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Harris County Juvenile Justice Center. The American juvenile justice system is the primary system used to handle minors who are convicted of criminal offenses. The system is composed of a federal and many separate state, territorial, and local jurisdictions, with states and the federal government sharing sovereign police power under the common authority of the United States Constitution.
Juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, children who commit a crime are treated differently from legal adults who have committed the same offense.
Teen or youth courts provide an alternative court system through which juvenile offenders can be heard and judged by their peers.Most teen courts have strict guidelines for youth volunteers who participate in the sentencing process, which generally includes training, a modified bar exam, peer mentoring and compliance with a code of conduct.
Juvenile cases are heard by not a jury by a judge. At least, the US criminal law system has a particular vocabulary for juvenile cases. Indeed, juvenile offenders commit not a crime but a delinquent act. Also, courts use the term delinquent or not delinquent, instead of guilty or not guilty, just to show that a minor is different from a criminal.
The 1980 reauthorization legislation added the "valid court order" exception to the DSO requirement and also enacted the jail removal requirement, [5] in response to research on the negative outcomes for youth incarcerated in adult facilities, including high suicide rates; frequent physical, mental, and sexual assault by adult inmates and staff ...
The push for reform within juvenile justice highlights the notion that Black and Latino individuals, especially males, are criminalized prior to adulthood. [43] The juvenile justice system is viewed in the same light as the criminal justice system as a form of social control that incapacitates Black and Latino youth. [43]
The essence of the juvenile court idea, and of the juvenile court movement, is the recognition of the obligation of the great mother state to her neglected and errant children, and her obligation to deal with them as children and wards, rather than to class them as criminals and drive them by harsh measures into the ranks of vice and crime. [3]
Juvenile detention totals from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. [4] Juvenile convicts working in the fields in a chain gang, photo taken circa 1903. The system that is currently operational in the United States was created under the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.