Sekaya Newsome
Professor Diane Whiteman
September 10, 2013
Take home test 1

Chapter 1
1. Juvenile delinquency is the violation of a criminal law by persons under the age of 18 in most states.
2. Society views adult and juvenile offenders in many different ways such as the idea that juveniles are people that are in need of guidance because of their lack of maturity and cannot distinguish the difference between “right and wrong”. However, older offenders are expected to have this ability based off of their “experience” in life therefore deserving of punishment.
3. Juveniles are said to be immature because they lack the experience of having lived life and that they may not have understood or appreciated the harm that their actions have caused others. The immaturity is also said to have biological data that supports the argument that juveniles are immature, though there is no exact age in which a person has reached full maturity, “brain circuitry for pleasure and sensation develops rapidly during adolescences while the brain circuitry responsible for behavioral control and inhibition lags behind.” (5)
4. The major differences in the way that society treats juvenile offenders and adult offenders include the idea that juveniles are in need of guidance rather than punishment for their actions. On the other hand, adult offenders are punished for their actions. Society believes that adults were capable of distinguishing between right and wrong when they were committing an offense.
5. Status offenses are acts that are committed by juveniles that would typically be legal for an adult to do. They include truancy, failure to attend school; incorrigibility, refusal to listen to or obey parents; drinking alcohol or doing drugs; violating curfew, and engaging in consensual but illegal sex. The reason for having these status offenses is because the state