Statistics kept by the Department of Justice tell the story of juvenile crime in America today. From 1984 to 1994, the homicide arrest rate for juveniles has soared 160%. Although juveniles make up only a small fraction of the population, they now account for almost one quarter of all weapons-crime arrests.
Many believe that things are only going to get worse. Criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston, calls this the "calm before the storm. He says that our failure to prepare "for the coming crisis in youth crime will almost guarentee a future blood bath - one that will someday make 1995 look like the good old days."
Everyday on the news, we hear of youths committing horrendous crimes. Our current juvenile justice system it appears, is no longer adequate for today's hardened juvenile criminals. In Pima County, Arizona, juveniles accounted for half of all burglary arrests and 20% of all rape arrests. Out of 11,485 juvenile charges filed there in a recent year, only 160 resulted in orders of confinement, mostly for short periods of a month or less.
The origins of our current juvenile justice system go back to 1899 when Illinois became the first state to establish a separate court system for juveniles. The Illinois system featured informal hearings and noncriminal proceedings. Rehabilitation of the youth, not public safety was the court's top priority.
By 1920, almost every state in the nation had adopted the Illinois approach to juvenile justice. Juveniles were rarely, except in extreme cases, charged as adults. This system worked fairly well up until the 1960s when the U.S. Supreme Court awarded juvenile offenders most of the protections of adult criminals such as the right to confront opposing witnesses and the right to an attorney. Juvenile offenders now had the best of both worlds. If the government wanted to prove their guilt, it would have to go to all the expense of an adult-like criminal trial, yet punishments still consisted of warnings, lectures, and possibly a few months in a detention hall. The juvenile justice system for obvious reasons, soon became overwhelmed.
States, facing an epidemic of violent juvenile crime, are now considering reforms. Virginia, for example, is exploring options such as automatically transfering juveniles 14 or older to adult court when they are charged with violent felonies and sending non-violent offenders to military-style boot camps.
