Most people understand that children and adults are not the same. It is also not a shock to know that when it comes to the legal system, children and adults go through different processes. In order for the legal system to separate these processes, juvenile judicial departments were created throughout the United States. Juvenile judicial department’s rules and regulations differ from state to state, but their primary goal across the board is to give minors the ability to have appropriate court proceedings for their age.
Some of the main differences between the juvenile and adult court systems are (1) “juveniles are not prosecuted for committing crimes, but rather delinquent acts” (Clarke, 2015), (2) “juveniles don’t have a right to a public trial by jury” (Clarke, 2015); they have what is called an adjudication hearing, and (3) “in the adult system, the goal is to punish” (Clarke, 2015); in the juvenile system, the goal is to rehabilitate.
This all sounds really good, actually. It’s nice to know that if a kid makes a mistake that he or she is not subjected to the harsh realities of the adult criminal system. It’s hard to even imagine a six year old boy doing 20 to life in a federal penitentiary alongside a bunch of adult men. Certainly our court systems understand that children are not adults and therefore should not be treated as such.
I see a problem in all of this, though. While I am definitely on board with not treating children as adults, I also feel that children should be treated differently than other children.
You see, the juvenile court systems work very similarly to the adult court systems in the sense that when you are considered an adult, you are an adult and when you are considered a minor, you are a minor. What this means is that if you are 18 years old, you will be tried equivalently to someone who is 59 years old. And if you are six years old, you will be tried equivalently to someone who is 15 years old. That’s a big difference.
“Unfortunately, judges and attorneys can serve in delinquency court with essentially no training in principles of normal — let alone abnormal — childhood development. These principles are essential if one is to understand the requirements of normal neurobiological, psychological, social and moral development” (Arredondo, 2003).
Because the staff included in representing, trying, and deliberating the future of a minor are not always properly trained, it can be assumed that they do not always know what is best when it comes to the children. It is very important that we deal with this in our court systems.
Now that we have identified the problem, we need to form a solution.
It is in my opinion that all employees of the juvenile court systems have proper training in child development. It is important that these employees understand how different stages of development can impact children and also that not all children are the same. This is a very crucial part of life for learning and developing, and it needs to be noted that kids in the juvenile court systems need help more than ever.
After identifying our solution, we need to set some goals.
By training all the employees, it would be the goal of the juvenile justice department to hand out proper rehabilitation, education, and therapy to all minor offenders and take care to consider their overall health.
With this goal in place, it is time to implement.
I would recommend that each juvenile justice department, state to state, start free training classes for their employees to be completed within a six month period. After completing this training, a certificate will be given and they will then be allowed to represent the children in this department.
It is important to evaluate this plan.
It is my recommendation that the certificates the employees hold have a two year expiration date in which they would then have to complete new training courses that have updated education. This will allow the plan to be continuous and help employees have a better idea of child development and the offenders they are working with on a daily basis.
References
Arredondo, D. E. (2003). Child Development, Children’s Mental Health and the Juvenile Justice System: Principles for Effective Decision-Making. Stanford Law and Policy Review, 14.1. Retrieved from http://www.pacer.org/jj/pdf/childmentalhealth.pdf
Clarke, P. (2015). Juvenile VS Adult Criminal System. LegalMatch. Retrieved from http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/juvenile-vs-adult-criminal-system.html
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2015 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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