CRIJ 2313 S05
TEST 4 ESSAY QUESTION
11/20/2014
The Juvenile Justice Process
There are millions of criminal offenders out there in this world, all different in personalities, ethnicity, backgrounds, and age. Adults and juveniles have a different justice process when it comes to being processed through the legal system because of a crime. Juvenile courts throughout the United States process more than 1.5 million delinquency cases every year. The juvenile justice process has 3 phases, The intake, adjudication, and the disposition.
The Intake process is the first stage of the juvenile justice process. In this process, a court appointed officer reviews the case and recommends a course of action. The action can either be a dismissal, informal disposition, formal disposition, or it can be transferred to adult criminal court. Usually, there many factors that affect a decision here. Things that can influence a decision is the severity of the alleged offense, any prior history or delinquent behavior, attitude of the offender, age, and emotional stability.
Adjudication is the second phase of the juvenile process. In adjudication, a juvenile court hears the case. An adjudicatory hearing takes place, and attorneys normally present physical evidence and argue on behalf of their clients. If after hearing arguments, the court rules that the evidence supports the allegations, a predisposition report is ordered and a disposition hearing is scheduled.