Get Juvenile Justice Developed By Roberta J Ching

Reformers believed that treating children and adolescents as adult criminals was unnecessarily harsh and resulted in their corruption. In the words of one reformer, the main reason for the establishment of the juvenile court was “to prevent children from being treated as criminals ” (Van Waters, 1927:217).

Traditional period- early 1900's-1960's. Traditional assumptions about juveniles centered on the idea that juveniles were not as responsible as adults for their crimes and the juvenile justice system would act as a doctor to cure their delinquency.

While a wide variety of women from all backgrounds got involved, two reformers in particular are credited with spearheading the creation of the juvenile court: Julia Lathrop and Lucy Flower. Lathrop was a Hull House social worker who toured every jail in Illinois in the early 1890s, documenting the conditions there.

Based on true crime cases The drama takes creative license on them for dramatic effect, but many of the cases have actually happened. Cases such as the murder of an 8-year-old student by a teenager, the leak of exam papers, and the brick-throwing case are all based on true crimes, for example.

The first juvenile courts operated under the philosophy of parens patriae first articulated in Prince v. Massachusetts (1944). This philosophy meant the state could act "as a parent," and gave juvenile courts the power to intervene whenever court officials felt intervention was in the best interests of the child.

The first juvenile courts operated under the philosophy of parens patriae first articulated in Prince v. Massachusetts (1944).

Family structure. Family characteristics such as poor parenting skills, family size, home discord, child maltreatment, and antisocial parents are risk factors linked to juvenile delinquency (Derzon and Lipsey, 2000; Wasserman and Seracini, 2001).

To hold youth who commit crimes accountable for their actions. To provide individualized assessments to rehabilitate and prevent further delinquent behavior through the development of educational, vocational, social, emotional and basic life skills which enable youth to grow and mature.