Juvenile law is typically governed by the state and most states set the age for criminal culpability at eighteen (deferring between seventeen and nineteen in some cases) (Walsh, 2016). The founders of the juvenile court saw it as “a system of justice that would protect youth from potential harms of adult court and that seek to not only punish but also to advance the ‘best interests’ of youth.” The juvenile court, unlike adult court, is guided by parens patriae, which is Latin for “state as parent.” The juvenile court is set up to act as the parent and it can punish and dismiss cases how it seems is appropriate, while also seeking to help juveniles in a way that can lead them to live productive lives (Mears, Kuch, Lindsey, Siennick, Pesta, Greenwald & Bloomberg, …show more content…
The states must follow the following: deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO); adult jail and lock-up removal (jail removal); sight and sound separation; and disproportionate minority contact (DMC). The act itself was put into place to maintain the ideal of the system. Many states were inconsistent with the handling, subjecting many juvenile offenders to physical, mental and emotion injury. The act was established in1974 to address the inconsistencies between all of the separate juvenile courts (About