Juvenile Court Comparison

The two States that I did a comparison on is Texas which is where I reside and North Carolina. The reason I chose North Carolina is because that is the State that I was born in and also where my son is going to attend college. As with most states there are two main goals 1) To prevent crimes and to rehabilitate juveniles, 2) The Safety of the Public. It is up to Law makers and others to find the best ways to meet these goals. There is not a set guideline or specific procedures in the Nation for The Juvenile Justice System, so each state makes their own. Every state has their own definition of adolescent offenders and decided in different ways how they should treat them. In the State of Texas a child is considered a minor from the age of 10 yr old until the age of 17. At the age of 17 years old a juvenile is considered an adult. In North Carolina children 16 yrs and older are considered adults.

The Juvenile Justice System in the State of Texas celebrated its 100 Birthday in 1999. Many people believe that the Juvenile Justice system is equal to the adult system and that juveniles are punished as adults are but that is not always the truth. The Texas Juvenile System is made up of a mixture of the Criminal Law and the Civil Law. It is governed by The Juvenile Justice Code which is called the Title 3 of Texas Family Code. The only similarities that are shared with the Adult system are that it also refers to the Texas Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures for rules. The steps of The Court Procedures are: If a child is arrested, they are detained in a child facility, a child is not bonded out but most go before a judge. Once before the judge, it is decided if a petition will be filed depending upon the severity of the offense. The child can then make his or her pleading if the child wishes to plead not guilty a jury child can be requested. Even if there is a jury trial, only the judge can determine the punishment. The judge is also limited to the punishment that he or she can sentence because of the Juvenile Code’s Progressive Sanction Levels. This is the method which the Juvenile system uses to rank crimes. The levels range from 1 to 7, the lowest being a Class C misdemeanor and the highest being a capital felony. The main goal of the system is not to punish juveniles but rehabilitate them. There are several programs that the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission created to reform child offenders.

In North Carolina the first Juvenile court was established in 1868. All of the state juvenile cases were supervised by the Board of Juvenile Corrections in 1943. By 1971 the name had change to The Department of Youth Development. Juveniles in North Carolina enter the system when someone makes a complaint about he or she being delinquent. The District Court has the power to apply the laws to a juvenile. All of the proceedings are handled in the county where the offense occurred. Complaints are evaluated by a Juvenile Court Counselor who is from the Department Of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. After the complaint is viewed by the Counselor it is then decided if a petition should be filed to have the juvenile appear in court. At that time the court is ask to decided if the juvenile is considered delinquent or undisciplined.