The juvenile justice system has made many changes since it was first developed in 1899. Courts put much more emphasis on the rehabilitation and intervention aspect than today where all we try to do is punish and hold someone accountable. There was also much more anonymity to prevent children from being seen as criminals that do not contribute anything to society except for chaos. Nowadays journalists will take anything they can get and run with it, even if it includes children who are under the age of 18. Children are being tried as if they are adults now which is unfair.
One difference between adults and children is the degree to which they can take responsibility for their actions. The death penalty is still active for individuals who committed crimes while they were still juveniles. The article by Merlo et al (1999) stated that there was even a man who was executed for the crimes that he committed while he was only 16 years old. This would not have happened back in the early 1900s. A major contributor to this shift was the fact that juvenile crime rates went up and up until its peak in 1994. There were so many children committing crimes during this point that the government had no choice but to increase the punishments and consequences for delinquent activity in hopes of deterring this type of activity. As the years go by, juvenile court is starting to become more and more like adult court.
The supreme Court also had a lot to do with why the juvenile justice system has transformed so much since the early 1900s. One of their most influential contributions was their decision of In Re Gualt in 1967. This basically stated that juveniles who are accused of crimes are entitled to the same rights as adults such as witness testimonies and the right to counsel. This allows children to state their side of the story and confront their accusers for a more fair trial. Before this, children were simply prosecuted for their crimes without being able to fight it. Another thing that contributed to the new movement was the get-tough reform. During the 1980s, more and more children were sentenced to adult jails and prisons. This was a strong indicator that juveniles are now being sentenced for punishment instead of rehabilitation. Children as young as 14 are being placed in adult prisons which can be a traumatizing experience for a child. This strips them of their youth and forces them to become adults before they are even able to attain a drivers license. Also, because developing children require interaction with other people, they are being forced to spend time in general population which allows them to socialize with hardened criminals. The article by Ziedenberg and Schiraldi (1999) claims that these children are “Eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to report being raped and sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to report being beaten by prison staff.” These all can happen because these children are so young and weak compared to most of the inmates in these facilities that they are physically unable to defend themselves. All of these are reasons why children become criminals themselves and in turn, end up going back to prison later in life which goes against the whole reason the get-tough reform was created in the first place.
Overall the juvenile justice system has gone from a rehabilitation form to a more punitive and harsh punishment system. There have been many changes through the course of it’s history including the due process wave and the get tough wave. There have been many advancements during this transformation but also many negative effects. For example, there are fewer incidents of juvenile crime but the forms of punishment are much harsher. Instead of going through programs that are meant to help the children, some are being sentenced to the death penalty for crimes they committed while they were still experiencing the effects of puberty. I believe that some of these changes should remain the same such as the In Re Gualt decision but I do not agree with the fact that many children are being put in prison with adults. I believe a better system would be to reduce the age of adulthood to 17 and anyone under should not be treated as an adult unless they commit an extremely heinous crime such as serial murder. The human mind does not finish developing until about 21 years old so it is not fair to infer that children who are 15 years old know what they are doing. Although they are able to establish wrong from right, they are not fully aware of how much damage they are doing and the seriousness of the consequences of their actions.
Originally published 15.10.2019