Juvenile Justice & Criminal Waivers

The idea of juvenile justice is relatively new, as are the idea of juvenile waivers.

While it might be considered common practice to treat juveniles and adults differently as regards crime these days, this is a relatively new, legal development. The first juvenile court in America was founded in the year 1899, and for most of history before that juveniles were treated the same as adults. Adult waivers are what are issued to push juveniles into an adult court, essentially duplicating the spirit of how things used to be.

Waiver

A juvenile justice waiver is a document that's issued when a juvenile is taken out of the juvenile justice system and put into the adult court system. This is what happens when you hear that a juvenile offender will be tried as an adult.

Crimes

Juvenile justice waivers aren't issued for just any sort of crime committed by a juvenile offender. The crime that the juvenile committed should be egregious, according to Findlaw.com, such as murder, rape, or serial commission of crimes deemed by the court to be heinous in nature.

Age

Even with these criminal waivers there are still age limits that a juvenile must meet before he can be remanded to a higher court. In many states this limit is 17 or 18 years old, but some states go as low as 14 years old according to Findlaw.com. The nature of age and crime is an area of hot dispute, especially when people have to decide whether a 12 or 13 year old offender had the same malice and capability to truly understand what she was doing as a 27 or 30 year old offender would.

Rights

Juvenile offenders have more rights and protections than adult offenders do. This is part of the reason that juvenile justice waivers are given in many cases. If the crime is bad enough that the juvenile should be tried as an adult, then doing so strips away many protections that juveniles have regarding search and seizure, admission of guilt, and the required presence of the juvenile's parents as well as a lawyer.

Exclusion

There are 28 states in the U.S. (as of 1997) where certain crimes are not allowed to be tried at a juvenile court level. While a hearing may still take place for a juvenile waiver to go to the higher court, crimes like first degree murder may not be tried in some juvenile courts at all. Once again these crimes tend to be the more egregious variety of criminal offenses.

References

• Center on Criminal and Juvenile Justice: Juvenile Justice History
• Find Law: Juvenile "Waiver"