Juvenile Justice System

The juvenile justice system provides an opportunity for juveniles to be treated differently from the way adults are treated when they commit crimes (McCord, 2001). Systems are available for the punishment of adults through processes such as sentencing which are commensurate to the crimes they commit. However, children can also commit crimes and subjecting them to punitive measures similar to those to which adults are subjected can be traumatizing for them.

Because of this, the juvenile justice system has programs that suit crimes   committed by children. The juvenile justice system is meant to correct but not to punish the children. Consequently, one of the available plans for juvenile correction is house arrest. In this alternative, children who have committed crimes are forced to stay at home. The children can however go to school and counseling offices but cannot go anywhere else.

Besides home arrest, the juveniles could also be made to stay with other families which are not their own. The juvenile hall can also be used to serve the corrective purpose. Making juveniles stay in the juvenile hall gives them an opportunity to reflect on their actions and thus change. The juveniles who live the hall could later be taken for probation. Another alternative would be to take the juveniles to facilities such as camps where they get to interact with other juveniles.

This structure is however designed for juveniles who commit serious crimes. The juvenile justice system only allows imprisonment of juveniles who commit very serious crimes. However, the structures are different across different states. The law provisions are different for different states hence the difference in the structures. In some states, the structures for juvenile correction are blended with those of adult correction while in others, the juvenile justice system is independent (Griset, 2011).

References

Griset, P. L. (2011). Determinate sentencing: The promise and the reality of retributive justice. Albany: State University of New York Press.

McCord, J., Widom, C. S., Crowell, N. A., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2001). Juvenile crime, juvenile justice. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

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