Juvenile Justice C1 Flashcards
Vocab memorization
Adjudication
Judgement or action on a petition filed with the juvenile court.
Adjudication hearing, adjudicatory hearing
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.
Adversarial Proceedings
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.
Aftercare
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.
Beyond a reasonable doubt
Evidentiary standard used in criminal courts to establish guilt and innocence of criminal defendant and utilized in delinquency proceedings.
Conditional dispositions
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.
Convictions
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.
Court Reporters
Court officials who keep a written word-for-word and/or tape-recorded record of court proceedings.
Courts of Record
Courts in which a written record is kept of court proceedings.
Criminal Justice
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.
Curfew Violators
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.
Deinstitutionalization of status offenses
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.
Dependent and neglected children
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.
Dispose
To decide the sanction to be imposed on a juvenile following an adjudication hearing.
Dispositions
Sanction resulting from a delinquency adjudication; may be nominal, custodial, or conditional.
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC)
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.
Get Tough Movement
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.
Hard time
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.
Intake
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.
Intake Hearings
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.
Intake officers
Juvenile probation officer or other court representative who conducts screenings and preliminary interviews with alleged juvenile offenders and their families.
Juvenile Delinquency
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.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974
(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.
Jails
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.
Jurisdiction
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.
Jail Removal Initiative
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.
Juvenile Delinquent, Delinquent Child
Anyone, who under the age or majority, has committed one or more acts that would be crimes if adults committed them,
Custodial Dispositions
Either nonsecure or secure options resulting from a delinquency adjudication, which involve placement in a group home, ranch, camp, or juvenile residential institution.
Deinstitutionalization
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)
Disproportionate Minority Contact
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.
Juvenile justice system
stages through which juveniles are processed, sanctioned, and treated after referrals for juvenile delinquency.
Juvenile offenders
children or youth who have violated laws or engaged in behaviors that are known as status offenses.
Law enforcement agencies
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.
Lockups
small rooms or cells designed for confining arrested adults and/or juveniles for short periods, such as 24 hours or less.
net-widening
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.
nominal dispositions
Pre-adjudicatory or adjudication disposition resulting in minor sanctions, such as warning,
Nonsecure confinement\ custody
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.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(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.
Paren Patriae
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.
Petition
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.
Preponderance of Evidence
Standard used in civil courts to determine defendant or plaintiff liability in which the result does not involve incarceration.
Pretrial Detention
Holding delinquent or criminal suspects in incarcerative facilities pending their fforthcoming adjudication hearing or trial.
Preventative detention, preventative pretrial detention
Authority to detain suspects before trial without bail when suspects are likely to flee from the jurisdiction or pose serious risk to others.
Pretrial detention
Holding delinquent or criminal suspects in incarcerated facilities pending their forthcoming adjudicatory hearing or trial.
Prosecution and the courts
organizations and professionals that pursue cases against juvenile offenders and determine whether they are involved in the offenses alleged.
referrals
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.
relabeling
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.
restorative justice
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.
runaways
Juveniles who leave their home for long periods without parental consent or supervision.
screening
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.
secure custody, secure confinement
incarceration of juvenile offenders in a facility that restricts movement in the community; similar to adult facility involving incarceration.
standard of proof
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.
status offenses
Any act committed by a minor that would not be a crime if committed by an adult. (e.g. truancy, runaway, or unruly behavior)
stigmas, stigmatization
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.
Truants
Juveniles who are habitually absent from school without excuse.
Taken into custody
A decision made by a police officer that a youth should be held temporarily.
