The document summarizes the historical development of the juvenile justice system in the United States. It describes how the first institutions for youth in the early 19th century aimed to reform children through hard work and religious training. The first juvenile court was established in 1899 in Illinois based on the philosophy of parens patriae, which justified state intervention in children's lives. The 1967 Gault case gave juveniles some due process rights, shifting the court's focus from rehabilitation to punishment. The formal juvenile justice process typically involves police referrals, intake screening, detention, adjudication, and a range of disposition options such as probation, community services, and residential placements.

1. Chapter 13
Juvenile Justice

2. Historical Development of
Juvenile Justice
From a historical perspective, juvenile
delinquency and a separate justice process for
juveniles are recent concepts.

3. juvenile delinquency
A special category of offense created for youths—
that is, in most U.S. jurisdictions, persons between
the ages of 7 and 18.

4. The Development of
Institutions for Youth
In the beginning of the 19th century, American
cities were seeing tremendous growth,
particularly because of immigration and, in later
years, industrialization.

5. The Houses of Refuge
Houses of refuge were designed to be
institutions where children could be reformed
and turned into hard-working members of the
community.
A child could be committed to a house of
refuge by a constable, by a parent, or on the
order of a city alderman.

6. houses of refuge
The first specialized correctional institutions for
youths in the United States.

7. The Houses of Refuge
Children in houses of refuge engaged in a daily
regimen of hard work, military drills, and
enforced silence, as well as religious and
academic training.
After “reformation,” boys were frequently
indentured to masters on farms or to tradesmen,
and girls were placed in domestic service.

8. Probation
Boston shoemaker John Augustus, the “father
of probation,” volunteered in 1841 to provide
bail for and to supervise minor offenders.

9. The Development of the
Juvenile Court
During the late 1800s, a new groups of
reformers, the child savers, began to advocate
a new institution to deal with youth problems:
The juvenile court.

10. The Legal Context of the
Juvenile Court
By the late 1800s, legal mechanisms for
treating children differently and separately
from adults were being put in place.
The first juvenile court was established in
1899 in Cook County Illinois

11. The Legal Context of the
Juvenile Court
• The doctrine of parens patriae served as
the foundation for the juvenile court

12. parens patriae
The legal philosophy justifying state intervention in
the lives of children when their parents are unable or
unwilling to protect them.

13. The Legal Reform Years:
In re Gault
In the landmark case, In re Gault (1967), the
U.S. Supreme Court gave juveniles a number
of due process protections:
• The right against self-incrimination
• A right to adequate notice of charges against them
• A right to confront and to cross-examine their
accusers
continued…

14. The Legal Reform Years:
In re Gault
• The right to assistance of counsel
• The right to sworn testimony and appeal

15. The Legal Reform Years:
The Juvenile Court After Gault
The court’s ruling in Gault and other cases
not only increased procedural formality in
juvenile court cases, but also shifted the
traditional focus from the “whole child” to the
child’s act.
From there, it was a short step to offensebased sentencing and punitive orientation.

16. The Legal Reform Years:
The Juvenile Court After Gault
Juvenile court procedures are still
characterized by an informality that most
people would find unacceptable if it were
applied to adults in criminal court.

17. The Formal Juvenile Justice
Process
The police represent the primary gatekeepers
to the formal juvenile justice process.
• 85 percent of delinquency cases referred to
the juvenile courts come from police
agencies.
• Status offenses are often referred by others.

18. status offenses
Acts that are not crimes when committed by adults
but are illegal for children (for example, truancy or
running away from home).

19. The Police Response to Juveniles
Typical responses that police officers employ
in handling juvenile cases are:
• Warn and release
• Refer to parents
• Refer to a diversionary program operated by
the police or another community agency
• Refer to court

20. Trends in Police Processing of
Juveniles
In recent years, there has been a trend toward
more formal processing of juveniles taken into
police custody, particularly:
• Referring more youths to juvenile court
• Handling fewer cases within police
departments
• Referring more cases to criminal courts

21. Diversion
The goal of juvenile diversion programs is to
respond to youths in ways that avoid formal
juvenile justice processing.
Diversion usually occurs before adjudication.

22. Diversion
Diversion programs are based on the
understanding that formal responses to youths
who violate the law do not always protect the
best interests of children or the community.

23. Detention
Sometimes a youth is held in secure detention
facility during processing. There are three
primary reasons for this practice:
1. To protect the community from the
juveniles
2. To ensure that the juvenile appears at a
subsequent stage of processing
3. To secure the juvenile’s own safety

24. Intake Screening
When the decision to arrest a youth is made,
or a social agency such as a school alleges
that an offense has occurred, the next step in
the juvenile justice process is intake
screening.

25. intake screening
The process by which decisions are made about the
continued processing of juvenile cases. Decisions
might include dismissing the case, referring the youth
to a diversion program, or filing a petition.

26. Transfer, Waiver, or
Certification to Criminal Court
Since the early days of the juvenile court,
state legislatures have given juvenile court
judges statutory authority to transfer certain
juvenile offenders to criminal court.

27. transfer
The act or process by which juveniles who meet
specific age, offense, and (in some jurisdictions)
prior-record criteria are transferred to criminal court
for trial; sometimes called waiver or certification.

28. The Adjudication Hearing
When a petition is filed at intake and the case
is not transferred to criminal court, the next
step is adjudication. Preliminary steps
include: a petition
• Filing
•
•
Setting a hearing date
Notifying the necessary parties—the youth,
the parents, and witnesses

29. The Adjudication Hearing
When charges specified in the petition are
contested by a juvenile and the juvenile is
represented by an attorney, another critical
event often takes place before adjudication:
•
a plea bargain

30. The Adjudication Hearing
There are two types of adjudications:
Contested
Similar to a trial.
Usually a bench
adjudication, not a
jury trial
Uncontested
A brief hearing in
which the youth
admits the charges.

31. Disposition
Disposition is the juvenile court equivalent of
sentencing in criminal court.
Disposition
An order of the court specifying what is to be done
with a juvenile who has been adjudicated delinquent.
A disposition hearing is similar to a sentencing
hearing in criminal court.

32. Disposition
Some of the options available are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Probation
Placement in a diversion program
Restitution
Community service
Detention
Placement in foster care
continued…

33. Disposition
• Placement in a long-term or short-term
residential treatment program
• Placement with a relative
• Placement with the state for commitment to
a state facility
• Or a combination of the above

34. Disposition
Because of recent heightened concerns about
violent juvenile offenders, many states have
legislatively redefined the juvenile court’s
mission by deemphasizing the goal of
rehabilitation and stressing the need for public
safety, punishment, and accountability.

35. Disposition
The philosophical focus has also changed
from offender-based dispositions to offensebased dispositions, including:
• Blended sentences—both juvenile and adult
sanctions
• Mandatory minimum sentences for specific types
of offenders
• Extension of juvenile court dispositions beyond
the offender’s age of majority

36. Probation
Probation is the most frequently used
correctional response for youths who are
adjudicated delinquent in juvenile courts.

37. Probation
Probation officers usually perform four
important roles in the juvenile justice process:
•
•
•
•
Performing the intake screening
Conducting presentence investigations
Supervising offenders
Providing assistance to youths placed on
probation

38. Probation
A recent trend in juvenile probation is the
development of intensive-supervision
(probation) programs, which in some
jurisdictions involve home confinement.

39. Restitution
In practice, there are three types of restitution:
• Monetary restitution—The youth pays cash
to the victim for harm done.
• Victim-service restitution—The youth
provides some service to the victim.
• Community-service restitution—The youth
provides assistance to a community
organization.

40. Wilderness Probation (Outdoor
Adventure) Programs
Wilderness probation programs involve
youths in a physically and sometimes
emotionally challenging outdoor experience
intended to help them:
• Develop confidence in themselves
• Learn to accept responsibility for themselves and others
• Develop a relationship of trust with program staff

41. Day Treatment Programs
Day treatment programs provide treatment or
services during the day and allow youths to
return home at night.
It is believed that they are:
• Cost-effective
• Effective at protecting the community
• Can provide a range of services

42. Foster Homes
Foster homes are out-of-home placements
intended to resemble, as much as possible, a
family setting. It is usually used by a court when
a youth’s home life has been particularly chaotic
or harmful.

43. Group Homes
Group homes are open, nonsecure
community-based facilities used either as an
alternative to incarceration or to help youths
transition to home.
Group homes are generally larger than foster
homes, less impersonal than institutions, and
less expensive than institutional placements.

44. Juvenile Correctional Institutions
Institutional programs are the most restrictive
placements available to juvenile courts.
However, juvenile institutions vary in the
extent to which they focus on custody and
control.

45. Juvenile Correctional Institutions
Secure facilities employ:
• perimeter fencing
• barbed wire
• surveillance devices
• monitoring of residents’
movements
• restricting residents’
access to the community
Open facilities:
• have no perimeter
fencing
• Leave entrances and
exits unlocked
• rely heavily on staff

46. Juvenile Correctional Institutions
Juvenile correctional institutions vary:
• Some are public, some are private
• Many are small—40 residents—some house as
many as 800 residents
• Some are co-ed
• Detention centers and diagnostic centers are
designed for short-term stays
continued…

47. Juvenile Correctional Institutions
• Farms, ranches, forestry camps, and trainings
schools are for long-term placements
• Types of programming and quality of care