Juvenile Justice in America, 5 th Edition ©2008 Pearson Education, Inc. Bartollas/Miller Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Chapter 7:

Juvenile Justice in America, 5th Edition ©2008 Pearson Education, Inc.Bartollas/Miller Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Chapter 7: Juveniles in Adult Court


Outline

• Children or Adults?• How Does Transfer to Adult Court Take Place?

– Judicial Waiver– Prosecutorial Discretion– Statutorial Exclusion– Reverse Waiver and Blended Sentencing– Changing Criteria for Waiver– What Goes on in the Transfer or Waiver Hearing?– Waiver to Criminal Court – Evaluation of Waiver


Outline (cont.)

• How Does a Youthful Offender System Work?

• What Is Life Like for a Juvenile Sent to Prison?

• The Juvenile Death Penalty: Three Decades of Change

• A Proposed Adult Court for Juveniles


Objectives• To consider the differences in maturity between

juveniles and adults• To describe and evaluate the policy of transferring

juveniles to the adult court• To examine the possibility of developing an

intermediate correctional system for juveniles• To examine the quality of life for a juvenile sentenced to

an adult prison• To discuss the death penalty for juveniles• To evaluate the proposed adult court for juveniles


1. Discuss the criteria society has for determining whether youths are children or adults.


Hints (pp. 166–168): Age Socioeconomic conditions Graduation Right from wrong Social conscience Intelligence Emotionally mature Reasoning ability


2. Identify and discuss different types of waivers for juveniles.


• Intake involves the actual decision-making process that begins when the juvenile is brought to intake.


• Judicial waiver involves the actual decision-making process that begins when the juvenile is brought to intake. Intake personnel, juvenile judges, or prosecutors make the decision based on age or offense criteria. Most common form of waiver.


• Prosecutorial discretion occurs in states with concurrent jurisdiction statutes. These laws give prosecutors the authority to decide whether to try juveniles in juvenile or adult courts.


• Statutes exclude certain offenses from juvenile court, thereby automatically transferring perpetrators of those offenses to adult court.


• Other variations also exist. One variation is a state legislature lowering the age over which the juvenile court has jurisdiction.

• Some states automatically require certain crimes to be charged in adult court.


• Reverse Waiver and Blended Sentences– Reverse Waiver: Permits youths who are over the

maximum age of jurisdiction to be sent back to the juvenile court if the adult court believes the case is more appropriate for juvenile court jurisdiction.

– Blended Sentences: Permits the juvenile court judges at the disposition hearing in the delinquency court to impose both an adult and a juvenile sentence concurrently. Typically, if a youth satisfies the juvenile sentence, the adult sentence is waived.


3. What four conclusions may be drawn about the use of waiver?


• The number of waivers has recently decreased.• The juveniles waived to adult court often are not

the most serious and violent offenders.• Little consensus exists today on what the criteria

used for waiver ought to be.• Waiver generally does not result in more severe

penalties than would be received in juvenile court.


4. Identify some of the factors important in making the waiver to adult court decision.


Hints (pp. 172–173): Seriousness of offense Aggressiveness and violence of offense Offense against person or property Prosecutive merit Desirability of trial and disposition in same court

as adult accomplices Maturity of juvenile Juvenile’s previous record Protection of public


5. What is a youthful offender system?


• Youthful offender systems are set up by only a few states, but are special facilities developed to keep juveniles out of adult institutions.

• North Carolina established first youthful offender camps. Colorado, New Mexico, and Minnesota have transitional systems between juvenile and adult systems.

• Primarily for juveniles 16-17 years of age

• Emphasize work readiness, job training, and work experience.

• Stress continuity of care from program to integration back into the community.


6. Describe the prison experience for juveniles put in adult prisons.


Hints (pp. 176–178): Think what it would be like to be a juvenile in an

adult institution. What kinds of pressures would be put on you? How safe would you be? What would be the cultural norms in prison? How effective would staff be in protecting you?


• Juveniles in adult prisons– The Washington state Model:

• Passed bill in 1997 defining jurisdiction, custody, and management requirements for juvenile offenders.

• Outlines housing and education requirements for youthful offenders within DOC.

– Housing must be separate from adult offenders.

– Offender may be housed in an intensive management unit for their safety.

– Education program must be provided that allows an offender to obtain a high school diploma or its equivalent.


7. Discuss current issues in the debate over whether juveniles should receive the death penalty.


Hints (pp. 178–181): Supreme Court rulings

• Gregg v. Georgia: Ruled that the death penalty did not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Stipulated that states had to take into account special characteristics of the offender, such as age and circumstances of the crime.

• Other cases ruled that mitigating circumstances had to be considered in death penalty cases.

• Eddings v.Oklahoma: Chronological age of the offender is a relevant mitigating factor.


• Thompson v. Oklahoma: Ruled that Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibited the execution of someone under the age of sixteen at the time of their offense.

• Atkins v. Virginia : The court ruled that mental retardation was a relevant mitigating circumstance.

• Roper v. Simmons: On March 1, 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that no juveniles who committed their crimes under the age of eighteen could be executed.


Conservative positions• At the time the Constitution was written, common law allowed for

the execution of anyone seven or older.

• Movements away from the strict wording of the Constitution should only be made when a strong consensus exists and society supports the change.

• Juries have the ability to weight the affect of mitigating circumstances.

• Setting an age of 18 is arbitrary.

• Punishment should fit the crime.


Liberal positions• It is widely agreed that juveniles under the age of 18 have not fully

developed character.

• Effects of childhood development affect later personality development.

• Youths either will not or cannot understand the consequences of their actions or the punishments they receive to the same degree as adults.

• A national consensus has developed against the juvenile death penalty.

• Juveniles were rarely executed in the first place.

• The “evolving standards of decency” and the mark of a “civilized society” call for the abolition of the death penalty.


Number of juveniles executed• Between 1880 and the mid 1920’s, the United States averaged 20-

27 executions per year about 2.3 percent of the total.

• The peak period for executions was in the 1940’s, when juvenile executions represented 4.1 percent of the total.

Which states are most likely to execute juveniles? Why?• Georgia leads all states with juvenile executions at 41

• Ohio and North Carolina are tied at 19

• 14 states have never executed a juvenile.

Juvenile culpability and maturity


8. Should the United States follow international practice and not execute juveniles? Why or why not?


Hints (pp. 180–181): Morality of U.S. position World opinion of U.S. Number of nations on side of U.S• The U.S. was 1 of 2 countries that officially permitted

the execution of juveniles.

Right of U.S. to be autonomous


9. What are the arguments for and against a proposed adult court for juveniles?


Barry Feld• Abolish juvenile court system

• Establish rational sentences that differ and are more lenient that adult sentences.

• Provide juveniles with additional procedural safeguards and provide same due process rights as adults.

• Proposes providing youths with categorical fractional reductions of adult sentences. The youth discount.

• Abolishing juvenile court would eliminate need for waiver hearings.

• States should maintain separate age-segregated youth correctional facilities.


• Drawbacks to sending juveniles to adult court – Irene Rosenberg argues that the differences in procedural and

constitutional safeguards in not significant enough to abolish the juvenile court system.

– If children are tried in the criminal courts, will their immaturity and vulnerability be taken into account adequately in assessing culpability and determining sentencing?

– Finally, after the burst of concern for juvenile defendants, would the criminal courts revert back treadmill process of adults and juveniles.

Documents

Juvenile Justice in America, 5 th Edition ©2008 Pearson Education, Inc. Bartollas/Miller Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Chapter 7: