Juvenile Competency in Criminal Court Trials

1. Do you think most juveniles are competent to stand trial in criminal court?

To answer this question we must first look at what would make a juvenile incompetent to stand trial in a criminal court. When a youth's competence is questioned the court will order a forensic mental health evaluation of the youth by a qualified professional, often a psychologist or psychiatrist and the evaluation assesses the youth's mental health and intellectual capacities ("Overview | Collaborative For Change," n.d.) Most importantly, it includes a detailed inquiry into the specific abilities associated with competence to stand trial-what the youth understands, knows, believes, and can do that is relevant for participating in a defense ("Overview | Collaborative

For Change," n.d.). So knowing what is evaluated, I don't believe that initially most juveniles are competent to stand trial in criminal court. I do however, believe that most juveniles can become competent with guidance from the court system so that they may face the criminal court for the crimes they committed. Some state currently offer juvenile competence remediation programs that help prepare a juvenile for trial. The current problem with this is that there are no published models for juvenile competence remediation and almost no research on the current efforts ("Overview | Collaborative For Change," n.d.). Juvenile competence remediation does and should have limits and regulations. The examiners conducting the competency exam should consider how long successful intervention is expected to take in order to get the juvenile to be considered competent. If remediation is expected to take a long time then the juvenile should be classified as not competent. I realize that some juveniles even after receiving remediation still won't be competent to stand trial due to mental issues, age or maturity and those are the few that I believe should be dealt with in other ways. So while I believe that most juveniles aren't initially competent to stand trial in criminal court, I do believe most of them can become competent with court remediation.

2. Should parents, custodians or guardians of youths be actively involved in a youth's rehabilitation? Why or why not?

I believe that in order to have any success with rehabilitating a youth or making them a contributing member of the community it requires the mutual support of the juvenile justice system and the parents, custodians or guardians.

So the answer to the question is yes they should be part of the juvenile's rehabilitation process. There can be some obstacles making the process of getting a parent or guardian involved difficult or sometimes just impossible. Some of these obstacles include but not limited to the parents work schedule conflicting with rehabilitation appointments, inability to take time off without being fired, financial strain of taking work off, lack of transportation, the lacking of any good parenting skills or they just don't have any interest in dealing with their children. Getting parents and guardians involved throughout the whole process and not just the rehabilitation often leads to positive outcomes for youth, including those with behavioral health needs ("Family Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System | Collaborative For Change," n.d.). It should also be the responsibility of the juvenile justice system to get these parents, custodians or guardians involved. This could be done by supplying the parents with information on how the process works, what is expected of them and the best approach to helping with the rehabilitation. Some parent lack the education or knowledge and by supplying them with the needed information not only builds a better team relationship with the juvenile justice system but gives the youth the best chances of rehabilitation. I strongly believe that those parents, custodians or guardians that can be involved in their youth's rehabilitation are a key factor in increasing the odds of the youth successfully being rehabilitated. I also believe that the courts should whenever possible get the parents involved in the process and offer any necessary training, education or support if needed by the parents or

guardians