Juvenile justice – Term Paper

Juvenile justice system essay

In any jurisdiction, there are laws or rules put in place to govern all the activities of the region. Going against the rules means a court process exposure, which will determine what will happen at the end of the day. These courts exist in two forms, juvenile court for children under 18 years, and the adult court. They operate differently in a manner that children’s court often provides for rehabilitation and education to the accused (the child) whereas the adult court resolves on punishments like jail terms, fines and other related sentences (Taylor, 2014). Suppose there is an incident of armed robbery and the suspects come from both the two denominations, various processes are likely to be applied which finally, will depict a great difference in the final court decisions.

The adult court system

Due to armed robbery and an adult reaches before the tribunal; he/she will pass through the following court processes until the judgment is passed. The arrest is the first process where a law application officer halts a person, and it is believed that the officer either was involved in the occurrence or was called after.

After that, there is an initial appearance where the robber appears before the judge, the mistake read, and various factors put into consideration. After that, there is a preliminary hearing. The judge hears testimonies from the witnesses and the accused is given a chance to defend himself/herself. Arraignment is the next stage where the person is scheduled for a trial. The prosecutor allows for hearings again from both the accused and accuser and the judge gives the general conviction where an appeal is authorized in case the conviction is not a death sentence. In this case, there is a possibility of even issuing a death sentence by the judge since it is a robbery case with evident arm weapons. If not so, there must be a huge penalty or failure to, imprisonment of very many years.

The juvenile court system

In the children’s court, the process seems different because the accused is an under 18 years. The process starts with the arrest. This is where the law enforcers decide where the victim will be punished or taken to other court procedures. After the youth is taken to court, he/she undergoes an informal hearing and character. The child is expected to join a rehabilitation center to help him/her change her behavior gradually after some time and have the positive view of life. But if the victim is not suitable for this, he/she is taken to the next stage, the formal hearing. Usually, juvenile cases are heard and solved in juvenile courts but such heavy cases like the armed robbery, the prosecutor may decide to take it to a criminal court. A delinquency petition is then formed to inform the judge of the claims against the teenager, and he is asked to hear and decide the case (Fradella, 2015). All the testimonies and witnesses including the officer who arrested the youth are expected to say something at this stage. This is done in a criminal court after the intake officer, or the prosecutor has sent a waiver petition. This will finally lead to other stages of prosecution and verdict given by the judge. In the case of an imprisonment statement, the juvenile is taken to a youths’ prison different from the standard adult one.

From the perspective of the defendant response guidelines, the adult court process and punishment is the most appropriate. It is evident that the victim participated in a robbery while armed. According to (Hahn, 2010 et al.), the juvenile court process tends to cover much the victim in the name of the victim being young, yet at that age, the victim can cause a destruction as that resulting from the adult. It is necessary, therefore that a stern, similar and appropriate action be taken to criminals regardless of the age to make them learn and be a lesson to the remaining who may attempt to join the victim’s school of thought.

Conclusion

Concisely, the court process is not equal due to consideration of various factors majorly age. This is an advantage to youth offenders since the law tends to be slightly soft on them giving them different options to enable them to retract and rejoin the healthy direction. This sounds contrary to that of the adults.