Juvenile Justice and the American Legal System - Essay Example

With time the perception of juveniles became more lenient as the judicial system needed to comprehend the cognitive development of the children. Prosecuting children and adolescents in the adult system undermined justice.

Following the pressures from various interest groups, the American legal system inextricably codified the views of stakeholders. The American legal system contains treaties with the interpretation that aim to protect the rights of children and adolescents. It exemplifies that the judicial system must observe the human rights of children and youths with a guarantee. In this respect, corpus juris is a source of legislation that establishes the codes of the subject of protection of adolescents and children.

Delinquency has become inherently difficult to measure. Though criminal scientists have devised a means of measuring it such as self-reports, still there are definite drawbacks that these methods depict. The fault of the approach lies in the data collection method and the reliability of the data. It is unlikely for juveniles to provide truthful information about their delinquency to strangers. A juvenile may also forget, miscomprehend, lie, or distort what transpired. For example, a self-report survey asks youths about their criminal behavior and participation in delinquent activities over time. The researcher may request respondents to indict the number of times they have involved themselves in several offenses such as forgery, weapon violation, gambling, or fighting. The options may be: Never, 1, 2-5, 6-9, and 20 or more. While some may forget and indicate a smaller number, some may exaggerate. The error leads to inaccuracies in the process of trying to measure delinquency. Read More