Usefulness of the Juvenile Court: Preventing Crime

Importance of the Juvenile CourtNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
Importance of the Juvenile Court
The juvenile court is one of the most important judicial institutions. It helps children who are at the age of between 8-17 years old after being charged with the crime. The court not only depends on the law but also its’ functioning is based on the social, mental and medical sciences to bring about the rehabilitation of the child involved CITATION Yeh58 \l 1033 (Yehle, 1958). Its operations are based on the theory that punishment does not necessarily prevent delinquency. Therefore, the juvenile court plays the role of a parent in child upbringing.
The court is used to care and protect the neglected children. It helps the children by safeguarding the interests of the children and enforcing the obligations that they will need as they grow up to be responsible adults. The juvenile court judge is the one that decides the necessary treatment that the child is supposed to receive. Although a juvenile court operates as a social institution, it must ensure that it protects the rights of the people brought before it as it is provided in the constitution and the law CITATION Cas14 \l 1033 (Casey, 2014).
The juvenile court is not a preventive agency. Most of the public members regard the juvenile court as an agency that is used for the prevention of delinquency, and therefore they hold the court responsible for the increase. However, this is not the case. It only handles the cases that have been referred to it by the law enforcing agencies and other institutions. The court does not have any legal authority until after the delinquency has taken place and then they are called to do something that will help in the rehabilitation of the child CITATION Fel97 \l 1033 (Feld, 1997).
The court can act in preventing crime among the children through various ways. Some of the juvenile courts have probation officers who can help give an alert about the behavior of a child. It also plays a role in the community service as it can come up with social activities in which the children are involved and educate them more about the effects of engaging in crime activities. They also inform the public about the roles played by the juvenile courts CITATION Cas14 \l 1033 (Casey, 2014).
Recently, the juvenile court has been involved in the prevention of crime by partnering with child care and group working agencies CITATION Cas14 \l 1033 (Casey, 2014). They have come up with youth programs that prevent the young people from being idle. It has promoted the education of the young people in many ways. Most of the young people drop out of school, and they begin to involve themselves in drug abuse and others join juvenile gangs. When they are taken to the juvenile court, they are taken through a rehabilitation system and taken back to school.
Juvenile court ensures that the child’s name is not published and any data about the child is not given to the members of the public as this would handicap the rehabilitative process. The publishing of the child’s name may convince them that they are bad and therefore they will try to ensure that they live up to such a reputationCITATION Hsi00 \l 103...