Difference Between Adult And Adult Court System

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The juvenile court system and the adult court system are two different systems. They work in different was and have different goals when dealing with someone who appears in court. They have different procedures and different rules to go by. The adult court system started before the juvenile court system.
History of the Juvenile Court System
The adult court system was established before there was a juvenile court system. The adult court system has been around since colonial days. It was pretty much shaped after the Revolutionary war, after the constitution was created. The constitution was what set the guidelines for punishment and how it was dealt with (Criminal Justice. 2014). The U.S. Criminal Justice History Resource Page - Criminal Justice Degree Online. Retrieved April 19, 2016, from …show more content…

The main difference in them is that the juvenile court system’s main goal is to help the youth. Everyone that is part of the system wants to help the juvenile. They want to rehabilitate them, so they can go on living a normal, crime free life. The adult court systems set out for justice. They want punishment. The juvenile court system is based on civil laws not criminal laws. This shows that they seek rehabilitation and not punishment. (Fradella & Neubauer, 2011, pp. 500). The juvenile court system is also private. The adult court systems allows people to sit in the sessions, but the sessions in the juvenile courts are closed to the public and the names are not released. The jurisdictions of the two court systems are different as well. The adult court system jurisdiction is based off of the crime committed, whether it was a federal law that was broken or a state law that was broken. For juveniles the jurisdiction is based off of age. The age varies state to state. For example, in New York, a 16-year-old is considered an adult, and in Pennsylvania the cut off age is 17 (Fradella & Neubauer, 2011, pp.

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