Juvenile Justice in the United States - Research Paper Example

Juvenile Justice in United s Introduction In United s, the rules and regulations regarding the Juvenile justice had been going through a lot of changes during the last century. The improvements and changes in the system extended to the whole nation and particularly to each state where the Juvenile justice situations occurred mostly regarding the rehabilitation of the young children having found guilty of committing the most dangerous crimes. Within the time period of twenty years, the new changes have extended to the whole of United States regarding the judicial settlement and adoption of procedures for the Juveniles who have cases in criminal dealings and other heinous crimes. The old patterns of Juvenile justice in United States, major changes in the system and impact of international laws and United States criminal justice system on the Juvenile justice of U.S are discussed below: Traditional ways for Juvenile justice As the shifting of population from the rural areas to urban areas were taking place in the beginning of 19th century, the idea for treating the young children when committing the crime was building. During that period, the punishments given to the young children were very mere and they were not giving much attention to the punishment rather than they were of the view to correct the delinquency that caused the crime. Procedures and ruling conducted for the adult prisoners were somewhat unlike by the reformers and they considered being inappropriate for the young children. The adults were given the harsh punishments n terms of living with dangerous criminals and life time imprisonment that was not at all suitable for the juveniles. It is the duty of the society to protect the rights of children and give them constructive punishment rather than dealing them as a guilty person. The concepts that required attention as to how the children enter into the criminal activity and what were the aspects that made him perform the wrong doings. It is the duty of the state to protect the youngsters from the wrong career. The children should be given the security that there care and solicitude is the responsibility of the government and they are striving to provide it to them. Thus, the harsh regulations that are meant for adult criminals were not considered as right for the children. They eliminate the concept of harsh punishment for the children when found guilty. According to them, children should be treated and rehabilitate to make their future productive rather than making it punishable. Before the starting of 20th century, the modern advancements were seen in the Juvenile justice system y the reformers. There were special rules and regulations specially derived for children under Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899. In order to handle the children under 16 year of age who have violate the rules and found negligent of the laws, certain rules were developed. The act of children became the milestone for the formation of similar regulations in the whole of untied states. The rules were based on the concept that the state run organizations and agencies act as the “parens patriae”. In other words, the organizations were given the position of parents to treat the children who are not under the control of parents and cannot follow the directives of parents. The main objective of such regulation for the courts of Juvenile was not to punished children who have commit a mistake or crime rather than they should be rehabilitated in order to convert them a productive person for the society. To implement the rule, there were special arrangements took place so that Juvenile should not mingle with the adult criminals in the prison. Such areas for children were named as Juvenile halls or Juvenile reformatories. In such halls, the strict criminal punishment was transformed into the productive steps including education, learning and support for the better future. Therefore, anyone who lived in the Juvenile facilities were not termed as guilty of crime but as adjudged delinquent. Just after the formation of Illinois Juvenile courts, the whole of U.S faced the similar changes and the Juvenile courts were sprung all over the United States. All the courts followed the similar treatment for the children regarding the education and rehabilitation rather than punishment. The courts were open for all types of children ages however, the upper age limit for the jurisdiction was 16 to 18 years. Structure formation by the Supreme court of US The changes were being made greatly by the supreme court of United States regarding the proceeding and protection for the Juvenile and the system of Juvenile justice was shifted to a new height. “In re Gault” by the court referred to the proceeding in which Juvenile is considered delinquent after the two hearings. With that, the Juvenile was shifted to the rehabilitation facility that was formed for the reason where the children will live for as much as six years. The Supreme Court declared that the actions conducted by children were totally different from the elder criminals but the Juvenile laws were found in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution as the aspect of punishment is there. The children will no longer get the liberty to enjoy the freedom that he got in his home and the juvenile will no longer enjoy the old lifestyle. According to the supreme court: if a boy found of violating the law, the children will move to the reformation center in which there is no liberty for many years until the time period of punishment vanished. In other words, the center will be a receiving school or industrial school for the children where the delinquent juvenile will be confined for some or many years. The world of confinement will have only whitewashed walls, scheduled retinue life and educational hours. there will be no father, mother, brother, sister, friends or class fellows but there will be officials, custodians, guards and other delinquent juveniles like him committed any form of violation whether rape or homicide. Under the influence of such rules, the constitution had some problem with the phrase “due process” in which there was no procedural regularity and care element for the juvenile. This meant that while the two important hearings were in progress, there was no protection and care factor for the juvenile. Thus, the court made the procedures adopted by state as unconstitutional. The result of the decision taken by the court of law was fast and extensive that moved the legislators and other judges immediately in order to improve the juvenile justice system in accordance with the “in Gault”. Due to the instant steps of improvement, there were more formal proceedings with the element of safety for the accused juveniles. During the juvenile proceeding, two important decisions taken by the supreme court of United States had the biggest impacts on the procedural hearings. For the first decision, when the young person got into the custody, the police questioned him for many hours and made the person detained for many days prior to the judgment made by the court. In this way, the Supreme Court has mentioned that the constitutional right of the juvenile that had not found guilty of crimes was violated as there was no formal hearing took place. The constitution required an early hearing that will conclude that the juvenile is adult or not. There was a possibility to hire the lawyer that can provide necessary records and details regarding the person under trail. If the juvenile was entitled as adult, the person requires a written document to prove the decision. In the whole scenario, the lawyer played an important role and therefore, given the due importance by the Supreme Court. Improvements and changes in the juvenile system In the recent years, the justice system in united states for juvenile have seen quite concerned for the children that are treated differently than the adult criminals in terms of proceedings and punishments. According to the critic, in the past united states judges were of the view to deal the juvenile in an on punishment way and make them trained. However, the officials are now having different attitude for the juvenile justice during the last twenty years. the concept of juvenile justice system has faced a major shift not just by the officials but by the citizens. Many citizens of united states are of the view that the crimes committed by the younger generation is rising significantly as there are no strong punishable rules for them. The violence and criminal activities by the juvenile are at its peak and even enhancing with time. The media highlighted the issue by giving several terms like young thugs, super and youthful predators etc; however, the proof of juvenile crime is still uncertain. There are some researches that conclude that there is an epidemic growth in the juvenile crimes however; other studies are of the view that crimes convicted by juvenile are reducing overtime. Whatever is the reality, the citizens and justice officials have made their mind that in order to eliminate the impact of juvenile crimes, harsh and punishable penalties should be given to them as a result. Under the changes, today there are several cases that have been transferred to the adult courts rather than dealing with these cases under the jurisdiction of juvenile justice system because of crime’s severity. The punishments, thus, given to the juvenile are much stronger in impact as compared to that found in history. The shift of the juvenile to the courts of adults takes place in many ways. One process of transferring is the judicial waiver in which the judge is of the view that the transferring is the only best way to deal with the situation. Other method of transferring is by the prosecuting attorneys that are powerful enough to exercise the decision. in many states of united states, the legislation has made it compulsory to transfer the case of juvenile to the adult courts for certain types of crimes mentioned in the rules. Some factors that cause the transfer of juvenile to the adult ruling includes the offense having serious impact, the different condition of the offense in which it is conducted, the crime of property, crime of violence for one another, crime after the issuance of complain, involvement of other juvenile or adult inn committing any crime, level of the crime in terms of maturity, history of the juvenile for the crimes and many others. However, there are many concerns evolved in the supreme court of United States regarding the juvenile justice. The juvenile justice system is viewed in terms of impact on minorities. It is seen in many countries that the criminal ruling for the minorities is inappropriate in many aspects. The same is the case with the united states juvenile system in which 80% of united states population is white juvenile while 40% arrested juveniles are black minorities found in committing violent crimes. Thus, the African-American juvenile gets arrested most commonly than that of white Americans (Hamilton, 2008, p.80). For the female juvenile, the concern is also there by the Supreme Court as the rate of crimes by the young girls is rising very fast as compared to that of boys (Mocan, 1999). The system has been seen to be designed keeping in mind the boys juvenile rather than the girls and therefore it is required to have equality in the juvenile justice system that has a lacking in it. Impact of International laws on the juvenile justice system in United States The system of several nations have greatly impacted by the international laws such as rule of 1989 by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and 1998 rule of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Templeton, 2000). However, such international rules and regulations have very little or no impact on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court justice system of United States. The critics of American policies condemn the non enforcement of international treaties and policies to counter the juvenile court problems. There are just few cases found in the history of united states that have followed the international pattern to deal it. References Mocan, H. N., Rees, D. I., & National Bureau of Economic Research. (1999). Economic conditions, deterrence and juvenile crime: Evidence from micro data. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Hamilton, D. K., & Atkins, P. S. (2008). Urban and regional policies for metropolitan livability. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Templeton, E. (January 01, 2000). Killing kids: The impact of Domingues v. Nevada on the juvenile death penalty as a violation of international law. Boston College Law Review, 41, 5, 1175-1216. Read More