Juvenile justice consists of a wholly separate criminal law and procedure. In theory, this system of law and institutions, invented by progressive reformers at the turn of the 20th century, operates in the best interest of the child offender. Juvenile justice is meted out in juvenile or family court, not criminal court. The goal is not retribution or deterrence, but rehabilitation. The juvenile court's caseload includes children who have been abused and those whom parents or school authorities consider incorrigible.
The maximum age for processing an offender as a juvenile varies from 16 to 21 depending on the jurisdiction and, within a single jurisdiction, on the type of offense with which the offender is charged. Thus, there are statutes that permit (and in some cases mandate) treating a juvenile as an adult if the offense is a homicide or other serious crime of violence. Generally, in the juvenile justice system, the accused is treated more leniently than in the adult system even though the former provides fewer procedural rights.
In delinquency cases that reach the point of formal adjudication, the judge is required to make determinations of fact under standards that closely resemble those applicable to criminal prosecutions. The juvenile who is arrested is brought to a juvenile detention center, separate from the adult jail and typically administered by a specialized agency of local or county government. The juvenile has no right to bail. His/her pre-trial status depends solely upon a judge's determination of whether the juvenile should remain in custody pending trial to prevent flight or to protect the community from risk of the juvenile's commission of a future offense.
The juvenile defendant is not charged with a statutory offense, but with being delinquent. However, he/she is entitled to counsel and to a presumption of innocence. Juveniles have no right to trial by jury, but approximately one-quarter of the states have enacted statutes providing for a jury trial option in juvenile cases. The jury or judge must find the juvenile defendant to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In most states, the convicted juvenile offender must be released from the juvenile "reformatory" or correctional center upon reaching the age of 21. For most of the 20th century, juvenile criminal records were sealed. Now, they are commonly available to police, prosecutors and judges in adult court. These days, there is a great deal of juvenile justice law reform, mostly in the direction of treating juvenile offenders more severely and more like adult offenders.
James B. Jacobs
