Essay - Status Offenders Throughout Modern History, Society Has Struggled with How...

Status Offenders

Throughout modern history, society has struggled with how to handle children and adolescents who committed crimes. Historically, juveniles who came to the attention of ***** courts have been considered less guilty, because of their age, than adults (Klein, 1998). This in turn developed into an attitude at the end of ***** 19th ***** beginning ***** the 20th century that the appropriate role for police and the courts was to guide the young person to a better path. This in ***** encouraged the idea of "status offenses" -- that is, offenses ***** would not be crimes if committed by an adult. For example, a 15 year old could be considered truant if he or s***** *****topped attending school, but an 18 year ***** who dropped out of high school without graduating ***** not ***** truant.

The change from ***** to juvenile courts for youthful **********, however, took some time to accomplish. Until 1899 youth drawn i by ***** legal system were served by the same courts that served adult offenders. In addition, some rules ***** quite harsh: in 1827, the age ***** criminal responsibility was ten years old in Ill*****ois (Wolcott, 2001).

By the end of the nineteenth *****, however, people working in various aspects of social reform were concerned ***** when children went through ***** adult courts they ***** treated as if ***** were *****s and fully responsible for what was often a childish choice of action (*****, 2001). The police ***** perceived as too quick to arrest adolescents on any pretext -- ***** only such th*****gs as theft, but for vague status offenses ***** as the youth's inability to explain why he or she w***** in a cert*****in place, or even "just to keep him out of mischief" (Wolcott, 2001).

***** first ***** court, created in *****, served to separate youths from adults in the ***** system. Led by social ********** such as Jane Hull as well as ***** Chicago Bar Association ***** other groups, they hoped the Illinois Juvenile Court Act would allow authorities and agencies to intervene in cases of delinquency and eliminate its causes (*****, 2001). ***** law, soon copied ***** many other states, separated ***** from the ***** law applied to adults and gave the courts a chance ***** provide alternatives to incarceration that might be more rehabilitative (Feld, 1997). These choices reflected the Progressive social movement of the ***** and gave ***** court the right to intervene in ***** of the parents. This policy, called parens patriae, allowed the court ***** act as the child's parents ***** make decisions that parents ***** have otherwise made. This put the ***** ***** ***** position ***** dealing with youth for status ***** that ***** ***** have been dealt with by the parents, such as truancy, running away, and sexual activity (*****, 1997). ***** juvenile courts be***** ***** core of a juvenile legal ***** int*****ed to look out for the best interests ***** those children who fell under its care. The goal was ***** help rather