Final

Final
As we look at the juvenile justice system today, it is very different from what it once was. Juveniles today have more access to technology and other forms of electronic gadgets that have allowed them to become delinquents. Many more juveniles are committing the same type of crimes as before, but within gangs or with other juveniles. So instead of giving the juvenile some type of a “slap” on the wrist punishment that many have not learned from, the evidence has shown new ways of reinforcement approaches have worked. There are ways of dealing with young offenders that are more effective and less costly than prosecuting them as adults and imposing harsh sentences.
With the "get tough" reforms from different states and legislation, many juveniles have spent a historic time in adult prisons. Now, widespread legislations are attempting to change the requirements for transferring young offenders from juvenile courts to adult criminal courts, where mandatory minimum sentences and other factors make incarceration more likely. Although many criminal juvenile courts dismiss and overlook the fact that these are juveniles, regardless of the crime committed, youth are not similar to adults in ways important to determining responsibility, such as having an under-developed ability to understand the consequences of their actions. Many juveniles are overlooked at the disabilities they may have, such as ADHD, slow learning abilities or other mental setbacks.
The most widespread response to such concerns is to enact new judicial transfer statutes that make it easier or mandatory to send these cases of young offenders charged with felonies to adult criminal courts. “According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of juvenile vandalism arrests in 2003 was four times as great as the number of arrests for robbery