Established a separate/shadow/parallel justice

system for juveniles under the parens patriae

philosophy (Child Saver Movement – 1899):
Laws (status offenses)
Police (youth aid divisions/truant officers)
Courts (hearings and adjudications; In re; sealed
records)
Corrections:
* Juvenile “prisons”/training schools
* Juvenile probation
* Juvenile parole
 We struggle to deal with misbehaving youth, and
youth do misbehave.
 There is a crime-bulge; crime is an age-specific
phenomenon (16-25).
 Limited preventative and curative capabilities,
and justice intervention tends to make it worse.
 Takes a community raise a child, but sometimes
even the communities fail.
 There are violent youth “out there,” but also
amazing “tunnelers” who defy the odds.
The children today love luxury. They show
bad manners, contempt for authority, they
show disrespect for elders and love chatter
in place of exercise. They no longer rise
when their elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents and tyrannize their
teachers.
Socrates
 Steady even reduced crime/delinquency rates in
some realms

 Violent youth-based crime surges in others:

 Past feeling (Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc)
 Oppositional culture of the streets/Code of the Streets
 Cross-racial nationwide gang activity:
* 27,000 gangs/800,000 core members (not all juvys)
* Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, MS-13
 Protect society (macro; present tense)
 Arrest
 Prosecute
 Incarcerate

 The interest of the child (micro; future tense)

 Halfway houses
 Attention Centers
 Counseling
 Volunteer programs
 Parens Patriae orientation/non-criminal procedures
 Status Offenses (laws that apply only to juveniles to help them)
 Juvenile/Youth-based police bureaus
 Juvenile Court
 Hearing v Trial
 Adjudicated v Convicted
 Sealed juvy court records

 Juvenile “training schools” (not prisons)

 Juvenile Probation and Parole
 Treatment is in the best interest of the child (future tense, micro
perspective)
 Formerly until 21 years old
 Currently, until the 18th birthday
 Minimum age is generally 8
 Juveniles can be tried in adult courts:
 Every state has different rules/procedures
 Most states have a minimum age to move a case
to adult court, some don’t
 Relatively rare occurrence (7,500/year or
about .3% of the cases sent to adult court)
There are some sentencing restrictions in place when a
Juvenile is moved into adult court:

Roper v. Simmons – the death penalty cannot be imposed

on those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the
offense

Miller v. Alabama – no sentence of mandatory life

without parole can be handed down for those who were
under the age of 18 at the time of the offense
In re Gault: juvenile court proceedings must possess the
elements of basic fundamental fairness; juveniles have
the right:
 to a proper hearing
 to advance notification of that hearing and its purpose
 to be present at the hearing
 to confront/cross examine the accuser
 to be represented by legal counsel at the hearing
 to present evidence
 against self-incrimination
 to a formal ruling based on information presented in court
 to an appeal
 In re Winship:  the standard proof in a juvenile
court adjudication is beyond a reasonable
doubt
 McKeiver v Pennsylvania: there is no right to a
jury trial for juveniles being adjudicated in
juvenile court
 Seriousness of the offense
 Prior record
 Demeanor (significant factor)
 Social class
 Basic demographics:
 Age
 Race
 Gender
 Wolfgang – cohort of 10,000 boys born in
Philadelphia in 1945:
 1/3 moderate levels of delinquency
 6% responsible for ½ of the crimes and 2/3 of the violent
crime
 Current research:
 6 to 10 % are persistent life course offenders
 50% moderate levels (sporadic youthful ventures)
 90% mild levels

 Why the persistence, why the desistence?

 Lack legitimate roles (anomie principle)
 Non-conformity
 Peer pressure (Johnson study)
 Lack of self control
 Biological factors
 Educational disparity
 Blank time issues
 Entertainment industry exposure
 Poverty
 Insufficient positive family impacts:
 Parental indifference
 Parental violence
 Single parent homes
 Blank time (again)
 Oppositional culture of the streets
 Chance game
 Immigration dynamics
1. Individual factors - low intelligence, low employability coefficient,
poor school performance, limited involvement in positive
extracurricular activities, hyperactivity,
impulsiveness and risk taking, early antisocial behavior (including
aggression and bullying), few bonds to conventional society
(friends, girlfriends, parents, teachers, ministers, coaches).
2. Family factors - poor parental supervision, harsh and/or
inconsistent discipline, physical abuse, child neglect, low parental
involvement, parental conflict, broken/divorced families, single
parent families, criminal parents, delinquent siblings.
3. Socio-economic factors - low family income, lack of
roots/stability (high mobility coefficient), rent vs. own home, high
aggregate socio-economic inequity coefficient in the
community, limited opportunity structures
4. Peer factors - delinquent peers, peer rejection,
low popularity
5. Neighborhood factors - high crime
neighborhoods, high delinquency/high crime
schools, high aggregate socio-economic
inequity coefficient in the community, limited
community-wide opportunity structures
6. Biological factors - poor nutrition, hormonal
imbalance
Decrease the impacts of the risk factors
while simultaneously increasing the
impacts of the protective factors in all of
these areas (bonds to conventional society,
extracurricular involvement, improve
academics, improve nutrition, improve
parenting, provide opportunities, reduce the
aggregate socio-economic inequity
coefficient), and the seriousness of crime
will be reduced/diminished in the
aggregate. See Monster by Cody Scott.
 Increased socio-economic opportunity structures
 Blue-page policing
 Transform juvenile prisons truly into education and
training centers (with an employment focus)
 Increase support for Project Head Start
 Increase support for Outward Bound-type programs:
 Develops confidence, self-assurance, teamwork,
selflessness
 Expensive, some discrimination issues,
transferability concerns
 Do NOT adopt Scared Straight programs
 Diet/nutrition/bio-criminological interventions
 Self sentencing
 Volunteer programs
 No mixed incarceration
 Youth oriented public relations law enforcement
officer programs (Officer Friendly)
 Greater use of social service-oriented probation

 Greater use of Community Courts/Teen Courts

(victim-offender mediation modeling)
 Curfews are ineffective and are empirically invalid
 Bus ticket model (not a “reform” but done often)
1. Internal conversion of the treated (fertile ground)

2. Good program (good seed)

3. Proper timing (palatable environment/plant in the Spring)

4. Capable program personnel

(knowledgeable and skilled farmer)

5. Dedicated and persistent program personnel

(hard working farmer)

If any one of these is missing, the program fails/the crops fail.

Ultimate answers lie outside the justice system (religion,
schools, families)

Justice systems are designed to buy time, not to serve as

the foundations of a society:
- more is being asked of the justice system than it
was designed to do, and it is swaying under that
weight
- the justice system, which is poorly designed,
functions as well as it does due to the diligence
and dedication of the professionals who fill its ranks
The key in this struggle is dedication and persistence.
Things are hopeless, but we must be determined to make
it otherwise, with dedication and persistence

Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of

persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common
than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not.
Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone
will not. The world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence is singularly omnipotent.