Juvenile Crime | Harsher Punishment Is the Answer to Juvenile Crime

Everything in the juvenile justice system is designed to relieve teen malefactors of responsibility for their criminal acts. Under the Family Court Act [which governs the administration of juvenile justice in New York], gun-toting teen muggers are not criminals but juvenile “delinquents,” and they have not committed crimes but rather “acts which if committed by an adult would be a crime.” As they haven’t committed crimes, it follows that they acquire no criminal record. They are charged in Family Court as “respondents,” not as defendants. They are not indicted but...

[The entire page is 1632 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the: