Restructuring the Juvenile Court

Abstract

One of the most striking features of criminal justice reform over the past two decades has been the relative speed with which procedural and organizational changes in the juvenile court have taken place. The net effect has been to render juvenile court operations much more comparable to those of adult courts in their procedural requirements, operational goals and philosophies, and legislated constraints on judicial discretion. These changes in the juvenile court system have to some extent reflected the recent trend in adult court reforms away from indeterminate sentencing practices designed to facilitate rehabilitation of offenders toward determinate sentencing arrangements designed to increase equity or fairness in sentencing and the predictability of punishments. But the changes in the juvenile court go deeper than this. They reflect a sweeping repudiation of the original premises and practices of the juvenile court movement capped by proposals for the elimination of a separate juvenile court.