Assignment:
Discussion Reply should be 500 words each and include correct usage of APA format, your Christian world view, and relevant in-text support for both. Also, include a reference at the conclusion of each response in proper APA format.
Juvenile Court Acts
Introduction
The first juvenile court act in the U.S. was passed in the state of Illinois in 1899. This act created the nation's first juvenile court with the purpose of child reform and for the social welfare of children during the time. Since the juvenile's court inception, there have been other major acts passed by states that have created juvenile courts within their jurisdictions with the purpose of establishing legal parameters and procedures to address juvenile cases that deal with abuse, neglect, delinquency, dependency, and other special cases (Cox, Allen, Hanser, & Conrad, 2018). This discussion forum question asks whether a 15-year-old taken before a juvenile court for disobeying his parent's 10pm curfew would fall within the scope of most juvenile court acts and whether the 15-year-old would be dealt as delinquent under the Uniform Juvenile Court Act recommendations. The following will discuss why this type of behavior does not fall under most acts as a delinquent act and or a delinquent act under the Uniform Juvenile Court Act recommendations.
Uniform Juvenile Court Act
The Uniform Juvenile Court Act of 1968 was approved and adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to encourage and establish uniformity of the scope, purpose, and procedures of juvenile justice systems across the U.S. The act also outlines and provides a variety of rights for juvenile defendants. Since its adoption, the Uniform Juvenile Court Act and its recommendations has served as the model act for other U.S. states to follow when enacting their own juvenile court acts. Several themes are expressed within the Uniform Juvenile Court Act (Cox et al., 2018).
Section 1 of this act outlines its philosophy and major purpose, which is to provide for the care, protection, and wholesome mental, moral, and physical development of a child coming within its provisions. The main themes that are expressed in the Uniform Juvenile Court Act include keeping juveniles with their parents as much as possible and only separating them when it is in the best interest of the child's welfare and or the public safety; protecting juveniles from the stigmatization of criminality and punishment and substituting treatment, rehabilitation, and training; and providing simple court procedures that executes and enforces the acts through hearings and within the constitutional rights of juveniles (Cox et al., 2018).
At the time of the Uniform Juvenile Court Act's inception, many states across the U.S. legally defined what was considered delinquent acts within their jurisdictions. The act very clearly limits juvenile delinquent acts to those behaviors that violate local ordinances, state, and or Federal laws. The act excludes behavior, such as incorrigibility, habitual disobedience, ungovernability, and other behavior that is only applicable to children and not adults. The act recommends that only laws that are both applicable to juveniles and adults be treated as delinquent for juveniles (Cox et al., 2018). Under these recommendations, a 15-year-old juvenile violating his curfew would not constitute a delinquent behavior under this act as adults do not have curfews under general ordinances or laws.
Other State Juvenile Court Acts
Many current state juvenile court acts define delinquent behavior as that behavior that violates a law and is applicable to both juveniles and adults. For example, New York's Family Court Act once included unruly behavior, such as ungovernability and incorrigibility, as delinquent acts, but has since narrowed the delinquent definition to include only persons over the age of 7 and under the age of 16 who commits any act that under law if committed by an adult would constitute a crime. Like New York, many other states have redefined their definition of a delinquent act as an act that constitutes a crime for bother juveniles and adults, and many if not most of them start by looking at the age of the juvenile to determine if the juvenile falls under their juvenile delinquent jurisdiction (Cox et al., 2018).
The juvenile delinquent age jurisdiction defines whether a state's juvenile court has jurisdiction over the case and whether it can adjudicate a child as a delinquent. States have set lower ages and upper ages to guide them in this process. For example, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and North Dakota's lower age is 7 and upper age is 17. Other states, such as Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Vermont all have a lower age of 10 and upper age of 17 (Cox et al., 2018). This essentially means that a child age 7 can be adjudicated delinquent in North Dakota, while a child in South Dakota needs to be at least age 10.
The other major factor states look at aside from age is the nature of the offense. As stated earlier, most states have moved to defining a delinquent act is one that is a law violation for both adults and juveniles. All other behavior by children are called status offenses that include but limited to curfew violations, running away from home, and school truancy. States' juvenile courts may still have jurisdiction over these children to serve their needs, but such offenses may not applicable for delinquency adjudication (Cox et al., 2018). In the case of the 15-year-old violating curfew, most states juvenile courts may take the case and address his/her behavior but may not adjudicate them delinquent.
Biblical Perspective
The Bible offers some insight and guidance regarding unruly children. It be said that children and teens are in one of their most important years of their lives since they are figuring out the world and who they are which most times leads to the person they'll become. I believe Proverbs 22:6 offers some of the best guidance in this area. It states, "train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it," (Proverbs 22:6, ESV).
Conclusion
Before the Uniform Juvenile Court Act of 1968, many states had already incorporated their own juvenile justice systems but lacked consistency from state to state. This act was proposed and ultimately adopted to create recommendations and guidelines for to states to follow with the goal of creating somewhat of a more uniform juvenile justice system regarding scope, purpose, and procedures. Because of this act, we can say that a 15-year-old juvenile who violates curfew may still be processed in most state juvenile courts but may not be adjudicated delinquent. Before this act, this same scenario could have had very different outcomes depending on the state.
References
Cox, S. M., Allen, J. M., Hanser, R. D., & Conrad, J. J. (2018). Juvenile Justice 9th Ed: A Guide to Theory, Policy, and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications