Juvenile Courts

Paper Summary:

Historically, juveniles who came to the attention of the courts were considered less guilty than adults because of their age. This, in turn, developed into an attitude at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century that the appropriate role for police and the courts was to guide the young person to a better path. Finally, this led to the idea of 'status offenses'; that is, offenses that would not be crimes if committed by an adult. The paper examines the history of juvenile courts in the American legal system. It discusses issues such as the 'parens patriae' policy, juvenile facilities, rehabilitation, and the status of the system today.

From the Paper:

"The philosophy of parens patriae allowed the courts, and through them a variety of social service programs, to concern themselves with actions that violated societal expectations. The juvenile system then had a tiered set of offenses, just as the adult criminal system did, but at the bottom of the tier for youths were offenses that were not listed in any criminal code. Police had broad discretionary power at this level and could choose whether to ignore what they saw, to simply talk to the youth or youths in question, or to make an arrest (Wolcott, 2001)."

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