Juvenile crimes/Programs/Units

Juvenile crime has occurred for centuries, as has the debate regarding the age of criminal responsibility. Before the 20th century, punishment consisted of severe discipline, and children were seen more as property than as people. In the United States, juveniles have been treated differently from adults in the criminal justice system for only a little over 100 years, but even today, states differ about the age of responsibility for various juvenile crimes. By the early 20th century, all of the states had established separate juvenile courts under the parens patriae doctrine. Parens patriae establishes the role of law enforcement and the criminal justice system as a protective entity commissioned to rehabilitate delinquent youth. Juveniles act differently from adults because of a variety of developmental reasons, such as immaturity and inexperience. As a result, juveniles are sometimes held to different legal expectations and punishments. Because of these differences, law enforcement officials face special challenges when responding to juvenile crime.

Over the past 10 years, about 10%–17% of all felony arrestees were juvenile offenders. Although a majority of adolescents will violate the law at one time or another, most do not become serious offenders who move on to criminal careers. Because local law enforcement is typically the first contact a youthful lawbreaker has with the criminal justice system, police are left with the task of discretionary judgment about how to best respond to each individual crime. Traditionally, diversion of juveniles from formal processing in the system has been accepted practice by law enforcement in most localities for minor offenses. Police warnings and release to parents or specific programs such as victim offender mediation, first-offender programs, or counseling has allowed these minor lawbreakers to avoid the stigma associated with criminal processing and the risk of heightened acceptance of criminal roles. More recently, such discretion is becoming less likely as a growing need for retributive justice becomes increasingly popular regardless of age.

Ultimately, local authorities, under their specific state laws, develop regular procedures and practices about handling juvenile offenders. Some jurisdictions have implemented separate juvenile units in their department that focus exclusively on the problem of juvenile crime, which allows the needs of the juvenile offender to be considered more closely and procedural guidelines to be more specialized. Although separate juvenile units may exist in a vast number of local jurisdictions, each jurisdiction may operate very differently.

Historically, juveniles have been treated more informally in the criminal justice system from the [Page 258]first contact at arrest through court proceedings. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 not only mandated deinstitutionalization, but also granted due process to juveniles under the Fourteenth Amendment. Some procedural rights that are granted to juveniles are right of notice of charges, right to counsel, rights of confrontation and cross-examination, and the right to remain silent. Police must also attempt to contact the parent in a timely manner, and one of the best ways to ensure the rights of juveniles is to have a parent present during any questioning. Although constitutionally, juveniles are not granted full protection of rights under the law, many jurisdictions act as though they are. Laws differ from state to state, and most local authorities base their procedures with juveniles on their state laws. As juveniles are granted more equality of rights compared to adults, the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system will become less discretionary and more like that of adults. We have seen this trend already in the 1990s with the significant increase in juvenile transfers to adult court, and new state laws allowing this to happen quickly and easily.

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