Juvenile Justice: If Juveniles Should be Tried as Adults. In 1998, fifteen year old Anthony Laster of West Palm Beach Florida was charged as an adult for strong armed robbery and extortion and faced life in prison. The crime? Taking two dollars of a classmate 's lunch money. Anthony, a mentally disabled child that functioned at the level of a five year old, had to spend four weeks in a county jail when his family couldn’t post the five hundred dollar bail. The prosecutor, Barry E Krischer dropped the charges after the issue gained national attention (Hansen 45). In contrast, in 2008 a 22 year old was brought to court as an adult for crimes committed as a juvenile. These included the murder of a seventeen year old student and a 43 year
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This numerous crimes were committed when the felon was seventeen and eighteen years old so he was legally a minor and received minimal punishment in the juvenile court system (Parole for Juvenile Justice is Necessary Hudson 67). These cases represent the two extremes of the ongoing social dilemma of when the adult criminal system should be used inplace of the juvenile justice system. The opposing views of this topic span from the belief that any serious crime should be under the jurisdiction of the adult system, no matter the age of the perpetrator; to the idea that children should not be held responsible for their actions in the adult court, regardless of the crime. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not juveniles should be tried in adult courts or if the juvenile system should continue to …show more content…
The juvenile system is similar in the way that a prosecution and a defence are both present and will present their cases to a judge, one of the most notable difference though is that there is not a jury present, the fate of the prosecution will be decided by the judge alone. According to Linda Collier, the process begins with an adjudication or a hearing where the intake officer will decide if the child is a delinquent or not. According to David Hudson Jr., there are then four different routes that can be taken, the child could be sent back to their family or a judge could order that the child needs the supervision of social services. In addition, more severe measures include the child in question to be removed from the family and put into child care or a state institution for juvenile offenders (Collier #). These are the court proceedings that remain in the domain of the juvenile system, and these proceedings are not open to the public (Collier #). A juvenile case can only be moved into the adult system if it meets the constraints of a waiver. There are three different types of waivers that can be placed on a case, a prosecutorial, a legislative (or statutory) or, a judicial waiver (Hudson Should not be treated as adults #). The most common waiver that is put in place is a judicial waiver. A judicial waiver is enacted when the juvenile court judge decides if the
This numerous crimes were committed when the felon was seventeen and eighteen years old so he was legally a minor and received minimal punishment in the juvenile court system (Parole for Juvenile Justice is Necessary Hudson 67). These cases represent the two extremes of the ongoing social dilemma of when the adult criminal system should be used inplace of the juvenile justice system. The opposing views of this topic span from the belief that any serious crime should be under the jurisdiction of the adult system, no matter the age of the perpetrator; to the idea that children should not be held responsible for their actions in the adult court, regardless of the crime. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not juveniles should be tried in adult courts or if the juvenile system should continue to …show more content…
The juvenile system is similar in the way that a prosecution and a defence are both present and will present their cases to a judge, one of the most notable difference though is that there is not a jury present, the fate of the prosecution will be decided by the judge alone. According to Linda Collier, the process begins with an adjudication or a hearing where the intake officer will decide if the child is a delinquent or not. According to David Hudson Jr., there are then four different routes that can be taken, the child could be sent back to their family or a judge could order that the child needs the supervision of social services. In addition, more severe measures include the child in question to be removed from the family and put into child care or a state institution for juvenile offenders (Collier #). These are the court proceedings that remain in the domain of the juvenile system, and these proceedings are not open to the public (Collier #). A juvenile case can only be moved into the adult system if it meets the constraints of a waiver. There are three different types of waivers that can be placed on a case, a prosecutorial, a legislative (or statutory) or, a judicial waiver (Hudson Should not be treated as adults #). The most common waiver that is put in place is a judicial waiver. A judicial waiver is enacted when the juvenile court judge decides if the