Term
|
Definition
| Judgment or action on a petition filed with the juvenile court by others. |
|
|
Term
| Adjudication hearing, adjudicatory hearing |
|
Definition
| Formal proceeding involving a prosecuting attorney and a defense attorney where evidence is presented and the juvenile's guilt or innocence is determined by the juvenile judge. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Opponent-driven court litigation, where one side opposes the other, prosecution seeks to convict or find defendants guilty, while defense counsel seeks to defend their clients and seek their acquittal. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A wide variety of programs and services for juveniles, including halfway houses, counseling services, employment assistance, and medical treatment. |
|
|
Term
| Beyond a reasonable doubt |
|
Definition
| Evidentiary standard used in criminal courts to establish guilt or innocence of criminal defendant. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Habitual offenders, repeat offenders, persistent offenders, youths who commit frequent delinquent acts. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Result of a delinquency adjudication obligating youths to comply with one or more conditions of a probation or similar programs. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Judgments of a court based on a jury or judicial verdict or on the guilty please of defendants that the defendants are guilty of the offenses alleged. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Any court where a written record is kept of court proceedings. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Court officials who keep a written word-for-word and/or tape-recorded record of court proceedings. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An interdisciplinary studying nature and operations of organizations providing justice services to society; consists of lawmaking bodies, including state legislatures, and Congress, local, state, and federal agencies, that try to enforce the law. |
|
|
Term
| Criminal Justice Professionals |
|
Definition
| Anyone interested in studying the criminal justice system, may have a PH.D or master's degree in criminal justice or a related field, may be a practitioner, such as a police officer, corrections officer, probation or parole officer, prosecutor or judge. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Persons who study crime, the science of crime and criminal behavior, the forms of criminal behavior, the causes of crime, the definition of criminality and the societal reaction to crime. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Either non secure or secure options resulting from a delinquency adjudication involving out of home placement, ranch placement, or a juvenile custodial facility placement. |
|
|
Term
| De-institutionalization of Status offenses DSO |
|
Definition
| De-institutionalization of status offenses. Eliminating status offenses from the broad category of delinquent acts and removing juveniles from or precluding their confinement in juvenile correctional facilities, the process of removing status offense from the jurisdiction of juvenile court so that status offenders cannot be subject to secure confinement. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Type of deinstitutionalization where juveniles are removed from secure and non-secure custodial facilities and put on probation, required to attend treatment or service programs and subjected to other behavioral restraints. |
|
|
Term
| Dependent and neglected children |
|
Definition
| Youths considered by social services or the juvenile court to be in need of some type of adult supervision. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| To decide the punishment to be imposed on a juvenile following an adjudication hearing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Punishments resulting from a delinquency adjudication may be nominal, conditional, or custodial. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| De institutionalizing status offenders through the act of juvenile court judges giving up their jurisdiction over status offenses. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| View toward criminals and delinquents favoring maximum penalties and punishments for crimes or delinquents. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Also known as flat time, actual amount of secure confinement juveniles must serve as the result of a custodial disposition from a juvenile court. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Legal term applicable to juveniles who have not attained the age of majority. In most states it is 18 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Critical phase where a determination is made by a juvenile probation officer or other official whether to release juveniles to their parent's custody or recommend their detention for further juvenile court action. |
|
|
Term
| Intake hearings, intake screening |
|
Definition
| Proceedings where juvenile official, such as juvenile probation officer, conducts an interview with a youth charged with a delinquent or status offense. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Juvenile probation officer who conducts screenings and preliminary interviews with alleged juvenile delinquents or status offenders and their families. |
|
|
Term
| JJDPA Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act |
|
Definition
| Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act passed in 1974, encourages all states to remove status offenders from secure institutions. Legislation recommending various alternatives to incarcerating youths, including de-institutionalization of status offending, removal of youths from secure confinement, and other rehabilitative treatments. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Action sponsored by the OJJDP and the JJDPA to deinstitutionalize juveniles from secure facilities; such as jails. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| City or county operated and financed facilities designed to house misdemeanants serving sentences of less than one year, pretrial detainees, witnesses, juveniles, vagrants and others. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Power of a court to hear and determine a particular type of case; also, territory within which a court may exercise authority such as a city, county, or state. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Anyone who under the age of his/her majority has committed one or more acts that would be crimes if adults committed them. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Stages through which juveniles are processed, sentenced and corrected after arrests for juvenile delinquency. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Any infant or child who has violated juvenile laws. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Violation of the law by any person prior to his/her eighteenth birthday; punishable by juvenile courts, violation of any law or ordinance by anyone who has not achieved the age of their majority. |
|
|
Term
| Juvenile delinquents, delinquent child. |
|
Definition
| Infant of not more than a specified age who has violated criminal laws or engages in disobedient, indecent, or immoral conduct, and is in need of treatment, rehabilitation, or supervision. |
|
|
Term
| Law enforcement agencies/law enforcement |
|
Definition
| Any organization whose purpose is to enforce criminal laws; the activities of various public and private agencies at local, state and federal levels. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Small rooms or buildings designed for confining arrested adults and/or juveniles for short periods, such as 24 hours or less. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Pulling juveniles into the juvenile justice system who wouldn't otherwise be involved in delinquent activity; applies to many status offenders, (also known as, "widening the net.") |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Adjudicatory disposition resulting in lenient penalties such as warnings and or probation. |
|
|
Term
| Non-secure custody, Non-secure confinement |
|
Definition
| Custodial disposition where a juvenile is placed in a group home, foster care, or other arrangement where he/she is permitted to leave with permission of parents, guardians, or supervisors. |
|
|
Term
| OJJDP Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention |
|
Definition
| Agency established by Congress under the JJDPA of 1974; designed to remove status offenders from jurisdiction of juvenile courts and dispose of their cases less formally. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Concept originated with the King of England during the 12th century and means that the King is in charge of the children. Children beyond the age of 7 were responsible for their actions and accountable to the state. Literally, " parent of the country." |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A document whereby an official or private individual can bring charges against a juvenile and ask the juvenile court to hear the case. |
|
|
Term
| Preponderance of the evidence |
|
Definition
| Standard used in civil courts to determine defendant or plaintiff liability and where the result does not involve incarceration. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Holding delinquent or criminal suspects in incarcerative facilities pending their forthcoming adjudicatory hearing or trial. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Constitutional right of police to detain suspects prior to trial without bail, where suspects are likely to flee from the jurisdiction or pose serious risks to others. |
|
|
Term
| Prosecution and the courts |
|
Definition
| Organizations that pursue cases against criminal suspects and determine whether they are guilty or innocent of crimes alleged. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Any citation of a juvenile to juvenile court by a law enforcement officer, interested citizen, family member, or school official; usually based upon law violations, delinquency, or unruly conduct. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Action usually taken by police officers, of redefining juvenile acts as delinquent when in fact such acts are harmless or status offenses; result is harsher treatment by police of arrested juveniles. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mediation between victims and offenders whereby a suitable punishment is imposed and agreed to by offender and victim; usually involves victim compensation and some offender service. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Juveniles who leave their home for long-term periods without parental consent or supervision; unruly youths who cannot be controlled or managed by parents or guardians. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Procedure used by prosecutor to determine which cases have prosecutive merit and which ones don't. |
|
|
Term
| Secure custody, secure confinement |
|
Definition
| Incarceration of juvenile offender in facility which restricts movement in community; similar to adult penal facility involving total incarceration. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The type of evidence required to sustain a petition of delinquency against a juvenile depending on the seriousness of the offense; how guilt is measured or determined. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Juveniles who commit infractions of laws only pertaining to juveniles. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Violations of laws pertaining only to juveniles. I.e. runaway's, truancy, curfew violations. Any act committed by a minor that would not be a crime if an adult committed it. |
|
|
Term
| Stigmas, Stigmatize, stigmatization |
|
Definition
| Social process whereby offenders acquire undesirable characteristics as the result of imprisonment or court appearances, undesirable criminal or delinquent labels are assigned those who are processed through the criminal and juvenile justice systems. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A protective action usually taken by police officers, which is designed to offer temporary shelter for juvenile runaways or truants; not the same as an arrest. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Special bodies that convene to determine punishments for youths who absent themselves from school. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Juveniles who are habitually absent from school without excuse. |
|
|
