Running head: THE RAMAYANA AND SEI SHONAGON 1 Running Head: JUVENILE SYSTEM 4 Tommy K. Bush Sr. CJ 3325 Juvenile Justice Dr. Oliver November 28, 2013 Abstract In America, it is noted that the American justice system dealing with juveniles has developed over the past century. This has been due to the distinguishing difference existing from the criminal justice system. As a result, the purpose of this article is to articulate why the juvenile justice system is better than the criminal system of justice. The paper is going to give a brief introduction of the juvenile system of justice and later on, state the importance of the juvenile process. An overview of how the juvenile system is adopted across the American State will be shown. This will give the reader a rough awareness of how the justice system has brought change in the country in terms of crime reduction. Giving statistics of the various criminal activities will expand on this point further, and thus, readers will be able to understand why the juvenile justice system is vital. The essay purposes to elaborate why the juvenile justice system is preferred and thus, will give an in-depth understanding of how the system contributes to the youths’ greater amenability to treatment. The conclusion will be a summary of the main ideas and points argued in the essay and emphasize on the importance of juvenile justice systems. Introduction In 1899, in Chicago (Illinois), the first juvenile court was established. Policy makers, citizens, and professionals continue debating on why juvenile offenders should be tried and sentenced differently from adult offenders. To the public, the aspect of trying juveniles as adults is a controversial topic. As such, the principle of establishing these juvenile courts was for individualized justice and their main focus was on rehabilitating, caring, and treating the youthful offenders and not punishing them. The juveniles talked about in this case fall under 18 years of age, nonetheless in some American States there is variance in terms of the legal age. According to recent research conducted, it is evident that the human brain continues to develop throughout adolescence. The pre-frontal cortex (part of the brain responsible for function execution and complex reasoning) is not fully matured until the mid-twenties (Scott & Steinberg, 2008). Therefore, for adolescents, their brain is not fully matured hence; their thought and decision-making processes are different from those of the adult. For instance, for adolescents, it is developmentally normative to take greater risks and show susceptibility to influences from their peers than adults. As such, these normal differences contribute to behaviors that have led many adolescents to their involvement with the juvenile justice system. Some of the risk factors .