Juvenile Court System

Waiving juvenile cases to a criminal court is a complicated process, and may

take some time in order to make the proper decision. There are a few different ways

in which this decision is made. In some jurisdictions, the cases may be decided upon

an intake unit within the court which then decides to process it formally or informally.

Other jurisdictions may use another agency such as the prosecutor’s office, or a social service agency to decide whether the case should go to juvenile or criminal court.

When a decision is made to transfer a juvenile case to criminal court, a judicial waiver

is petitioned for, and the juvenile judge then has to make the decision whether the case should be criminally prosecuted. In some places though, the prosecutor has the legal

right to make that judgment without involving the juvenile court, and send the case directly to criminal court.

When a juvenile commits the crime of homicide, I personally think that any offender 13 years or older should be tried in adult criminal court. I do understand that

the juvenile may lack some mental reasoning or may even have some mental disorder, just as I think that anyone who commits violent crimes have this also regardless of age, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be still be tried in criminal court for the horrible crimes they committed. The only part of the sentencing I don’t agree with in convicting

a juvenile is to where he is sent to prison. I do not believe that any minor under the age

of 18 should be placed in an adult prison. When the juvenile is 18 years old, I think the offender should be given some sort of hearing to determine whether he is able to withstand being sent to an adult prison. The reason I say this is because there are numerous cases of where juveniles were sent to adult state prisons, and in most cases

they were assaulted by the older inmates pretty severely. In Florida from 1995-1999, one out of