Have you ever wondered what the process is for a juvenile? How it is different than adult court? What is the process of getting waived to adult court? The first Juvenile court was started in Cook county in 1899. You are a juvenile in till you reach the age of eighteen. After that you are considered an adult. In till you reach the adult age you go to juvenile court in less waived into adult court. After you reach the age of eighteen and you get in trouble with the law you attend adult court.
Not many juveniles get waived to adult court. Normally they stay in juvenile court till they are eighteen. There are many factors into waiving a juvenile into adult court. All from their prior criminal history to the offense they committed. There are laws out there saying that if you commit an A felony or B felony you are automatically waived to adult court. The purpose of Juvenile court is to rehabilitate the juvenile so they don’t reoffend. They don’t really punish the juvenile it is just whatever is in the best interest of the juvenile. Also when you go through the court process. Your parents get involved, where in adult court your parents are not involved.
Before the 1899 there was no Juvenile court established. That changed when Illinois was the first to have a juvenile court to have a hearing in 1899. Illinois passed the Juvenile Court Act of 1899, which established the Nation’s first juvenile court. The courts created a parens patriae which is another word for the state as parent. It was created to be the rationale for the right of the State to intervene in the lives of the children in a way that is different from the normal way that the adult court interacts with the lives of adults. It was also created for the State to act or ...
... middle of paper ...
... court and you get your sentence. Even though you are in adult court you will not go to a prison or jail in till you have reached the age of eighteen. You stay in a juvenile detention center in till you reach the age of eighteen. Then you are transported to either jail or prison to finish out your sentence there.
Works Cited
Division of Youth Services. (2014, 12 15). Retrieved from Division of Youth Services Juvenile Programs: http://www.in.gov/idoc/dys/2374.htm
Juvenile Justice Commission-Moving Through the Juvenile Justice System. (2014, 04 15). Retrieved from Juvenile justice commison: http://www.njjjc.com/info_system.htm
The juvenile justice system was founded on the concept of rehabilitation through individualized justice. (1999, 12 01). Retrieved 04 15, 2014, from National Report Series, Juvenile Justice : https://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/9912_2/juv1.html
A juvenile waiver is when a judge abandons the protections that juvenile courts provide, and transfers a case from juvenile court to adult court. “Usually, juvenile cases that are subject to waiver involve more serious crimes or minors who have been in trouble before” (Michon, n.d., para. 1). There are currently three main types of waivers. First, judicial waiver is the one most common and widely used. Typically, a judge will make the decision of whether a judicial waiver to adult court is required. Judicial waivers include examining the juvenile’s age, offense, maturity level, and relationship with parents, to name a few (OJJDP, 1997). Second, prosecutorial discretion waivers states, “Jurisdiction for certain cases is
The focus of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate juvenile offenders, rather than to imprison and punish like the systems adult counterpart. According to Caldwell (1961) the juvenile justice system is based on the principle that youth are developmentally and fundamentally different from adults. This has lead to the development of a separate justice system for juveniles that was initially designed to assist troubled juveniles providing them with protection, treatment, and guidance. When performing as it is designed and up to the initial intentions, the juvenile court balances rehabilitation (treatment) of the offender with suitable sanctions when necessary such as incarceration. According to Mack (1909) the focus of the juvenile justice system has shifted from “how can we help the child”, “why did the child commit the crime” to “was the crime committed”. According to Griffin (2008) in some cases juveniles may be required to be “transferred” to adult court. The prerequisites for transfer to adult court are the duty to protect the public from violent youths, serious crime, and the lack of rehabilitation chance from the juvenile court. According to Flesch (2004) many jurisdictions handle the issue of serious juvenile crime by charging juveniles as adults. Charging a juvenile as an adult is done by a method which is called waiver to adult court. This waiver allows adult criminal court to have the power to exercise jurisdiction over juveniles and handle the juvenile’s case as an adult’s case would be tried. According to Flesch (2004) a juvenile is both tried and if convicted of the crime the juvenile will be sentenced as an adult when his or her case is waived from the juvenile court. Waiver to adult court initially was viewe...
The age of the offender determines whether they meet the requirements for a judicial waiver offense. With that said not every state offers all three of the methods a juvenile can qualify for a waiver. In the process of judicial waiver offense the judge takes the final decision on waiving a case. There are other factors that affect the judge’s final decision. Aspects like the criminal history of the offender or the severity of the crime are crucial for the waiver to take place.
In 1899, the juvenile justice court system began in the United States in the state of Illinois. The focus was intended to improve the welfare and rehabilitation of youth incarcerated in juvenile justice system. The court mainly was focused on the rehabilitation of the youths rather than punishing them being that they still have immature ways and still growing. Specialized detention centers, youth centers, and training schools were created to treat delinquent youth apart from adult offenders in adult facilities. “Of these, approximately 14,500 are housed in adult facilities. The largest proportion, approximately 9,100 youth, are housed in local jails, and some 5,400 youth are housed in adult prisons” (Austin, 2000).
The Juvenile Justice System in the State of Texas celebrated its 100 Birthday in 1999. Many people believe that the Juvenile Justice system is equal to the adult system and that juveniles are punished as adults are but that is not always the truth. The Texas Juvenile System is made up of a mixture of the Criminal Law and the Civil Law. It is governed by The Juvenile Justice Code which is called the Title 3 of Texas Family Code. The only similarities that are shared with the Adult system are that it also refers to the Texas Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures for rules. The steps of The Court Procedures are: If a child is arrested, they are detained in a child facility, a child is not bonded out but most go before a judge. Once before the judge, it is decided if a petition will be filed depending upon the severity of the offense. The child can then make his or her pleading if the child wishes to plead not guilty a jury child can be requested. Even if there is a jury trial, only the judge can determine the punishment. The judge is also limited to the punishment that he or she can sentence because of the Juvenile Code’s Progressive Sanction Levels. This is the method which the Juvenile system uses to rank crimes.
Vito, Gennaro F., and Clifford E. Simonsen. Juvenile justice today. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. Print.
For many years, states have believed that the juvenile justice system came about to protect the public by providing a system that helps children who are maturing into adulthood. States understand that children who commit crimes are different from adults. They believe that children are less blameworthy, and have a greater capacity for change. To make up for these differences, states have created a separate court system for juveniles, and they have created a separate, youth based system that is different than that provided to adults.
There are times where a juvenile may be eligible for transfer to adult criminal court. There are certain criteria that must be met for this to happen, and there is a strong belief that juveniles who commit serious offenses would be more appropriately dealt with by criminal (or adult) courts (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). Juveniles are capable of committing the same serious offenses that adults do. Therefore, with the requirements of a transfer being met, there are times that juveniles should be placed in the adult criminal court system and tried through here, rather than the juvenile court system. The juvenile court system may not have the same consequences or sentencing guidelines as the adult criminal court; therefore, the proper punishment may not be served if a juvenile is not transferred to the adult criminal court system.
The Juvenile Justice system, since its conception over a century ago, has been one at conflict with itself. Originally conceived as a fatherly entity intervening into the lives of the troubled urban youths, it has since been transformed into a rigid and adversarial arena restrained by the demands of personal liberty and due process. The nature of a juvenile's experience within the juvenile justice system has come almost full circle from being treated as an adult, then as an unaccountable child, now almost as an adult once more.
The historical development of the juvenile justice system in the United States is one that is focused on forming and separating trying juveniles from adult counterparts. One of the most important aspects is focusing on ensuring that there is a level of fairness and equality with respect to the cognitive abilities and processes of juvenile as it relates to committing crime. Some of the most important case legislation that would strengthen the argument in regard to the development of the juvenile justice system is related to the reform of the justice system during the turn of the 19th century. Many juveniles were unfortunately caught in the crosshairs of being tried as adults and ultimately receiving punishments not in line with their ability
The adult court system was established before there was a juvenile court system. The adult court system has been around since colonial days. It was pretty much shaped after the Revolutionary war, after the constitution was created. The constitution was what set the guidelines for punishment and how it was dealt with (Criminal Justice. 2014). The U.S. Criminal Justice History Resource Page - Criminal Justice Degree Online. Retrieved April 19, 2016, from
Cox, S. M., Allen, J. M., Hanser, R. D., & Conrad, J. J. (2014). Juvenile Justice A Guide to Theory, Policy and Practice (8th ed.). Sage publications Inc.
The Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899 was the first juvenile court established in the United States (Locked Up…). The juvenile court was created to handle the offenders on the basis on their rather than their crime. In the 1980’s and 90’s many states passed laws to try teens as adults (Should Juveniles…). The court system served to the minors under the age of sixteen. The courts didn’t typically support disciplinary actions. The people in charge did everything in their power to not have the victim spend time in a juvenile detention center or better yet prison. Remedial sentences were the most common types of discipline (Locked Up…).
John P. Wright, Kären M. Hess, Christine H. Orthmann. "Juvenile Justice." Cengage Learning; 6 edition, 2012
When discussing who has the power when it is time to decide whether a juvenile will be processed in adult court, there are a few important people in the justice system that decide those facts. The prosecution is the first to make a ruling on how someone should be tried. Since they are the first line of sentencing for all defendant they get to decide what sentence is the correct one. This can become dangerous when the prosecution pursues the harshest of sentences without consideration to the age of the defendant. The second most influential party in the process is the juvenile’s parent(s).