juvenile corrections

Question 1

function of the juvenile court

Answer 1

• enforcing modern concept of childhood
• acting as a surrogate for family and school: where parents fail, court takes over
• preventing delinquency
• decriminalizing juvenile lawbreaking
• rehabilitating juveniles

Question 2

who does juvenile court have jurisdiction over

Answer 2

• delinquent children
• status offenders
• neglected children
• dependent children

Question 3

intake

Answer 3

• the first stage of the juvenile court process
• when the court first receives the police referral
• at this stage a probation office conducts an intake screening- diagnostic assessment of a Childs social conditions and determine if case should be dismissed, go to court, or be handled informally
• decide whether to waive juvenile to adult court
• also determine whether the child should be detained prior to trial (default is not to hold child unless parents are not fit to supervise)

Question 4

adjudication

Answer 4

• if a full court petition is filed by probation officer, next stage is the adjudication process- similar to trial
• instead of guilty or not guilty, judges considers whether the petition is “sustained” or “not sustained”
• early juvenile courts preferred to handle things informally- no lawyers present, try to get the child to confess and acknowledge what they did was wrong

Question 5

disposition

Answer 5

• if judge determines petition is sustained then next step is the disposition
• should the child be placed on probation or institutionalized? separated from parents or released to them?
• one major controversy of juvenile dispositions is the historic use of indeterminate sentences- can lead to lengthy sentences if in the “best interest” of the child

Question 6

at intake stages who are more likely to be detained pre trial

Answer 6

• have seen a slight increase in decisions to formally handle juvenile cases over last 15 years
• more serious offenses more likely to be handled formally
• age is not strongly related to intake decisions
• males more likely to be handled formally than females
• blacks more likely to be processed formally than whites and hispanics

Question 7

who is more likely to be sentenced to juvenile institutions?

Answer 7

• black and hispanic youth disproportionately detained
• detainment more likely for those 16 or older
• males more likely to be detained
• crimes against persons are more likely to result in detainment

Question 8

what are juvenile court waivers and how often are they used

Answer 8

• waiving to adult court is rare (only about 1% of cases are waived to adult court)
• the number of cases waived to adult court has decreased in the last 15 years
• however, proportion of cases waived for crimes against persons is now at an all time high
• those aged 16 years and older more likely to be waived to adult court
• males more likely to be waived to adult court
• blacks more likely to be waived to adult court than whites or hispanics
• research finds that individuals waived to adult court more likely to be rearrested in future compared to those processed in juvenile court

Question 9

what is probation and how often is it used

Answer 9

• the use of probation as a sentence has remained mostly stable over the last 15 years (65% of cases)
• those 15 years old and younger more likely to receive probation
• females more likely to receive probation than males
  -white more likely to receive probation than blacks or hispanics