| | |
|
DavidGarfinkelFirstPaper 3 - 26 Feb 2010 - Main.DavidGarfinkel
|
| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
| | | During the summer between my third and fourth year of college, I served as a volunteer law clerk for one of the District Attorney’s Juvenile offices. This was my first true introduction to criminal justice, entering with an optimistic mindset about the potentials of this special branch. By the end of the summer, I had become cynical and pessimistic. The purpose of this essay is to question the efficacy of juvenile courts upon examining the outcomes of the system and the potentially true purposes of juvenile justice in light of the contrast between its ideals and actual process. Part of this analysis will be based on my own observations while working for the DA, including my later work in the sex crimes/family violence unit. Unsurprisingly, some of the analysis could also be easily applied to criminal justice in general and other facets of it, like capital punishment. | |
<
< | Section I | >
> | Ideals of Juvenile Justice | | | | |
<
< | Subsection A | >
> | There are several overarching ideals or purposes of criminal justice. First is justice. The American adversarial system is expected to have a process by which a the prosecution and defense in front of a jury vigorously fight for their respective side, with the hopeful outcome that those who did commit the crime are convicted and those who did not are found not guilty. The next is punishment, which is self-explanatory. The third ideal is removal, in which the justice system removes, generally through incarceration, those who are deemed too dangerous to live among normal society. Finally, criminal justice is supposed to help rehabilitate those who can learn the error of their ways, thereby preventing future crimes.
The Juvenile Court system is supposed to reflect these ideals, but adjusted for younger age of the defendants. For justice, a similar process is supposed to be carried out but without the presence of the jury so as to shorten the length of the process and thereby take up less of the juvenile’s life. Punishment occurs, but taken a step down from the normal prison system on the belief that they don’t deserve as harsh or as severe of an environment as their adult counterparts. Juvenile delinquents are removed from society, but primarily to what are known as camps rather than prisons, with the Youth Authority being the last resort. Finally, rehabilitation. This ideal is meant to play the most prominent role, especially when looking at some of the mission statements of the various state systems, and is predicated on the beliefs that juveniles, due to their youth, can be much more easily led down the right path and they are at the age where problems can hopefully be nipped at the bud.
General Outcome | | | | |
>
> | The outcomes that are expected unfortunately do not seem to match up with reality. Instead of reformed juveniles, we see a large recidivism rate in which many juvenile’s convicted of felony charges already have an arrest record. In addition, many adults who are later arrested for felonies or gang related activities will have been arrested at least once while a juvenile. So instead of nipping the bud, we let the flowers of crime blossom. | | | Subsub 1 |
|
|
DavidGarfinkelFirstPaper 2 - 26 Feb 2010 - Main.DavidGarfinkel
|
| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
| |
<
< | | | | | |
<
< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | | |
<
< | Paper Title | >
> | Juvenile Court: The Fallacies of a Hopeful System | | | -- By DavidGarfinkel - 25 Feb 2010 | |
>
> | During the summer between my third and fourth year of college, I served as a volunteer law clerk for one of the District Attorney’s Juvenile offices. This was my first true introduction to criminal justice, entering with an optimistic mindset about the potentials of this special branch. By the end of the summer, I had become cynical and pessimistic. The purpose of this essay is to question the efficacy of juvenile courts upon examining the outcomes of the system and the potentially true purposes of juvenile justice in light of the contrast between its ideals and actual process. Part of this analysis will be based on my own observations while working for the DA, including my later work in the sex crimes/family violence unit. Unsurprisingly, some of the analysis could also be easily applied to criminal justice in general and other facets of it, like capital punishment. | | | Section I | | | Subsection A
Subsection B | |
<
< |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, DavidGarfinkel
Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list | | | \ No newline at end of file |
|
|
DavidGarfinkelFirstPaper 1 - 25 Feb 2010 - Main.DavidGarfinkel
|
|
>
> |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Paper Title
-- By DavidGarfinkel - 25 Feb 2010
Section I
Subsection A
Subsub 1
Subsection B
Subsub 1
Subsub 2
Section II
Subsection A
Subsection B
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, DavidGarfinkel
Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |