Legal Intervention With Juvenile Offenders (From Violent Behavior: Assessment and Intervention, V 1, P 315-330, 1990, Leonard J Hertzberg, Gene F Astrum, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-123057)

• NCJ Number: 123074
• Author(s): D L Weatherly
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: PMA Publishing Corp
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter reviews landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions impacting the juvenile offender and discusses the application of the decisions at the State level, using Maryland law as a representative example.

Abstract

Under the landmark Supreme Court decisions, the Court exposed the abuses of a juvenile court system intended to serve juveniles' best interests through informal procedures. These informal procedures, however, had allowed for a discretion capable of seriously abusing juvenile defendants' constitutional rights. Such rulings combined with concern over the magnitude of serious juvenile crimes have led some States to authorize the trying of juveniles in criminal court for serious crimes. This may be done by lowering the age for the juvenile court jurisdiction, mandating certain juvenile offense for trial in criminal court, or providing for a waiver of juveniles from juvenile court to adult court at the discretion of the juvenile judge. Maryland is an example of a State that has enacted laws pertaining to age limits on juveniles according to the nature of the offense. The law covers "waivering up" from juvenile court to criminal court and "waivering down" from criminal court to juvenile court. The criteria for these two types of waivering under Maryland law are discussed. 23 references.