Adult Offenders Case Study

Brilliant Essays
Register to read the introduction… The difference in juvenile versus adult is the youth courts are based more on a cooperative method with the aim of helping the offender to understand the impact of their actions. It is designed to correct and guide the youth so they become responsible and realise their potential to become a valuable member of the community.[1] The adversarial process is vastly different and in this system there is a presumed assumption of competence and understanding for the defendant. It is unfair to put a youth in the adversarial system as they may not be able to defend themselves due to their lack of psychological development and understanding of the criminal court.[2] It also raises the issue of judging culpability as these standards differ between the juvenile and adult courts. In the adult court system it is presumed that the defendant is responsible for their own behaviour, whereas, the validity of this presumption differs due to the juvenile’s age in youth court[3] along with the fact there is growing evidence that moral reasoning is not fully developed until our early …show more content…
In adult court, the outcome of being found guilty of a serious crime will end in some form of punishment, in many cases prison. If we start trying youths in this way and send them to adult prisons there will be many harmful consequences. One concern is “adult contamination” which is one reason why the two groups were divided and separate justice systems were developed.[5] Research has shown putting young people in with older prisoners leads to them learning more about crime than what they ever would outside of a prison or in a youth detention centre.[6] This in turn increases the rate of recidivism among young people as rehabilitation is less likely to work. A reason for this would be age appropriate intervention programs not being offered in the adult correction system, so education is lacking therefore not providing any opportunities or support to the youth once …show more content…
Patmore P, Prisons and Politics, opening address of “keeping people out of prison”, http://www.aic.gov/publications/proceedings/11/henson.pdf , Quoted by http://www.smartjustice.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=288&itemid=42 site viewed 15th September 2008.

Premier and ministers of South Australia, Young repeat offenders to be tried as adults, http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/news.php?id=1181, site revised 23rd January 2007.

Steinberg, L (development psychologist), Should juveniles be tried as adults?, http://tigernan.com/shouldjuvenilesbetriedasadults.pdf, site viewed 13th September 2008.

Weatherburn, D and Lind, B, Reducing juvenile crime: conferencing versus court, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Crime and Justice Bulletin no. 86, 2002. http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/11_bocsar.nsf/pages/bocsar_pub_cjb, site visited 11th September 2008.

Youth Court, http://courts.sa.gov.au/courts/youth/index, site visited 13th September

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