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The juvenile court was initiated in Chicago in 1899 and spread rapidly across the country during the first two decades of the 20th century. The juvenile court was founded on the principle of applying social-service interventions in a legal forum. Juvenile courts focus primarily on two types of children: abused, neglected, and dependent children and delinquent juveniles.
During the 1990s a push for trying children as adults resulted in state laws that encouraged this practice. These transfer laws and blended sentencing laws have resulted in thousands of minors being placed in adult jails. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has reviewed available research and noted that transferring juveniles to the adult system for trial and sentencing has been associated with increased recidivism in several studies.
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.
Most states still allow life without parole for juvenile offenders. Some juvenile courts have expanded their problem solving approach to include specialized courts or dockets, such as juvenile drug courts, mental health courts, teen courts, truancy courts, and gun courts. |
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