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JUVENILE CORRECTIONS:
End of an Era?
McGraw-Hill
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PARENS PATRIAE: A Latin term that
refers to the state as guardian of
minors and incompetent people.
REFORM SCHOOL: A penal
institution to which especially young
or first-time offenders are committed
for training and reformation.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
• Historically, juvenile offenders in
England were confined with adults.
• In 1704, John Howard introduced a
Roman institutional model for juvenile
offenders. American colonists brought
his ideas to the new world.
• Reformers tailored Howard’s ideas to
create houses of refuge, reform schools,
and industrial schools for juveniles.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
In 1825, the first legally chartered
American custodial institution for
juvenile offenders, the New York
House of Refuge, was established
by penal reformer Thomas Eddy,
education reformer John Griscom,
and the Society for the Prevention
of Pauperism.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
• The Lyman School, the first statesponsored reform school, opened in
Massachusetts in 1848.
• After the Civil War, states required
both juvenile and adult penal facilities
to offset costs by contracting inmate
labor to local manufacturers.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
• In People ex rel. O’Connell v. Turner
(1870), the Illinois Supreme Court
began the movement toward creating
a separate juvenile court.
• That movement came to fruition in
1899, when the Illinois legislature
established the nation’s first juvenile
court in Cook County (Chicago).
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LANDMARK CASES
The U.S. Supreme Court dramatically
changed juvenile justice through its
rulings in five key cases:
 In Kent v. United States (1966), the
Court ruled that juvenile offenders
are entitled to certain essential due
process rights.
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LANDMARK CASES
 In In re Gault (1967), the Court
granted juvenile offenders the right
to appointed counsel, as well as
other procedural protections.
 In re Winship (1970) applied the
reasonable doubt standard in all
delinquency adjudications.
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LANDMARK CASES
 McKeiver v. Pennsylvania (1971) held
that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due
process clause does not mandate jury
trials in juvenile court.
 In Breed v. Jones (1975), the Court
applied double jeopardy protection
to juvenile adjudication proceedings.
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LANDMARK CASES
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions
in these cases affirmed juvenile due
process rights.
As a result, the “best interest of the
child” is no longer the only concern
for juvenile courts;
they also are required to protect the
juvenile’s constitutional rights.
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PERCENT OF ARRESTS INVOLVING JUVENILES, 2002
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DELINQUENT OFFENSES: Acts
committed by juveniles that, if
committed by adults, could result in
criminal prosecution.
STATUS OFFENSES: Acts that are
law violations only for juveniles such
as running away, truancy, or
ungovernability (sometimes referred
to as incorrigibility or being beyond
parental control).
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JUVENILE DELINQUENTS:
SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS
Of the estimated 1.8 million delinquency cases
handles by U.S. juvenile courts in 1998:
• 36 percent involved a juvenile under age 15
• 76 percent involved boys
• 67 percent involved white juveniles
• 29 percent involved black juveniles
• 56 percent were drug and property offenses
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THE JUVENILE JUSTICE PROCESS
The three phases of the juvenile justice
process are:
• Intake
• Adjudication
• Disposition
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INTAKE: The first stage of the juvenile
justice process. A court-appointed officer
reviews the case and recommends a course
of action—dismissal, informal disposition,
formal disposition, or transfer to adult
criminal court.
ADJUDICATION: The process by which a
court arrives at a final disposition in a case;
also the second stage in the juvenile justice
process. In which the court decides whether
the offender is formally responsible for
(guilty of) the alleged offense.
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DISPOSITION: The third stage of the
juvenile justice process in which the court
decides the disposition (sentence) for a
juvenile case.
JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITY: A
facility for keeping juvenile offenders in
secure custody, as necessary, through
various stages of the juvenile justice
process.
DETENTION HEARING: A judicial review
of the intake officer’s detention decision.
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JUVENILE COURT: Any court that has
jurisdiction over matters involving
juveniles.
GUARDIAN AD LITEM: A person
appointed by the juvenile court, often
defense counsel, to serve as a special
guardian for the youth being processed
through the juvenile justice system.
DISPOSITION: The third stage of the
juvenile justice process in which the court
decides the disposition (sentence) for a
juvenile case.
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PREDISPOSITION REPORT: A report
that documents (1) the juvenile’s
background; (2) educational history;
(3) information gathered from
interviews with the juvenile, family
members, and others; (4) available
placement options; and (5)
recommended dispositions.
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GROUP HOME: A nonsecure
residential facility for juveniles.
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RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT
CENTER: A residential facility that
provides intensive treatment services
to juveniles.
BLENDED SENTENCING: A two-part
(juvenile and adult) sentence in which
the adult sentence may be waved if the
offender complies with all provisions of
the juvenile sentence.
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INTAKE
In this first phase of the juvenile justice
process, cases are reviewed by a courtappointed officer, who recommends a
course of action.
The intake officer may recommend:
• dismissal;
• informal resolution (no petition filed);
• formal resolution (a petition for an
adjudication hearing is filed); or
• transfer to adult court.
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ADJUDICATION
In this second phase of the juvenile
justice process, a juvenile court hears
the case.
DISPOSITION
In this third phase of the juvenile justice
process, the juvenile court decides on a
disposition (sentence).
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TRANSFER to ADULT COURT
Juveniles may be transferred to adult court under one
of three provisions:
 Waiver Provisions, under which the juvenile court
orders transfer of the case to adult criminal court.
 Direct File Provisions, under which the prosecutor
determines whether to initiate a case against a
juvenile in juvenile court or in adult criminal court.
 Statutory Exclusion Provisions, under which adult
criminal court jurisdiction for certain juvenile cases
is established by state law.
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TRANSFER to ADULT COURT
Juveniles may be transferred to adult court under one
of three provisions:
 Waiver Provisions, under which the juvenile court
orders transfer of the case to adult criminal court.
 Direct File Provisions, under which the prosecutor
determines whether to initiate a case against a
juvenile in juvenile court or in adult criminal court.
 Statutory Exclusion Provisions, under which adult
criminal court jurisdiction for certain juvenile cases
is established by state law.
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TEEN COURT
Also called peer and youth courts, teen
courts have become a popular alternative
to the traditional juvenile court for young or
first-time offenders.
Teen courts use one of four models:
• The Adult Judge model, with an adult
serving as judge and youth serving as
attorneys and court staff.
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TEEN COURT
• The Youth Judge model parallels the Adult
Judge model, with the exception that a youth
serves as judge.
• The Tribunal model, with youth attorneys
presenting the case to a panel of three
youth judges.
• The Peer Jury model uses no attorneys.
The case is presented to the jury by a youth
or adult. The jury questions the defendant.
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GANG: A criminal enterprise having an
organizational structure, acting as a
continuing criminal conspiracy, that
employs violence and any other criminal
activity to sustain itself.
YOUTH GANG: A gang whose
membership is generally comprised of
people between the ages of 12 and 24.
STREET GANG: An organized group of
people on the street often engaged in
significant illegitimate or criminal activity.
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YOUTH GANGS
• There are an estimated 30, 800 youth
gangs in the U.S.
• Total membership in U.S. youth gangs
exceeds 846,000.
• Youth in correctional settings join
gangs for protection, or to relieve
boredom.
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