The Pros And Cons Of Juvenile Delinquency

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Juvenile delinquency is antisocial and criminal behavior committed by persons under the age of 18. Once adolescents reach adulthood, antisocial and criminal behavior is known as a crime. Juvenile delinquency is made up of two general types of behaviors, status and delinquent offenses. Status offenses are behaviors that are considered unhealthy for children and the behaviors are prohibited because of the age of the offender. Thus, if these behaviors are committed by adults, it is not illegal. Examples of status offenses, includes smoking or using tobacco, drinking or possessing alcohol, running away from home, truancy or nonattendance at school, and violating curfew. Moving forward to today’s era juveniles are now being tried in adult …show more content…

Some may include, whether the child is a dependent, neglected, or delinquent child. In detail, a dependent child typically does not commit any legal offense but may not have a parent or guardian to supervise them due to mental or physical disability. A neglected child has a parent or guardian but they are not being provided the proper care or due to an unsafe, harmful home and upbringing. Lastly, a delinquent child who has committed an act that would be considered criminal if committed by an adult (Seiter, 2017). According to Scialabba, “there are three typical ways that a case can be transferred from juvenile court jurisdiction to adult court: judicial waiver laws, prosecutorial discretion or concurrent jurisdiction laws, and statutory exclusion laws” (2016). Judicial waiver laws are where the juvenile court judge is responsible for waving the jurisdiction which they waive juvenile cases to adult court. In contrast, there are some situations where the prosecutor has the discretion to determine to waive the case either too adult or juvenile court for the criminal charges. Under statutory exclusion laws, the legislature has exclusive jurisdiction of certain cases involving juvenile offenders (Scialabba, 2016). It is imperative that juveniles

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