A Historical Review of Juvenile Justice
The Juvenile Justice System began to notice changes when the percentage or influx of immigration took place in the 1800’s. Along with this the social changes also began to take shape; delinquency was beginning to be regarded as youth who were mailiable and rehabilitated based on maturity, whereas they had been regarded fairly consistently as mini adults. The changes merited a need to change the way youthful offenders were dealt with, within the justice system. Most youth prior to the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System, were sentenced and tried similarly to adults. This was inclusive of death penalties, long term sentences and labor camps. “Early reformers who were interested in rehabilitating rather than punishing children built the New York House of Refuge in 1824. The reformatory housed juveniles who earlier would have been placed in adult jails. Beginning in 1899, individual states took note of the problem of youth incarceration and began establishing similar youth reform homes.” (Lawyershop.com, 1900)
In 1838 parens patriae was introduced to the Juvenile Justice System, to make legitimate and legal that a child could be entered into the refuge homes. This gave the courts legal rights to children who were otherwise abused and neglected; and therefore unable to be helped by being in the custody of the parents. They stayed in state custody until there was some progress on their behavior, and that the rehabilitation had become apparent. From this point on it’s remembered that children being tried as adults, or institutionalized, had ended. Juveniles were given hearings rather than court trials. Most juveniles were without legal representation and most were homeless or orphaned children. This was the need at the time for the reformatory homes, now known as boarding schools today. "The object of the charity is reformation . . . To this end, may not the natural parents, when unequal to the...