Difference Between Juvenile and Adult Court System
The court system for the juvenile offenders and adult offenders are always different. The main reason is that the juvenile is below the age of majority and is under guardianship; therefore he/she does not have a mature mental faculty to make right decisions. The court processes are also different in that, while a juvenile will be treated as a delinquent needing rehabilitation, an adult will have to face retribution and due process of the court. For instance, Jan will be taken to a children’s/juvenile court where she will be charged with an act of delinquency (stealing the automobile) and a petition filed; while Kim will be taken to the adult court, charged with a criminal offence and has to plead guilty or not guilty.
The court process for the juvenile will require an investigation of her academic and family background as well as whether it was a first offence, and will be expected to agree with the petition filed against her or deny it. In addition, the matter will be heard informally and out of public presence unlike in adult courts where cases are heard in public (Levinson, 2002). On the other hand, the adult offender will have to face trial and investigations done on her criminal record with punishment following if she is found guilty.
In the juvenile court, the proceeding will aim at rehabilitating the offender, whereby depending on the age and the magnitude of the offence, the delinquent juvenile may be taken to a rehabilitation center such as child care, youth center, or correctional facility Thompson (2006). For instance, the academic level of Jan and her family background will be put in focus during the hearing of her case as well as the circumstances leading to her stealing the automobile, in which case she may be taken to a correctional facility or released altogether. However, for an adult, punishment takes center stage, the case must go full trial and a judgment made based on the facts brought before the court whereby, the criminal will be taken to a jail. Kim will therefore be tried on the stealing the automobile and if found guilty, sentenced to imprisonment.
In certain circumstances, especially where the juvenile has committed crime for some time or the offence itself is severe, the case may be transferred to the adult court and the juvenile tried as an adult May, Minor and Ruddell (2007). However, since Jan did not cause any injury to anybody, the case will be handled in the juvenile court.
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