A History of the Juvenile
Justice System in a
Nutshell
Today = Ancient History to
Early American History
Tomorrow = Modern American
History
Two Central Issues
1. Why should kids who commit
crimes be treated any
differently than adults?
•
At what age does a kid cease to
become a “kid?”
2. If kids should be treated
differently, how should they be
treated?
Pre-Middle Ages
• Code of Hammurabi (2270 b.c.)
• Other Examples
• Roman civil and church law
• Ancient Jewish and Moslem laws
Middle Ages (5001500ad)
• Roman criminal law codified in the
“Twelve Tables”
• Eventually, under the “Justinian Code”
• 0-7 Years = not criminally responsible
• 7-12/14 = know right from wrong?
• >12/14 = adult
• English common law emerges (10001100ad)
• Early common law = “too young for
punishment”
• By 1500s, common law adopts sheme
Middle Ages II
• English Common Law
• 0 to 7 = not criminally responsible
• 7-14 = burden on state to
demonstrate that the child:
• Formed criminal intent
• Understood consequences of their
actions
• Knew right from wrong
• Concept of Parens Patriae
develops
England 1500-1700
• Statute of Artificers (1562) and Poor
Laws (1602)
• Children of paupers apprenticed
• Punishment of criminal children still
similar to adults
• Corporal/public, banishment, galley
slavery
• Bridewell Workhouse (London, 1557)
• Precursor to prisons, idea = “reform
through labor”
• Mostly for “idle”/”disorderly”
Colonial America
• Until the late 1700sEnglish
Common Law
• Prison uncommon, many children
found “innocent” to spare them
corporal punishment
U.S. 1775-1825
1. The Industrial Revolution
2. The Birth of the Penitentiary
3. “Gentleman Reformers”
Result of these trends: Houses of
Refuge
•
Ex Parte Crouse (1839)
And later, “Industrial” and “Reform”
schools
•
People ex rel. O’Connell V. Turner
The “Child Saving
Movement”
• Child Savers disgruntled with
“child prisons”
• Deep mistrust of “the city” and
immigrants
• Advocated rural “Cottage Style”
housing
• Helped to “place out” city kids to farm
families
Progressive Era (19001930)
• The Progressives
• Optimists + Faith in Government
• General = sanitation, poverty, unsafe
labor…
• Juveniles = compulsory education,
helped shape juvenile justice system
The Juvenile Court
Movement
• First Juvenile Court in Illinois (1899)
• Quasi-civil nature of court
• Parens Patriae = act in best interest of child
using non-criminal procedures
• No “special wrong” necessary
• Characteristics
• Informal, closed proceedings with sealed
records
• Medical model of “diagnosing” social ills
• Age = 15 years and younger
• Probation Officers to investigate and
rehabilitate
J.C. Spreads (19001950)
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1899
1905
1909
1927
1950
Innovation and Stability
• Juvenile Courts Spread, but differences
emerged
• Some states require procedures similar to
criminal court, others courts grant judge
complete discretion to “follow conscience”
• Discretion/Informality becomes key issue
• Good?
• Bad?
• By the 1950s, many juvenile courts are
“bureaucratic and burdened”
Winds of Change 19601975
• Social Context of this Period Crucial
• Viet Nam, Kent State, Attica,
Watergate…
• Increase in crime, divorce, single
parents…
• Youth flaunting morals of prior
generation
• Ideological Responses
• Conservatives?
• Liberals/Progressives?
Strange Bedfellows
• Conservatives and Liberals largely agree
on policy Issues
• In both adult and juvenile system, discretion
should be limited
• Juveniles should be granted due process rights
• Differences?
• Conservatives  treat juveniles more like adults,
punishment works
• Liberals  most juveniles should be diverted
from the system, short sentences for those that
aren’t
Constitutional
Domestication
•
•
•
•
Kent vs. United States (1961)
In Re Gault (1967)
In Re Winship (1970)
Breed v. Jones (1975)
• Justice Stewarts Dissent
Opinion in Gault
OJJDP and DSO
• 1967 President Johnson’s “Commission on
Law Enforcement and Administration of
Justice.”
• 1974 Congress enacts “Juveniel Justice
and Delinquency Prevention Act.”
• Creation of OJJDP
• Decriminalization, Deinstitutionalization,
elimination of court authority over status
offenders
• Mass. “deinstitutionalization” experiment
Getting “Tough” 19802000
• Backlash against diversion,
labeling theory
• Political Rhetoric “get tough on
juveniles”
• National “war on drugs”
• 1984 National Advisory Committee
for Juvenile Justice Delinquency
and Prevention
How have we gotten
“tough?”
• Legislative Policy
• Juvenile Wavier, Statutory Exclusion
• Lower upper age limit of jurisdiction
• Sentencing (Blended, mandatory
minimum)
• Confidentiality, records in adult courts
• Types of Punishment
• Boot Camps, ISP, Electronic Monitoring
Where is policy now
• Crime in general is not “high
profile” issue
• OJJDP 1993 Comprehensive
Strategy
• Barry Feld’s “Criminological
triage”
Research For Debates
and Papers
• Expect evidence from academic
sources
• Journal articles, academic books
• Searching for articles/books
• Get refs from book articles
• Government reports (OJJDP, NCJRS…)
• Search
• Criminal Justice Abstracts
• Sage journals search (full text)
• Journal of Crime and Delinquency (full text)