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Overview of the Juvenile Justice Process
• Initial contact (police, parents, schools, DFS)• Discretion to make referral• Taken into custody arrest• Investigation• Diversion• Detention hearing• Pretrial procedures
Process
• File a petition (indictment)• Adjudicatory hearing (trial) • Agree to a finding or deny petition• Adjustment (plea bargain) Adjudication (conviction)• Disposition (sentence)• Bifurcated process• Aftercare
Process
• Commitment (incarceration, institutionalized)• Youth development center, training school
(prison)• Residential facility (halfway house)
Current legislation
• National advisory commission on criminal justice standards and goals (1973)
• Emphasized: • Prevention• Diversion• Dispositional alternatives• Due process• Controlling the violent and chronic delinquent
Legislation
• Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Removed juveniles from adult jails• Separation of status offenders and delinquents• Violent crime control and law enforcement act of
1994
Police and Juveniles
• Role conflicts: law enforce or service-oriented delinquency prevention
• Arrests• 64% referred to juvenile court• 28% informally handled and released• 5% referred to criminal court• 2% referred to DFS
History
• 19th century: increase in number of unemployed and homeless youths
• Wickersham Commission, IACP advocated police reform
• Delinquency control squads• Vollmer (Berkeley): prevention programs and
juvenile aid bureaus, first organized special police services for youths
History
• 1960s: increased tension between police and citizens
• Civil unrest; police seen as oppressors• Increase in crime• Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
(LEAA)• Development of role in community awareness
and crime prevention
History
• Specialized programs for juveniles• Police athletic leagues• Project DARE• Community outreach (crime prevention, Weed &
Seed• School resource officers• Gang control
Police and the law
• Law of arrest the same for adults and juveniles• Probable cause• Misdemeanor: police must observe crime• Felony: probable cause• Otherwise must have a warrant• Police can “arrest” youths for status offenses such as
truancy, running away and alcohol use
Police and the law
• In loco parentis• Protective rather than punitive function• Once arrested, formal safeguards of the 4th and
5th amendment attach• 4th amendment standards of search and seizure
have been determined to apply to juveniles
Police and the law (exceptions to the warrant requirement)
• Same stop and frisk rule (Terry v. Ohio)• Search after a legal arrest in the immediate area
of the subject’s control (Robinson v CA)• Automobile can be searched if there is probable
cause• Consent to search• Abandoned property
Law and the police
• Plain view doctrine• What about school officials?• Can school officials do searches and turn over
what they find to police?• New Jersey v. T.L.O.• What should be the standard?
New Jersey v T.L.O.
• Balance between the student’s right to privacy and school’s need to provide a safe environment
• Teachers do not need to obtain a warrant before searching a student
• Justified if violating the law OR violating school rules
• Legality depends on reasonableness, rather than probable cause
New Jersey v TLO
• Considerations are the scope of the search, age and sex of the student, and that behavior that prompted the search
• An adult could not be searched by an agent of the government under this standard
• This case is a balance between protections of adults and the needs of youths
• In loco parentis
Veronia School district
• Supreme Court allowed for suspicionless drug testing program for those in the athletics program
• Would this case apply to youths who are not in such programs, i.e., random testing ? Not clear, has not be litigated
Custodial interrogations
• Miranda v. AZ (1966)• In re Gault applied Miranda warnings to juveniles
(1967)• Is a child’s waiver of those rights valid?• People v. Lara: whether juvenile can waive
depends on the totality of the circumstances: • Age and other factors
Interrogations
• People v Lara also said that other factors could be considered: education, knowledge, whether youth could consult with family or friends, method of interrogation, whether youth had refused previously to give statements
• Validity of waiver to be determined on a case by case basis
Other cases on interrogations
• Fare v. Michael: asking to speak to his probation officer not the same as asking for his attorney, statements were admissible
• CA v Prysock: Miranda warning worded slightly differently (taped), court ruled that it was understandable to the juvenile
• Many jurisdictions require attorney and/or parent, just to be sure
Police discretion and juveniles
• Problem of discretion: need for flexibility, but it can be misused (can result in discrimination, especially against the poor and minority groups)
• Considerable evidence that poor children and perceived and treated differently from middle class children
Studies of police discretion
• More than ½ of police juvenile encounters are handled informally
• Stationhouse detention• Factors affecting decision to handle
formally/informally• Piliavin and Briar: other factors being equal, the
demeanor of the juvenile
Studies of police discretion
• Other factors:• Type and seriousness of offense• Wishes of the complaintant• Prior contacts• Race, sex and age• Perceived willingness of the parents to solve the
problem
Discretion
• Location• Police perception of community alternatives• Police department practices• Perceived community standards and norms• Racial bias? Mixed results• Police appear more likely to arrest minorities for
more minor offenses, makes little difference for serious offenses
Discretion
• African Americans more likely to be recommended for formal processing
• However, greater involvement of minorities in offenses
• Factors interact with others indicated above (perceived community standards, alternatives, etc.)
Police and gender bias
• Paternalism, chivalry hypothesis• Police tend to be more lenient toward female
delinquency, but treated them more harshly• Females more likely to be referred for status
offenses• Inconclusive
Class bias
• Youths growing up in poor areas had a significantly greater chance of having an arrest record than youths in other areas, regardless of the crime rates in these areas.
• Might be a function of departmental policy to concentrate on certain areas
New directions: law enforcement
• Field interrogations• Foot patrol and neighborhood storefront police
stations• Community mobilization programs (block watch,
weed and seed, Neighborhood Watch, neighborhood cleanups, etc)
• Community policing
Should discretion be controlled?
• Policies?• Recording of decisions?• Narrowing the scope of the juvenile code?
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