Juvenile Justice Vs Criminal Justice

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The Philosophy of the Juvenile Court – Rehabilitation vs. Public Safety Daniel Vazquez Child Advocacy April 4, 2014 Professor Griffith Two inches thick. Twelve inches long, with a narrow handle. This “fraternity paddle,” as they called it, was used by staff members at the Indiana Boys School used to strike blows on the clothed buttocks of juveniles ages 12 to 18 at the facility. A class action lawsuit was brought against the school seeking injunctive relief not only to stop the corporal punishment, but more importantly to force the school to provide rehabilitative treatment. The Seventh Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals held that the juveniles at the facility had “a right to rehabilitative treatment…under the Constitution or Indiana law.” Rehabilitative treatment has not always been seen as a right for juveniles. It hasn’t even been regarded as the best possible course of action for dealing with juveniles. This paper will explore the history of the juvenile system, define what rehabilitation is, and explore the balance between the benefits of rehabilitation and the interest of public safety. A Brief History Treating juveniles as a separate class in the criminal justice system did not exist until the late nineteenth century. Juveniles were grouped with all other violators of law within the nation’s courts. Along with rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and social change that shocked our society came the necessary reforms to the criminal law system that saw things like probation, parole, undetermined sentences, and most importantly for the subject at hand, the juvenile court system. Recognizing the need for different type of solution, states began to adopt “open-ended, ... ... middle of paper ... ...n conclusion, like most things in the law there is no clear answer. There is no one-size-fits all solution for how to treat juvenile offenders. Even that term, “juvenile offender” contains a spectrum that includes the most minor misdemeanor and the most egregious sexual crimes. The Supreme Court has participated in this debate and voiced its approval of treatment and rehabilitation over punishment in the interest of public safety. The court, however, has also left the possibility of the states to hold juveniles to a higher (adult) standard on a case-by-case basis. This seems to me to be the best way to balance the obvious benefits of rehabilitative efforts and the interest of public safety. The best example I could find of a state who balances these two interests well is Oklahoma. The primary statutory goal of the Oklahoma Juvenile Code is to promote public safety.

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