After reading the factual information presented, I agree with the need to a separate juvenile system. Implementing a separate system caters to the crimes committed by juvenile and helps to have those juveniles focused on rehabilitation in order for them to stay out of prison in the future. The juvenile system helps in prosecuting crimes but with an understanding that they are children and children do make mistakes.
There is clearly a need for a separate system court system, having separate systems ensures that juveniles are afforded the opportunity of rehabilitation, learn from their mistakes and move into adulthood with a clean record and firmer understanding of the law. If we punished our juveniles as harshly as we did adults then we could make for a weak society. Our justice system does an exceptional job in cater to juveniles. Of course, to every program there are negatives, some may say that the negative to having a separate justice system for juveniles is that violent youths are not dealt with severely enough in juvenile court.
2. According to our text, police discretion plays an important role in determining whether a particular act is recorded as a crime. I don’t believe this severally impacts juvenile statistics because officers are charged with recording crimes not assessing whether are not the crime was warranted to commit, that is up to a judge. Police discretion may come into factor but in many cases its important for juveniles who commit crimes to be arrested and understand how the criminal justice process works. This is why we have show like ‘Scared Straight’, we (as a society) want to scare juveniles into become law abiding citizens and in many cases we have to use the legal system to scare them.
Broemmel, M. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5135532_juvenile-justice-system.html
Beatrice Luna, Ph.D., “Brain and Cognitive Processes Underlying Cognitive Control of Behavior in Adolescence,” University of Pittsburgh, Oct. 2005..?
Anderson, David C. 1998. Sensible Justice: Alternatives to Prison. New York: The New Press.
Elrod, P. and Ryder, R. (2011). Juvenile justice: A social, historical, and legal perspective, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
One of the things I want to explore this term is the question of why there are separate topics of "Juvenile Justice" and a separate legal system for Juveniles and is the reasoning sound behind the separation from the adult system sound. Our legislature in its' infinite wisdom has created a separate legal system for juveniles. Does there need to be such a separate system, and why or why not?
2. What does our text tell us about the concept of “police discretion” and how does it impact juvenile crime statistics? What is your opinion of this delete? Is it present in the adult system?
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