Juvenile Justice C1

Question 1

Adjudication

Answer 1

Judgement or action on a petition filed with the juvenile court.

Question 2

Adjudication hearing, adjudicatory hearing

Answer 2

Formal proceeding involving a prosecuting attorney and a defense attorney in which evidence is presented and the juvenile’s involvement is determined by the juvenile judge; about one-fifth of all jurisdictions permit jury trials for juveniles under certain circumstances.

Question 3

Adversarial Proceedings

Answer 3

opponent-driven court litigation in which one side opposes the other; prosecution seeks to convict or find defendants guilty, while defense counsel seeks to defend their clients and seek their acquittal.

Question 4

Aftercare

Answer 4

Describes wide variety of programs and services available to juvenile offenders; includes halfway houses, psychological counseling services, employment assistance, and medical treatment designed to assist youth released from residential placement and ease their integration back into society.

Question 5

Beyond a reasonable doubt

Answer 5

Evidentiary standard used in criminal courts to establish guilt and innocence of criminal defendant and utilized in delinquency proceedings.

Question 6

Conditional dispositions

Answer 6

Results of a delinquency adjudication that obligate youth to comply once or more conditions of a probation program, such as reinstitution, community service, work-study, therapy, educational participation, or victim compensation.

Question 7

Convictions

Answer 7

Judgements of a court, based on a jury or judicial verdict of on the guilty pleas of defendants, that the defendants are guilty of the offenses alleged.

Question 8

Court Reporters

Answer 8

Court officials who keep a written word-for-word and/or tape-recorded record of court proceedings.

Question 9

Courts of Record

Answer 9

Courts in which a written record is kept of court proceedings.

Question 10

Criminal Justice

Answer 10

An interdisciplinary field studying the nature and operations of organizations providing justice services to society; consists of lawmaking bodies, including state legislatures and congress, as well as local, state, and federal agencies that try to enforce the law.

Question 11

Curfew Violators

Answer 11

Youth who violate laws and ordinances of communities prohibiting them from being on the streets after certain evening hours, such as 10:00pm; curfew itself is a delinquency prevention strategy.

Question 12

Deinstitutionalization of status offenses

Answer 12

Eliminating status offenses from the broad category of delinquent acts and removing juveniles from or precluding their confinement in juvenile correction facilities; the process of removing status offenses from the jurisdiction of juvenile court so that the status offenders cannot be subject to secure confinement.

Question 13

Dependent and neglected children

Answer 13

Youth considered by social services or the juvenile court to be in need of some type of intervention, supervision, or placement due to circumstances in their homes or families that are beyond their control.

Question 14

Dispose

Answer 14

To decide the sanction to be imposed on a juvenile following an adjudication hearing.

Question 15

Dispositions

Answer 15

Sanction resulting from a delinquency adjudication; may be nominal, custodial, or conditional.

Question 16

Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC)

Answer 16

Refers to the number and percentage of minority youth in correctional custodial institutions (e.g. detention centers, residential facilities, and juvenile secure placements); the rate of confinement for youth in these correctional environments exceeds their representation in the general youth population; in amendments to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, Congress directed states to gather data and attempt to address this disproportionality.

Question 17

Get Tough Movement

Answer 17

View toward criminals and delinquents that favors harsh punishment and penalties for crimes or delinquent acts; any act toward strengthening or toughening sentencing provisions or dispositions that invaded adults or juveniles.

Question 18

Hard time

Answer 18

Also known as flat time. The actual period of secure confinement juveniles must serve as a result of a custodial disposition from a juvenile court judge.

Question 19

Intake

Answer 19

Critical phase in which a determination is made by a juvenile probation officer or other official to release juveniles, detain juveniles in formal detention facilities for a later court appearance, or to release them to parents, pending a later court appearance.

Question 20

Intake Hearings

Answer 20

Proceedings in which a juvenile court professional, such as a juvenile probation officer, conducts an interview with a youth charged with a delinquent or status offense and his/her parents or guardian to determine the best strategy for dealing with the behavior that resulted in the referral to court.

Question 21

Intake officers

Answer 21

Juvenile probation officer or other court representative who conducts screenings and preliminary interviews with alleged juvenile offenders and their families.

Question 22

Juvenile Delinquency

Answer 22

Violation of the law by a person; violation of the law by any youth which is handled by juvenile courts; by juvenile court jurisdiction; whatever the juvenile court believes should be brought within its jurisdiction; violation of any state or local law or ordinance by anyone who has not yet achieved the age of their majority.

Question 23

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974

Answer 23

(JJDPA) Legislation recommending various alternatives to incarcerating youth; including deinstitutionalization of status offenders, removal of youth from secure confinement, and other prevention strategies and rehabilitative treatments.

Question 24

Jails

Answer 24

City or county operated and financed facilities to contain offenders who are serving short sentences; jails are also house more serious prisoners from state or federal prisons through contracts to alleviate overcrowding; jails also house pretrial detainees, witnesses, juveniles, vagrants, and others.

Question 25

Jurisdiction

Answer 25

Power of a court to hear and determine a particular type of case; territory within which a court may exercise authority, such as a city, country, or state.

Question 26

Jail Removal Initiative

Answer 26

Action sponsored by the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention and called for in the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act of 1974to dissuade law enforcement officers from taking juveniles to jail.

Question 27

Juvenile Delinquent, Delinquent Child

Answer 27

Anyone, who under the age or majority, has committed one or more acts that would be crimes if adults committed them,

Question 28

Custodial Dispositions

Answer 28

Either nonsecure or secure options resulting from a delinquency adjudication, which involve placement in a group home, ranch, camp, or juvenile residential institution.

Question 29

Deinstitutionalization

Answer 29

Mandate that was part of the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act of 1974 requiring states to remove youth who had been placed in detention or other custodial institutions for their involvement in status offenses (e.g. running away, truancy, and curfew violations)

Question 30

Disproportionate Minority Contact

Answer 30

In 2002, Congress amended the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act of 1974 to require states to gather data on minority youth who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system; and to determine if the contact data commensurate with minority representation in the general youth population; rather than focusing only on youth in confinement, this reflects contacts with youth at all stages of the juvenile justice processing.

Question 31

Juvenile justice system

Answer 31

stages through which juveniles are processed, sanctioned, and treated after referrals for juvenile delinquency.

Question 32

Juvenile offenders

Answer 32

children or youth who have violated laws or engaged in behaviors that are known as status offenses.

Question 33

Law enforcement agencies

Answer 33

any organization with the purpose of enforcing criminal laws; the activities of various public or private agencies at local, state, or federal levels that are designed to ensure compliance with the formal rules of society that regulate social contact.

Question 34

Lockups

Answer 34

small rooms or cells designed for confining arrested adults and/or juveniles for short periods, such as 24 hours or less.

Question 35

net-widening

Answer 35

Bringing juveniles into the juveniles justice system who would not otherwise be referred for delinquent activity; applies to many status offenders; also know as widening the net.

Question 36

nominal dispositions

Answer 36

Pre-adjudicatory or adjudication disposition resulting in minor sanctions, such as warning,

Question 37

Nonsecure confinement\ custody

Answer 37

Custodial disposition in which a juvenile is placed in a group home, foster care, or other nonsecure residential setting where he or she is permitted to leave with permission of parents, guardians, or supervisors.

Question 38

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Answer 38

(OJJDP) Agency established by Congress under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974; fund research, assists states, and disseminates data and information of the juvenile prevention initiatives and treatment programs.

Question 39

Paren Patriae

Answer 39

Literally “parent of the country”; refers to doctrine in which the state oversees the welfare of youth; originally established by the King of England and administered through chancellors.

Question 40

Petition

Answer 40

official document filed in juvenile courts on juvenile’s behalf, specifying reasons for the youth’s appearance; document asserts that juveniles fall withing the categories of dependent or neglected, status offender, or delinquent; the reasons for such assertion are usually provided.

Question 41

Preponderance of Evidence

Answer 41

Standard used in civil courts to determine defendant or plaintiff liability in which the result does not involve incarceration.

Question 42

Pretrial Detention

Answer 42

Holding delinquent or criminal suspects in incarcerative facilities pending their fforthcoming adjudication hearing or trial.

Question 43

Preventative detention, preventative pretrial detention

Answer 43

Authority to detain suspects before trial without bail when suspects are likely to flee from the jurisdiction or pose serious risk to others.

Question 44

Pretrial detention

Answer 44

Holding delinquent or criminal suspects in incarcerated facilities pending their forthcoming adjudicatory hearing or trial.

Question 45

Prosecution and the courts

Answer 45

organizations and professionals that pursue cases against juvenile offenders and determine whether they are involved in the offenses alleged.

Question 46

referrals

Answer 46

Any action which involves bringing a youth to the juvenile court by a law enforcement officer, interested citizen, family member, or school official; usually based upon law violations, delinquency, dependency, or unruly conduct.

Question 47

relabeling

Answer 47

Action, usually taken by a police officers, of redefining juvenile acts as delinquent when such acts are status offenses; result is harsher treatment by police of arrested juveniles.

Question 48

restorative justice

Answer 48

mediation between victims and offenders whereby offenders accept responsibility for their actions and agree to reimburse victims for their losses; may community service and other penalties agreeable to both parties in a form of arbitration with a neutral third party acting as arbiter.

Question 49

runaways

Answer 49

Juveniles who leave their home for long periods without parental consent or supervision.

Question 50

screening

Answer 50

Procedure used by intake and prosecution to define which cases have prosecutive merit and which is not; some screening bureaus are made up of police and lawyers with trial experience. Decision is made to divert cases from the court to their agencies and organization or to continue to pursue formal proceeding.

Question 51

secure custody, secure confinement

Answer 51

incarceration of juvenile offenders in a facility that restricts movement in the community; similar to adult facility involving incarceration.

Question 52

standard of proof

Answer 52

Norms used by court to determine validity of claims or allegations of wrongdoing against offenders; civil standards of proof are clear and convincing evidence and preponderance of evidence, which criminal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.

Question 53

status offenses

Answer 53

Any act committed by a minor that would not be a crime if committed by an adult. (e.g. truancy, runaway, or unruly behavior)

Question 54

stigmas, stigmatization

Answer 54

social process whereby offenders are perceived as having undesirable characteristics as the result of incarceration or court appearances; criminal or delinquent labels are assigned to those who are processed through the criminal and juvenile justice system.

Question 55

Truants

Answer 55

Juveniles who are habitually absent from school without excuse.

Question 56

Taken into custody

Answer 56

A decision made by a police officer that a youth should be held temporarily.