Can We Do Without Juvenile Justice?

The age of a juvenile offender is getting younger and younger these days. Due to the cases that are being presented, more and more cases are being tried in an adult court vice the juvenile justice system. Can we do without juvenile justice? Do juveniles that commit crimes really deserve their own court system? "Since 1992, all but 10 jurisdictions have greatly eased the ability of the state to try juveniles as adults" (Shepherd Jr, n.d.). While the juvenile justice system is more forgiving to juveniles, there is also a time when the balance of power must change and a state has to decide when the legal age should be to prosecute in an adult court.

Many juvenile justice systems are so overloaded with cases that they struggle to get the ones that they already have on their desks processed in a timely fashion, so many prosecutors are filter cases to be tried in an adult court. "Juvenile courts today bear only a passing similarity to the original concept of juvenile justice formulated a century ago" (Butts, 2000). The juvenile justice system was originally designed to protect children from the harsh environments of the adult prisons. Cases that should be tried in the juvenile system are those dealing with "abused and neglected children, truants, and curfew violations" (Butts, 2000), to name a few. However, many juveniles are committing adult crimes expecting juvenile punishments and the system doesn't work like that.

What should be done to a juvenile offender that commits an act that would be considered a crime if committed by an adult? A resounding majority would say that they need to be locked up. You commit an adult crime, you do adult time. In many articles, the trial Kent v. United States is mentioned.

Kent was a troubled teen that was in and out of the police system. He first came to the attention of the Juvenile Court at the age of 14 when he was apprehended for housebreaking and an attempted purse snatching. Since the juvenile system had him, they put him on probation hoping for rehabilitation. However, two years later, he was arrested again for committing the same crimes he was originally placed on probation for. Although his history was with the Juvenile Court, he was taken into custody for very adult crimes (housebreaking, robbery, and rape). He was only 16. After a full investigation was completed, Kent's case was tried in a district court. The original petition was filed in the District of Columbia's Juvenile Court, but Kent was indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was found guilty of "six counts of housebreaking and robbery, but was acquitted on two rape counts by reason of insanity" (US Supreme Court Center, 1966). There was more to this case than his guilt or innocence; so it was whether he was going to be tried as a child or an adult.

The reality is that many juveniles

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