By LEAH MONTEJANO
Staff Writer
What is the Juvenile Justice System?
The American Juvenile Justice system is a court-based system that holds minors who are convicted of criminal charges. The Juvenile system gets involved in bad delinquent behavior through police, court, etc with the primary goal of getting better through rehabilitation (therapy or youth groups). The Juvenile System was officially established in 1903 by the Legislature enacted law. Before this law was put into effect, minors were considered to be “miniature adults” and therefore were disciplined as such despite their age. The main differences between the adult and minor criminal Justice systems are that adult trials are trial by jury (multiple individuals choose if you are guilty or innocent) while in juvenile courts they use a trial by judge (only one person observes if you are either guilty or innocent). Adult courts also have a higher potential for serious penalties (death penalty as an example) while a child would only have stricter penalties. In a single year, approximately 2.1 million youth under the age of 18 are arrested in the United States.
At what age can a minor be tried as an adult?
Each state holds its own regulations against when a minor can be tried as an adult, some examples of this would be California: in California, the youngest a minor can be tried as an adult is 16 years old whereas in Kansas the youngest a child can be tried for adult charges is 14 years old depending on the circumstances of the crime committed.
What are the advantages and disadvantages for Juveniles being tried as an adult?
Obviously, there are several disadvantages of being put into the Juvenile Justice System in the first place but compared to other adult criminal justice systems these are a few disadvantages and advantages. Juveniles in adult court systems are put at risk for being sent to adult correctional facilities which can be dangerous mixing minors with horrific criminals. Also, in adult systems, there are fewer options for punishment which can potentially mean that even if the criminal is a minor they can be sentenced to the death penalty. The 2 primary advantages of a juvenile being tried as an adult are that they would gain freedom from the system by at least age 25 and they will still have access to schooling and vocational skill development in prison.