Major Differences Between the Adult and Juvenile Justice - Essay Example

Juvenile Justice Reform and the Major Differences between the Adult and Juvenile Justice Systems This paper assesses thehistory and development of the juvenile justice system. It describes the major theoretic and systematic differences between the juvenile and the adult justice systems and why they have been established. In addition, it gives an example of the recent reform, it purpose and its need as per its implementation as well as the outcome. The History and Development of the Juvenile Courts The Justice system in the United States witnessed the first ever Juvenile court that was established in Chicago in 1889, over a century ago. This system brought significant changes, which resulted from the decisions made by the supreme courts, federal legislation and changes in the states legislation (Hancock, 2009). In essence, the law and legal procedures of the juvenile courts began with a serious case of children being disobedient to their parents as well as sons cursing their fathers. Since, they were around 16-17 years they were considered infants and could therefore, not be held criminally responsible (Steinberg, 2003). Youth who approached puberty age and were seen to have the ability to differentiate right and wrong were nevertheless held responsible for their action. This meant that they could not be prosecuted together with adult and there, come the need for the special court –the juvenile courts. In addition, Hancock, 2009 noted that there was the failure from the houses of refuge and the early reform schools that were mandated to reform the youth in the best way possible. Instead, the youth were abandoned, orphaned and forced to work under unbearable conditions. The question of whether the juvenile offenders ought to be tried separately from the adult offender brought about a heated debate from the public and the policy makers as well as professionals. Hence the juvenile courts were brought in honor of the principle of individual justice and the need to rehabilitate the youthful offenders. Major theoretic and systemic differences between the juvenile and adult justice systems Though, the juvenile justice grew out of the adult justice and is said to share a common ground, there have been substantial differences between the juvenile justice systems and the adult justice systems. One main difference between these two systems lies squarely on their overall aim. The juvenile system aims at reforming and rehabilitating the juvenile offenders so as to enable them to resume functioning in the society through parole, diversionary programs and probation. On the other hand, the adult justice system aims at punishing the offenders for the wrongs that they have committed. Some of the renowned juvenile courts proceedings from the criminal courts proceedings could be summed up as follows: According to McLanahan, et al., 2008, juveniles are less mature and are often said to unaware of the consequences of their actions, they are not held legally responsible hence not guilty, but they are only found to be delinquent unlike adults who are held guilty for every crime they have committed. The stated purpose of the juvenile courts is to make sure that they offer treatment to the delinquent behavior as compared to criminal courts, which give punishment to the offenders. In many states, the juvenile courts are more informal and their sessions are not open to public with the people present being the child, parents, attorney and the probation officers. In addition, the proceedings are not contested neither adversarial and could be said to take as less time as 10minutes. Conversely, the criminal courts are open to the public and the proceeding may take hours or days (Hancock, 2009). The juvenile offenders are kept separate from the adult offender starting from the initial stage when they are taken into custody to the last stage which entails court ruling or the verdict. Their files are also kept separately to give their individual judgments. Confinement in a detention center or commitment to a correction facility and the term of probation supervision are usually shorter for the juvenile offenders because, it is generally goes for a period of not more than two years, as opposed to adult offenders who may be confined in a detention center for more than five years or even a life imprisonment (Steinberg, 2003). Consistence with the need to treat the juvenile differently from the adults in reference to their immaturity and less understanding of the legal system certain terminology are used when handling the juveniles at each stage of the proceedings such as ‘taken into custody’ instead of being ‘arrested’. The adult courts use terms as they are such as ‘being jailed’ ‘being convicted’ among other terminology. Moreover, the background of the juvenile and their social history which includes the need for and amenability to treatment is relevant in making a judgment based on the offense committed especially when making a decision on handling cases as different from the adult offender where no amount of social history and background significant when it comes to determining their cases (Barnickol, 2000). Why have these differences been established? The reason for the differences in the establishment of the two justice system is that although they work on the same ground, the juvenile courts were established to deal with the young offenders who are below the legal age of law. While the adult, courts deal with offenders who have attained or exceed the legal age of law .These two categories of offenders have different interests as well as rights which are incompatible. A recent reform in the juvenile justice system and its purpose. The juvenile system in the United State has been at crossroads in the past few years with a number of these states experiencing reform movements of these justice systems. This has been triggered by high profile cases of abuse, critical reports and negligence from the outside world including the media. In reference to Barnickol, 2000, the death penalty for juveniles convicted of murder has been a controversial issue especially in the United States which had imposed this rule in the early seventies with high results of the death penalties being witnessed in Texas and other part of U.S with the age of the offenders ranging between 15 and 17 years of age. In a recent journal, McLanahan, et al., 2008 argues that reforming the juvenile justice system entailed the importance of the children in reference to their future and the fact that the children were part of the coming generation. In respect to this, there was a major reform when the Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty. Nonetheless, in early 2005, issues turned around when, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty on persons who were under 18 years at the time of their crimes was pitiless and unusual punishment and, therefore acted against the eighth and the fourteenth amendments, the state law and was further unconstitutional. In respect to this, court recognized that the juvenile were susceptible to immaturity and irresponsible behavior and could therefore, not be morally liable to the crimes committed as compared to the adult offender. In addition, the court argued that since the juvenile was still struggling to define their identity then it was not human to conclude that they had a deprived character even in the heinous crime committed (Steinberg, 2003). However, the judge in his ruling argued that they could not ignore the crimes that had been committed by the juveniles since some of them were brutal. The substitute for the death penalty that the majority opinion suggested for juveniles, who murdered, with question and controversy though, was the life imprisonment without parole. I believe that the death penalty reforms were needed and appropriate as pertaining to the judgment that had been given to these juvenile offenders. If the age of these offenders is below 18, they should not serve death penalty but should be given a second chance to restructure their lives through the rehabilitation facilities that had been set by the courts. This way they can change their lives and become important people in the society and the world as whole. References: Barnickol, L. (2000). The Disparate Treatment of Males and Females within the Juvenile Justice System: Journal of law and policy. 2, 2:429. Hancock, D. (2009). Juvenile Justice Reform: Realigning Responsibilities. New York: DIANE publishing. McLanahan, S. et al., (2008). Juvenile Justice: The Future of Children. 18, 2:1-185. Steinberg, L. (2003). Less Guilty by Reason of Adolescence: Journal. 58, 12:1009-1018. Read More