Deck 9: Juvenile Court and the Legal Processing of Children and Adolescents

Question 1

Before juvenile courts were created

A) All children were tried as adults
B) Children 5 and older were tried as adults
C) Children between the ages of 7 and 14 could be tried as adults if they seemed mature
D) No children were ever tried as adults

Answer 1

Children between the ages of 7 and 14 could be tried as adults if they seemed mature

Question 2

The first juvenile court was instituted in Chicago and

A) Provided punishment for crime by adjudicating guilt
B) Was intended to be a more benevolent agent of rehabilitation
C) Was very effective and recidivism rate was very low
D) Is a criminal court

Answer 2

Was intended to be a more benevolent agent of rehabilitation

Question 3

_______ is an example of language used in a juvenile court when referring to the individual being arraigned for the crime

A) The respondent
B) The defendant
C) The accused
D) The delinquent

Answer 3

The respondent

Question 4

In terms of success rate, juvenile courts today have

A) A modest rate of success
B) A high rate of success
C) A very low rate of success
D) The success of juvenile courts has not been accurately measured

Question 5

Juvenile courts today have jurisdiction over

A) Delinquents and status offenders
B) Delinquents , status offenders, and abused/neglected children
C) All troubled and troubling youth
D) Just those 16 years and younger

Question 6

Researchers point out several ways in which adolescents differ from adults in terms of making judgments, stressing the need for juvenile courts. An example of differences in judgment making is

A) that adolescents are less likely to think about long term consequences of their actions
B) Some adolescents may have a sense of vulnerability
C) Adolescents tend to be socially conforming
D) All of the above

Question 7

The purpose of transfer laws is to

A) Protect the public by incapacitating violent young offenders
B) To deter crime by other young people
C) To test the juvenile court system to see if young people are being punished mores severely than adults
D) All of the above
E) A and B only

Question 8

Researchers have found that_______ were likely to be waived to adult and a reason for this may be _______

A) Minority youth; coming from single parent homes
B) White or Caucasian youth; coming from single parent homes
C) Older youth; coming from an abusive home
D) Asian youth only; coming from an abusive home

Question 9

When looking at improvement of youth who have been tried as an adult, court research has found that

A) Adolescents tried as adults were re-arrested less than those tried as youths
B) Adolescents tried as adults were re-arrested more than those tried as youths
C) The re-arrest rate for adolescents tried as adults and juveniles was the same
D) When tried as an adult, most youths repented of their crime and voluntarily wrote letters of apology to their victims or the victims families.

Question 10

When measuring a juvenile's understanding of "legal rights in context", Grisso discovered that

A) On average, juveniles of all ages understand their rights and had the competency to waive them
B) On average, juveniles of all ages tend not to understand their rights
C) On average, youths below age 15 lacked the competency to waive their rights
D) Competency in youths is difficult to measure due to their self- consciousness, and therefore, quietness, around the interviewer

Question 11

If Grisso's suggestion for legal evaluations were followed _______ are problems that might arise

A) New duties could be given both to the court and forensic specialists, stretching already scarce resources
B) Mental health professionals have been trained to evaluate adults and not children, so evaluation may not be accurate
C) Could undermine the positions of the waiver laws and the imposition of harsher penalties
D) All of the above

Question 12

in order to relieve the "ineffectiveness" of juvenile courts and increase juvenile justice _______ were developed

A) Teen courts
B) Shorter trial periods and younger jury in jury courts
C) Neither A or B
D) Both A and B

Question 13

Should courts have the right to interfere with status offenders or should it remain the business of the family?

Question 14

Do you think that teen courts are good way to handle juvenile cases? What are advantages and disadvantages to them?

Question 15

Trace the historical development of the juvenile court. What has this revealed about society's changing understanding of the nature of juveniles and juvenile crime?

Question 16

What is meant by pathologizing behaviors? What problems does pathologizing behaviors present for our understanding of delinquency?

Question 17

What is the difference between status offenses and delinquency?

Question 18

What factors have led to the recriminalizing of delinquent behavior?

Question 19

According to Kent v. U.S. (1966), what factors must be considered by the court in transferring a juvenile to adult status?

Question 20

What evidence exists for the deterrent effects of recriminalizing juvenile crime?

Question 21

Summarize Grisso's findings about the limitations of juveniles to understand Miranda warnings.

Question 22

Summarize Grisso's findings about the limitations of juvenile competence to stand trial.

Question 23

What is meant by therapeutic jurisprudence? How has it typically been implemented in New Zealand Family Group Conference Model and in Teen Courts? What evidence is there of the effectiveness of these approaches?

Question 24

The juvenile court was

A) an European invention adopted in the United States
B) invented in New Zealand
C) a United States invention
D) an ancient legal institution

Question 25

Originally, the juvenile court was intended to

A) be a benevolent agent of rehabilitation
B) be a substitute for adult criminal court and adjudicate guilt or innocence of crimes
C) treat children and adolescents who committed crimes the same as adult criminals but in a different courtroom
D) put children in prisons with adults so they would learn that crime didn't pay

Question 26

Juvenile courts

A) were established under the state's police powers and were no different than adult criminal courts
B) were not criminal courts and were established under the state's parens patriae powers to help child offenders rather than prosecute them
C) when first established gave youth strict due process rights
D) when first established had very formal legal; procedures in order to help the child

Question 27

The laws establishing the juvenile court

A) defined offenses by youths as crimes punishable in a criminal court
B) were based on the principle that youth have full adult civil rights and liberties in most legal contexts
C) were promoted by reformers who believed that strict enforcement of the laws would prevent crime
D) created a new social and legal category of delinquency to be treated differently than adult criminals

Question 28

The laws establishing the juvenile court

A) defined a class of deviant delinquent youth who were brought to the attention of mental health professionals thus "pathologizing" certain youthful behaviors
B) created a focus on the social conditions that led youth into crime
C) found that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual already included delinquency as a pathological category
D) was created on the theory that most children would not become adult criminals if they had behavioral difficulties when young

Question 29

Today, crimes committed by youth

A) are relatively infrequent
B) are mostly processed in adult criminal courts
C) are still treated mostly by the juvenile courts
D) are rarely serious crimes

Question 30

Crimes committed by youth are

A) mostly committed by females whose violence often exceeds the violence committed by males
B) mostly committed by males, although the rate of crimes by females has been increasing rapidly in recent years
C) committed equally often by males and females
D) almost never committed by females

Question 31

Because of the rate of crimes committed by youth, legislators

A) passed laws "recriminalizing" delinquency by allowing some youth to be prosecuted in adult criminal court
B) redoubled their efforts to provide funds to improve rehabilitation services in juvenile courts
C) believed the low rates of crime committed by youth were attributable to effective juvenile courts
D) turned to the U.K and other European Union countries to find new models for rehabilitation of youth

Question 32

Status offenses are

A) defined by law in the same way as delinquent offenses
B) acts that are not harmful to youth or to others and are not crimes
C) acts that are offenses only because of the youth's age and would not be crimes if they were acts committed by adults
D) acts that would be crimes if committed by an adult

Question 33

Delinquency is defined

A) as youth who are considered "incorrigible" and beyond the control of their parents
B) as minors in need of supervision
C) youth who commit truly violent acts
D) as youth who commit acts that are defined in the state's criminal code and would be crimes if committed by an adult

Question 34

Since 1974, status offenders

A) have been sent to secure facilities and state schools for delinquents more often than before that date
B) who go to juvenile court are still at risk of being placed in group homes or in foster care
C) who disobey their parents are more likely to be taken into the custody of the courts than they were before that date
D) who are older than the age of status offense jurisdiction cannot be taken into juvenile court by their parents in most states

Question 35

Under diversion programs, status offenders

A) are diverted into private residential centers rather than into public residential facilities for delinquents
B) are referred to social service agencies before they can appear in juvenile court
C) are captured in nets with wide mesh through which they can slip out
D) are entering the juvenile justice system in larger numbers than ever before

Question 36

In In re Gault The U.S. Supreme Court held that

A) juveniles in juvenile court were entitled to more stringent due process protections than they had been receiving
B) more stringent due process protections were appropriate only for adults in criminal court and not for juveniles in juvenile court who were protected by the judge's role as a "wise parent"
C) juveniles appearing in juvenile court were entitled to a jury trial because they were at risk of losing their liberty
D) juveniles were not entitled to "Miranda warnings" about the right to remain silent or the right to have an attorney

Question 37

Because of concern that juvenile crime was encouraged by juvenile courts, state legislatures

A) moved away from greater accountability, and harsher sentences for delinquents in juvenile court to a greater emphasis on rehabilitation
B) made juvenile court dispositions harsher but compensated by making periods of confinement in juvenile facilities shorter
C) made juvenile punishments harsher, and redefined almost all crimes committed by youth as crimes and not delinquencies.
D) established procedures for transferring youth to criminal courts for certain serious offenses, or for initiating prosecution in criminal court

Question 38

The theory of treating youth differently than adult criminals assumes that

A) youth have less appreciation of their offenses because of immaturity
B) most youth who get into trouble when young will eventually mature into good citizens
C) that society should provide a "psychosocial moratorium" so that many acts that are done while a person is young shouldn't ruin a youth's life forever
D) all of the above

Question 39

Transfer laws recriminalizing certain serious offenses assume

A) youth certainly understand the nature of the serious offenses and understand that the acts are wrong
B) youth understand the future consequences of their acts the same way adults understand future consequences
C) drastic consequences would have a deterrent effect and show the legislature has concern for victims
D) all of the above

Question 40

Psychologists who study adolescents find that

A) adolescents have a longer time perspective than adults
B) adolescents have a sense of invulnerability which allows them to take risks
C) adolescents commit their acts alone because they are less subject to peer pressure
D) all of the above

Question 41

Legislatures set the age of juvenile jurisdiction

A) and can lower it making more older youth subject to juvenile prosecution
B) and can lower it for designated crimes so that very young people can be transferred to adult criminal court
C) and can raise it making more youth subject to criminal prosecution in adult court
D) and usually set the age based on psychological studies of the age at which youth mature enough to justify criminal prosecution

Question 42

If under state law a juvenile can be transferred from juvenile to adult court, among other factors the juvenile court judge should consider

A) whether the youth is unrepentant
B) the youth's amenability to treatment as shown by his past record of contact with the juvenile justice system
C) whether the youth's parents have been responsible in their care of the youth
D) whether the youth is a gang member no matter the offence with which he or she is charged

Question 43

With the coming of transfer laws,

A) a very small minority were actually transferred from juvenile to adult criminal court
B) a very large majority of those charged with crimes against property were transferred from juvenile to adult criminal court
C) a very large majority of those transferred to adult criminal court were actually charged with the most serious offenses of homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault
D) judges in different jurisdictions transferred about the same proportion of youth from juvenile to adult criminal court

Question 44

Before making a transfer decision, a judge may order a forensic mental health evaluation of the youth in order to

A) provide information about whether the youth is treatable and not dangerous
B) provide information about the youth's maturity and competence
C) both a) and b)
D) a) but not b)

Question 45

Mental health professionals seeing youth for possible transfer to adult criminal court are asked to evaluate dangerousness. This evaluation is

A) easy because of the large body of knowledge we have about predicting dangerousness in adult psychiatric patients
B) easy because the same factors that predict dangerousness in adults will be valid for predicting dangerousness in adolescent females
C) difficult because the research base studying dangerousness in adolescents is small and not very definitive
D) difficult because most adolescents have hormonal driven behavior

Question 46

Research evaluating juveniles understanding of their rights and their competence to waive rights shows that

A) many juveniles under age 15 do not understand their rights well enough to be considered competent to waive them
B) most juvenile of all ages have enough understanding so that their waiver of rights should be considered voluntary, knowing and intelligent
C) juveniles successfully resist adult pressure to waive their rights during police interrogations
D) juveniles rights are protected during early interrogations because they almost always have their attorneys present

Question 47

If a juvenile is tried as an adult as far as competence to stand trial is concerned

A) The issue doesn't arise because the judge protects the juvenile
B) In most states, competence to stand trial is presumed, unless there is reason to believe the juvenile is suffering from a mental disease or defect
C) In most states, a juvenile can be considered incompetent to stand trial simply because of immaturity
D) All of the above

Question 48

According to research on adolescence,

A) Almost all adolescents are eager to cooperate with their attorneys
B) Younger defendants with low IQs may have difficulty in assisting their attorneys
C) Older adolescent defendants with high IQs know more about the legal system and are more mistrustful of their attorneys
D) The research suggests that lawyers representing adolescents do not need to know much about psychological development.

Question 49

Restorative justice refers to reforms in the juvenile justice system

A) designed to give greater prominence to victims and to actions that might help heal the breach caused by the juvenile' act
B) that will restore the balance by allowing for longer sentences for juveniles adjudicated guilty in juvenile court
C) that emphasize punishment for an offense against the state
D) that place more responsibility on the prosecutor to represent the community

Question 50

To achieve the rehabilitation goals of juvenile justice, reforms could be built on the psychological theory of moral development by

A) Creating conditions for the offender to feel shame by calling the offender to account before valued others
B) Imposing a penalty appropriate to the specific crime by asking the offender to make some financial restoration to the victim
C) Using the offender's participation in the accountability process to help the offender to feel a part of the community
D) All of the above

Question 51

Teen courts

A) are specialized regular courts that adjudicate only cases involving teenagers
B) hear cases in which teens have refused to admit the charge
C) do not usually determine guilt or innocence but other teens decide the sentence
D) were designed to minimize the therapeutic justice aspects of legal process

Question 52

The New Zealand Family Group Conference model is based on legislation that is an example of therapeutic jurisprudence. The legislation

A) explicitly separates the offender's family from the juvenile justice process
B) puts the family in an adversarial relationship to the juvenile justice system
C) empowers the family by giving them a say in the disposition, and the victim by allowing a safe confrontation with the offender
D) none of the above

Question 53

Evaluation studies of the Family Group model has shown that

A) youth are held less accountable than in youth court because the usual disposition in youth court is probation
B) family members and community members (e.g. social workers, police etc.) find the process satisfying
C) young offenders and victims are highly satisfied with the family group process
D) all of the above