Juvenile Justice Administration
Juvenile courts have played a significant role in passing judgments for crimes carried out by minors. For a long time, the concept of parens patriae has been the cornerstone of juvenile justice philosophy, and through this principle, the state has been allowed to act as surrogate parents for wayward minors. But the use of this principle seems to be dwindling. Therefore, the future juvenile court will be a viable, but transformed, institution mainly due to increased calls by society to hold parents and guardians accountable for the well-being of their children. As such, there will be the widespread use of Parental Accountability or Parental Responsibility laws which hold parents accountable for the crimes carried out by their children. The basis of these laws is that parents have a legal obligation to oversee the behavior of their children so as to prevent them from engaging in crimes and becoming delinquent citizens.
Another trend that is likely to be seen in the future is where jurisdictions improve and reorganize their court structures. They will mainly attain this by either enhancing coordination or creating family courts that are unified. This will lead to better handling and supervision of many cases involving a similar family. Another trend pertains to the adultification of juvenile courts. As such, juvenile courts will increasingly be transformed to resemble adult courts more. There will be an increase in adult procedures and penalties, where juveniles could be given lengthy prison sentences and mixed in jails with hardcore criminals. Currently, juvenile courts have adopted electric monitoring, an adult correctional practice (Arnett, 2018). These courts did so in the absence of procedural methods of Assessment and external feedback. There is thus the increased likelihood of these courts adopting more adult correctional practices that they will deem necessary.
Reference
Arnett, C. (2018). VIRTUAL SHACKLES. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
(1973), 108(3), 399-454.
