Chapter 4
Juvenile Courts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Describe the child-saving movement and its relationship to the doctrine of parens
patriae.
3. Discuss how states vary in terms of when a juvenile may be transferred to adult
court for prosecution.
5. Identify and briefly describe the single most important Supreme Court case with
respect to juvenile justice.
7. Compare and contrast how adherents of the crime control model and proponents
of the due process model of criminal justice see the future of juvenile courts.
LESSON PLAN
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. Juvenile Courts 100 Years Ago
Learning Objective 1: Describe the child-saving movement and its relationship
to the doctrine of parens patriae.
A. Industrialization, Cities, and Crime
i. By the last third of the 19th century, the United States was well on its
B. The Child Savers and the Progressive Movement
i. Beginning around 1890, members of the Progressive movement
advocated a variety of political, economic, and social reforms. They were
C. Parens Patriae
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i. By the end of the 19th century, the notion of children as miniature adults
was giving way to a very different conceptualization—children as
See Assignments 1 and 2
II. How Juvenile Courts Differ from Adult Courts
Learning Objective 2: List the five ways that juvenile courts differ from adult
courts.
A. Adopting the legal doctrine of parens patriae resulted in juvenile judicial
proceedings that differed greatly from those used in adult courts. Juvenile
courts differ from adult courts in five important ways.
B. Emphasis on Helping the Child
i. Prosecutions of adults focus on punishment, while juvenile courts
emphasize benevolence and rehabilitation.
C. Informal Proceedings
i. Prosecutions of adults are formal and adversarial, while juvenile court
proceedings emphasize informality.
D. Proceedings Based on Civil Law
i. Prosecutions of adults are based on criminal law, while juvenile court
proceedings are based on civil law.
E. Secret Proceedings
i. Prosecutions of adults are typically open to the public, while juvenile
court proceedings have historically been secret.
F. Absence of Jury Trials
i. Adults accused of violating criminal law have the right to a trial by a jury
of their peers, while juvenile have no such right.
Class Discussion/Activity 1
What are five ways that juvenile courts differ from adult courts? Should juvenile
courts be more or less like adult criminal courts?
of the Miranda Warnings, right to the assistance of counsel, and so on. How
What If Scenario
What if you were the presiding judge of the juvenile court in your county and
were giving a speech to a group of visiting local junior high school students. One
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would you answer such a common sense and logical question?
See Assignment 3
III. The Organization of Juvenile Courts
A. Along a continuum from the most to the least distinctive, juvenile courts are
organized in one of three ways: a separate court, part of family court, or a
unit of the trial court.
B. Juvenile Court as a Separate Court
i. In a few jurisdictions, juvenile court is completely separate from other
judicial bodies.
C. Juvenile Court as Part of Family Court
i. Juvenile courts may be a part of family court, which has broad
responsibility over family matters (e.g., divorce, child custody).
D. Juvenile Court as a Unit of Trial Court
i. Juvenile courts may be part of a trial court. In this arrangement, juvenile court is
typically part of the jurisdiction of the major trial court, but on occasion it is in
the minor trial court.
E. Law in Action: The Impact of Structure
i. Since juvenile courts were first established, there has been a debate over
the appropriate place in the judicial hierarchy for this new judicial body.
IV. Juvenile Court Jurisdiction: Subject Matter
Learning Objective 4: Contrast the three major types of cases that are heard in
juvenile court.
A. Of the children brought before juvenile court, there is enormous variation in
the types of cases. Felons and misdemeanants, petty offenders, and truants
C. Juvenile Delinquency
i. Delinquency is a violation of a criminal law that would be a crime if the
act were committed by an adult (e.g., theft, burglary, criminal damage to
property).
D. Status Offenses
E. Children in Need of Supervision
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i. Juvenile courts deal with children in need of supervision (also called
F. Law in Action: One-Pot Jurisdiction
i. The broad subject-matter jurisdiction of juvenile courts complicates the
task of addressing the problems facing juvenile justice.
See Assignments 4 and 5
V. Juvenile Court Jurisdiction: Age
A. Age Limits for Original Jurisdiction over Delinquency Matters
i. For adults, court jurisdiction is largely determined by the nature of the
the top age is 15, 16, or 17.
B. Age Limits beyond Original Jurisdiction
i. In most states, once original jurisdiction over delinquency proceedings
VI. Transfer to Adult Court
Learning Objective 3: Discuss how states vary in terms of when a juvenile may
be transferred to adult court for prosecution.
A. Transfer to criminal court refers to the process whereby the jurisdiction over
a juvenile delinquent is moved to adult court.
B. Types of Transfers
ii. There are four primary mechanisms for juvenile transfers to adult
criminal courts: judicial waivers, prosecutorial waivers, statutory
waivers, and automatic waivers.
C. Corrective Mechanisms
i. About half the states have attempted to compensate for the seeming
harshness of waivers by enacting some mechanisms that can mitigate the
D. Use of Waivers
i. Every year, only a very small proportion of juveniles are transferred to
adult court. The cases that are transferred generally involve juveniles
accused of murder, armed robbery, or another particularly violent felony.
How juvenile transfer laws actually operate is complex.
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Hurst, & MacKenzie, 2000). The final report highlights the following: a
disconnect exists between legislative intent and the actual
iii. Stated another way, alterations of laws on the books do not necessarily
produce the intended changes in law in action.
See Assignments 6 and 7
VII. Due Process in Juvenile Courts
Learning Objective 5: Identify and briefly describe the single most important
Supreme Court case with respect to juvenile justice.
A. Key Court Decisions
i. The nature of the juvenile court process remained unchanged until the
1960s. When the Warren Court began to scrutinize procedures in adult
iii. Three years later, the Court ruled that when a juvenile is charged with an
act that would be a crime if committed by an adult, then every element of
that criminal act must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt (In re
Winship, 1970).
iv. Juvenile courts, however, afford far fewer due process rights than their
adult counterparts. In a path-breaking decision the Court held that the
death penalty may not be imposed on offenders who commit crimes
B. Important Congressional Acts
i. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 mandated
deinstitutionalization of status offenders by stating that juveniles not
charged with acts that would be crimes for adults shall not be jailed.
ii. The law also specifies that juveniles charged with criminal acts shall not
Class Discussion/Activity 2
Which rights did the Gault decision apply to juveniles? Do you believe the
Court should have gone further and included the right to a jury trial?
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Media Tool
Watch PBS video from PBS NewsHour called Justices Rule That Age Matters
in Miranda Warnings:
VIII. Courtroom Work Group
A. At first glance, members of juvenile courtroom work groups are similar to
those found in adult courts—prosecutors bring charges, defense attorneys
attempt to get the best deal possible for their clients, and judges decide
matters that others have not successfully negotiated. These parallels, though,
can be deceiving because the tasks of juvenile and adult courts are not the
same.
B. More so than courts dealing with adults accused of violating the law, juvenile
courts grant judges and other officials unusually wide latitude in making
although the Supreme Court has imposed minimal due process requirements,
D. The legally trained members of the courtroom work group rely heavily on
professional judgments of non-lawyers. Whereas in adult court the skills of
lawyers are of fundamental importance, in juvenile court they are secondary.
E. Social workers, psychologists, and counselors have been trained to assess the
child’s problem and devise a treatment plan.
B. Judges
i. Judges are the central authority in the juvenile court system, exercising
wider discretion over matters than their counterparts in criminal courts.
C. Hearing Officers
i. Judges may be assisted by hearing officers, who are typically court-
appointed attorneys who hear a range of juvenile-court matters.
D. Prosecutors
i. Rising crime rates, coupled with U.S. Supreme Court decisions requiring
more due process, have contributed to the growing role of the prosecutor
in juvenile courts. However, an assignment to a juvenile court is not a
sought-after promotion.
E. Defense Attorneys
i. While In re Gault (1967) held that juveniles are entitled to representation
F. Probation Officers
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i. Probation officers have always been a key part of juvenile courts.
Probation officers may be part of the judicial or executive branch,
depending on jurisdiction.
What If Scenario
Imagine you are the Solicitor General of the United States and are to appear
before the U.S. Supreme Court to petition the Court to overturn its previous
decision in 2005 (Roper v. Simmons) that prohibits the execution of persons
convicted of capital murders committed prior to the age of 18. What would
your argument be? Why would it not, as the Court so stated in 2005, be “cruel
and unusual” punishment? Do you believe there are some underage kids who
are so beyond redemption that they should be put to death for having been
convicted of heinous crimes such as capital murder?
IX. Steps of the Juvenile Court Process
Learning Objective 6: Explain the difference between a juvenile case that is
petitioned and one that is nonpetitioned.
A. From the perspective of law on the books, the steps of the juvenile court
process resemble those for adult courts. From the perspective of law in
action, however, the steps of the juvenile court process are strikingly
different from their adult counterparts. What makes the processing of
juveniles so distinctive is the heavy emphasis on informal decision making.
B. Delinquency (Crime)
i. There is no precise data on how many crimes are committed by juveniles
as compared to adults, as crime victims do not typically know the age of
the person responsible.
C. Summons (Arrest)
i. A summons is a legal document requiring an individual (in this case, a
juvenile) to appear in court
D. Intake (Initial Hearing)
i. Delinquency cases begin with a referral, typically as the result of an
arrest made by law enforcement personnel. An initial hearing (sometimes
called a “preliminary inquiry”) is held soon after referral.
E. Detention Hearing
i. Police make the first detention decision shortly after taking the juvenile
into custody when deciding whether to release the youth to the custody of
parents or guardians or detain them.
ii. A second detention decision may occur after the juvenile has been
referred to the juvenile court.
F. Petition
i. The intake decision is a decision about detention as well as whether the
G. Conference
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i. During the conference, the judge informs the respondent of the charges in
the petition, as well as their constitutional protections. The conference is
H. Evidence: Gathering and Suppressing
i. Challenges to how the police gathered evidence play a very minor role in
juvenile cases. The presumption is that the child is in trouble, making it
difficult to challenge evidence gathering.
I. Plea Bargaining
i. The informality of juvenile court means that plea bargaining is often not
a distinct phase. Negotiations typically begin during the intake process. A
significant proportion of nonpetitioned juvenile delinquency cases
represent what in adult court would be labeled as plea bargaining.
J. Adjudicatory Hearing
i. The purpose of the adjudicatory hearing is to determine whether the
allegations contained in the petition are supported by a “preponderance of
ii. It is equivalent to the trial in adult court.
K. Disposition
i. A probation report is commonly prepared in more serious crimes and
typically makes a disposition recommendation. Common dispositions
include dismissal, probation, formal placement, or other dispositions.
L. Appeal
i. Juveniles have a right to appeal in nearly all states. However, the state
may appeal only in limited circumstances, and this right is seldom
exercised.
Class Discussion/Activity 3
What kind of cases would be nonpetitioned cases? Might there be times when
it would be appropriate to petition a case that in other circumstances might not
be? What situations can you think of that might fit this example? Conversely,
might there be serious cases that under certain circumstances would be
petitioned but in others might not?
X. The Future of Juvenile Courts
Learning Objective 7: Compare and contrast how adherents of the crime control
model and proponents of the due process model of criminal justice see the future
of juvenile courts.
A. Amid the constantly evolving war on crime, there are cross-cutting pressures
to change the nature of juvenile court justice. The debate over the future
B. Crime Control Model: More Adult Penalties
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i. The crime control model argues that children who commit crimes should
be punished like adults.
C. Due Process Model: More Youth Crime Prevention
i. The due process model argument is that crime prevention works. Instead
of pouring increasing amounts of public dollars into prisons (both adult
and juvenile), we need to put more into education and prevention.
Media Tool
Watch the PBS video from the show Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly called
Juvenile Life Without Parole:
Media Tool
Visit the Restorative Youth Justice website:
What If Scenario
What if you were in charge of deciding what philosophy would guide the
running of your local juvenile court? What model would you use to guide the
court? The criminal control model or the due process model. Be sure to
provide support for your choice.
See Assignments 7 and 8
KEY TERMS
adjudicated: Judicial determination (judgment) that a youth is a delinquent or status
offender.
adjudicatory hearing: Court hearing to determine whether a youth is guilty or not
guilty.
automatic waiver: Typically requires criminal courts to handle all subsequent offenses
allegedly committed by a juvenile after an initial transfer to adult court. Some states limit
the application of these automatic transfers only to subsequent felonies or to juveniles
who have reached the age of 16.
blended sentencing: A corrective mechanism for waivers which allows criminal court
judges to impose juvenile dispositions under certain circumstances, rather than imposing
standard criminal sentences.
child-victims: Juvenile court case involving a child who has been neglected and/or
abused by the parents.
children in need of supervision: Children before the court through no fault of their own.
These types of cases generally involve issues of child abandonment, child abuse, or child
neglect.
conference: Juvenile court proceeding roughly equivalent to a preliminary hearing, in
which the suspect is informed of his or her rights and a disposition decision may be
reached.
delinquency: An act committed by a juvenile that would require an adult to be
detention: Holding a youth in custody before case disposition.
dismissal: Cases terminated (including those warned, counseled, and released) with no
further disposition anticipated.
disposition: A court decision on what will happen to a youth who has not been found
innocent.
judicial waiver: Laws permitting (or requiring) juvenile court judges to transfer a
juvenile to adult court for criminal prosecution.
juvenile: Youth at or below the upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction.
juvenile court: Any court that has jurisdiction over matters involving juveniles.
lower age of jurisdiction: Minimum age at which a youth may be transferred to adult
court.
nonpetitioned case: A case handled informally by duly authorized court personnel.
other dispositions: Miscellaneous dispositions, including fines, restitution, community
service, and referrals outside the court for services, with minimal or no further court
involvement anticipated.
parens patriae: The state as parent; the state as guardian and protector of all citizens
(such as juveniles) who are unable to protect themselves.
petition: A document filed in juvenile court alleging that a juvenile is a delinquent or a
status offender and asking that the court assume jurisdiction over the juvenile or that an
alleged delinquent be transferred to criminal court for prosecution as an adult.
probation officer: Employee of probation agency, responsible for supervision of
convicted offenders who have been released to the community under certain conditions of
good behavior.
prosecutorial waiver: Laws in 15 states that give the prosecutor the option of filing
delinquency petitions in juvenile court or filing criminal charges in adult court.
referral: A request by a law enforcement agency, governmental agency, parent, or
individual that a juvenile court take jurisdiction of a youth. A referral initiates court
processing.
reverse waivers: A process that allows a juvenile to petition the criminal court to transfer
jurisdiction to a juvenile court.
status offense: Behavior that is considered an offense only when committed by a
juvenile—for example, running away from home.
transfer to criminal court: A case is moved to a criminal court because of a waiver or
transfer hearing in the juvenile court.
upper age of jurisdiction: The oldest age at which a juvenile court has original
jurisdiction over an individual for behavior that violates the law.
LECTURE NOTES
Over time, industrialization led people to take a more nurturing approach toward children
and supporters through the Child Savers Movement and Progressive Movement, both of
which promoted the care of children. The concept of parens patriae was established after
court systems were put in place to assist juveniles with their treatment process. Through
parens patriae, which is still in use today, the state has the ability to act on behalf of the
child’s parents. Because juvenile delinquency has become an increasingly important
issue, specialized courts have been created for this group of offenders throughout the
United States.
Juvenile courts differ from adult courts in numerous ways. This includes terminology, the
treatment of the child, the overall proceedings, and the lack of jury trials. It should be
emphasized that juvenile courts are informal in their proceedings in order to recognize
The age for a child to be considered an adult and the age at which a juvenile can be
transferred to the adult system vary from state to state. Some states recognize the median
age for adult court to be 14 to 16 years of age. Juvenile courts use the term upper age of
jurisdiction as well as lower age of jurisdiction. Each recognizes the highest or lowest
Juvenile courts deal with three kinds of cases: status offenses, delinquency, and children
in need of supervision. Discuss the important differences between these types of cases
and how they necessitate treating the juveniles themselves differently.
The juvenile courts were originally created out of a belief that children should be treated
differently from adults. Until the case of In re Gault the nature of juvenile courts
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION POINTS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Juvenile courts emphasize helping the child, the proceedings are informal, they
process is based on civil law, the proceedings are secret, and jury trials are not
2. The right to notice, the right to counsel, the right to confront witnesses, and the
3. The juvenile courts attempt to individualize the treatment of juveniles. Less serious
cases might be petitioned in order to get assistance to a juvenile whose family is
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Research the progressives and the child-saving movement. Write a paper discussing
what you think was the main motive for the movement: social concern or self-
serving class interest.
LO1
2. “The History of Juvenile Justice”
3. What are the maximum and minimum ages for juvenile court jurisdiction for
delinquent acts in the state where you reside or attend college? Do you think these
ages are too high or too low? What services does your state provide for children who
commit crimes while under the minimum age of juvenile court jurisdiction? Write a
4. Break students into three groups, and assign each group with one of the three types
5. “Introduction to Juvenile Delinquency Prosecution”
• Federal Justice website
• Assignment: Using the information on the website have students discuss how
a juvenile is prosecuted in the federal system. What kinds of crimes would
U.S. Attorneys prosecute a juvenile for? What would be required for the
federal government to become involved in a juvenile crime?
6. Research juvenile waivers in your jurisdiction. What types of waivers are available
to transfer a juvenile to adult court? What crimes are included?
7. “Should Juveniles Be Tried as Adults?”
8. Research the philosophy of juvenile courts in your local jurisdiction. Does your local
juvenile court follow a crime control model or a due process model for juveniles?