors that they have inherited. The sociological factors argue that poverty, social relations, and racial disparity play a role in the behavior of the minors. For example, high poverty and dropout rates are social factors that shape the behaviors of minors. Psychological theories aid to understand the person themselves and the processes surrounding the person that give rise to explicit forms of behavior.
Causes and Correlates of Delinquency – The cause of delinquency can be through social learning theory and psychodynamic theory. According to psychodynamic theory, the causes may include the kid's abnormal personalities that were developed in their early life. The social learning theory states that criminal behavior is learned through close ties with others. It concludes that kids are born good but learn to be bad as they grow big (Taylor, R. 2014).
Recidivism –