Tried In Juvenile Court Essay

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Pages: 5

In the United States, juveniles can be tried in one of two courts: adult criminal court or juvenile court. Depending on the state, the maximum age a juvenile can be tried in juvenile court ranges from 16 to 17. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 45 states allow juvenile offenders aged 17 to be tried in juvenile court. Only five states have stricter laws on the age juveniles can still be tried outside of criminal court, those states are Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The transfer process differs from state to state, but the procedures to transfer the juvenile to adult criminal court happen in 3 ways, regardless of location. According to Juvenile Delinquency: The Core, wavier procedures are allowed by concurrent jurisdiction, statutory exclusion policies, and judicial waiver. Concurrent jurisdiction is the process that allows 14 states and the District of Columbia to be able to file charges for certain offenses in either juvenile or criminal court. Statutory exclusion policies deems that certain offenses are automatically excluded from juvenile court in 29 states. This does not mean that the offenses have to be serious to be included in statutory exclusion policies, the infraction could be as minor as a traffic violation. The last waiver procedure is the …show more content…
After the decision by the Supreme Court to retroactively overturn these sentences given during a time of duress and uncertainty in the United States, the subjects of the documentary were granted parole and began to live their lives outside of prison. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s criminologist’s began to classify children who commit violent crimes as “super-predators,” and courts handed out many life without parole sentences in order to protect the public from these criminals, who in the eyes of some, could not be turned