Issues Associated with Juvenile Waiver

The juvenile court was created in the early part of the 20th century for the purpose of providing an alternate method of dealing with juveniles who ran afoul of the law. Early juvenile court advocates argued that juveniles, because of their tender age, were less culpable than adult offenders and, thus, should be dealt with differently. Dealing with juveniles in a separate court would allow for more attention to the individual needs of the juvenile; the motto of the juvenile court quickly became in the best interests of the child (Feld, 1987). This approach differed radically from the punishment-oriented approach of the criminal court system. By the latter part of the 20th century, however, a number of constituencies had become disenchanted with the juvenile court. Conservatives argued that it allowed juveniles who had committed serious crimes to escape with little or no punishment; liberals argued that the juvenile court disregarded the constitutional rights of juvenile offenders. The result was an increase in the use of juvenile waiver. Juvenile waiver is the mechanism by which a juvenile court’s jurisdiction is waived, and a juvenile offender is transferred to the jurisdiction of the criminal court. This allows for the imposition of different (and generally greater) sanctions on the juvenile, should he or she be convicted in criminal court.