-
Essay / Juvenile Justice - 878
Juvenile JusticeThe juvenile justice system as it generally operates in thousands of U.S. jurisdictions is the topic that will be covered. The juvenile justice system is defined as "a socio-legal process with the responsibility and authority for public response to current juvenile delinquency and for deterring future juvenile delinquency, including, as part of this process, officers , public and private agencies, laws, rules and policies related to this process. juvenile delinquency” (Weiner, 1987, p.12). This article will discuss the history of the juvenile system, the need for the juvenile system, the functions of the juvenile court, parents in court, and programs that have worked, as well as those that have not. Because the first formal juvenile court was so labeled on July 1, 1899, which would make the juvenile justice system nearly a century old. However, the origins of the different components of JJS go back much further than that. The notion of separate treatment of children under criminal law dates back to very old English law. Children under the age of seven were legally incapable of committing a crime, and children between the ages of seven and fourteen were presumed incapable, this concept being based on the child's inability to have a guilty mind, or mens rea. So, from almost the beginning, children have been treated differently from adults who commit the same acts....