¶ … United States judicial system has honored the policy that children and adults do not have the same psychological and emotional capacities and should therefore be treated differently when tried for a crime. With the exception of extremely malicious acts performed by juveniles, the court system has separated juveniles from adults in trials.
Recently, mechanisms allowing juveniles to be tried as adults have become more widely used. Judicial waiver involves a juvenile court judge transferring an adolescent to criminal court based on, among other things, the seriousness of the crime, the offender's history, and the chances of the offender repeating his or her acts. Direct file policies allow the prosecutor to decide whether to file charges against a juvenile offender in criminal or juvenile court. Lastly, under statutory exclusion, certain categories of juveniles are automatically tried in adult criminal court. This is usually determined by an individual's age and the seriousness of the offense.
However, many people argue that juveniles of a very young age do not have the mental capacity to be charged as adults so they should retain juvenile status. It is important to examine what is considered mentally competent. To be deemed mentally competent, an individual must be able to assist counsel as well as demonstrate the ability to understand which rights are maintained and waived, how to enter a plea, and so on. It is true that some young people are mentally...
However, most juveniles under the age of twelve fail to meet this criteria. Yet most individuals possess these capabilities once they are older than 16. Juveniles between the ages of 12 and 16 would have to be assessed individually to determine their level of competence.
In the juvenile system, the hope and goal is rehabilitation, unlike the adult system, which is punitive in nature. Juvenile matters are handled in juvenile court. Often judges or magistrates who deal solely with juvenile cases handle these matters. Typically, in juvenile court the accused is not referred to as the defendant but as the respondent. Juveniles are not entitled to a jury of adults. There has been a backlash recently by many legislatures to change or at least reexamine the juvenile justice system as it relates to individuals between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
In order to determine the proper course for a youth's judicial proceedings, it is imperative to determine the individual's culpability, which is a combination of an individual's responsibility, accountability, blameworthiness, and punishability. In the adult judicial system, it is assumed that offenders are responsible for the crimes that they have committed and that they should pay the price and be punished according to their actions. While most children, by age nine, have a sense of right and wrong, most children younger than 13 lack the mental and social capacities necessary…
