Essay On Juvenile Court

A juvenile court is a tribunal having special authority to try and pass judgments for crimes committed by children or adolescents who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, children and adolescents who commit a crime are treated differently from legal adults who have committed the same crime.

In some jurisdictions, such as in 44 states of the United States, severe offenses, such as murder and gang-related acts, are treated the same as crimes committed by adults even for minors. It was reported in 2007 "Beginning around 35 years ago, increases in violent juvenile crime permitted judges to transfer juveniles to adult-criminal courts. No national data exist on the number of juvenile offenders prosecuted as adults." "The main difference between a juvenile court and an adult court in England is that the juvenile court has a much wider jurisdiction in terms of the offenses it can try. It can deal with a juvenile for any offense except homicide, although it is not bound to deal with a young person for a serious offense such as robbery or rape; on such a charge he can be committed to the Crown Court for trial in the same manner as an adult."

Scope

Juvenile court is a special court or department of a trial court which deals with under-age defendants charged with crimes or who are neglected or out of the control of their parents. The normal age of these defendants is under 18, but juvenile court does not have jurisdiction in cases in which minors are charged as adults. The procedure in juvenile court is not always adversarial, although the minor is entitled to legal representation by a lawyer. Parents or social workers and probation officers may be involved in the process to achieve positive results and sav...

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...l are more likely to handle the case informally.

# Whether the minor has family or community support. The more support the young person has, the more likely the intake officer is to deal with the case informally.

# Whether the minor has an attorney. Disposing of a case informally may be less likely when a child has a lawyer.

Reform

In his 1997 book No Matter How Loud I Shout, a study of the Los Angeles' Juvenile Courts, Edward Humes argued that the system is in need of a revolutionary reform. He stated that the system sends too many children with good chances of rehabilitation to adult court, while pushing aside and acquitting children early on the road in crime instead of giving counseling, support, and accountability. 57% of children arrested for the first time are never arrested again, 27% are arrested one or two more times, and 16% commit four or more crimes.