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Juvenile and Adult Courts

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Juvenile and Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis Paper
Cristal Irvin
CJS/245
April 7, 2015
Samantha Brown

Juvenile and Adult Courts: A Comparative Analysis Paper
At one point in history there was only one system of justice for the people of the United States. As time went by, the justice system shifted into two structures which are known as the Juvenile and Criminal Justice System. It was recognized that children and adults were not committing the same crimes. The states responded to this issue by establishing a system that differentiates juveniles from adults by creating the juvenile court system. The Juvenile Court is a complex structure that in order to understand it, one needs to know the process of when a juvenile enters the system.
The American Juvenile Justice System is put into place to focus and manage juveniles who are caught and convicted of crimes. The system is formulated by agencies that consist of police officers, prosecutors, juvenile courts, probation officers, and the Department of Juvenile Corrections. The system functions by agencies taking various steps when dealing with a juvenile. The first step is determining who is a juvenile. In most states a juvenile is considered a child between the ages of ten and eighteen and in some states they can set the maximum age as sixteen. When a police officer encounters a juvenile that has committed a crime the police officer has several options on handling a juvenile who has committed a delinquent act. Depending on the act, police officers can deliver juveniles to prosecutor's offices, sending the juvenile to their parents or making the decision that he or she should be detained. If a juvenile gets detained, they will be secured at a facility where they are held until a court hearing. Usually juveniles are held because they have committed a serious of offenses, have a history of criminal

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