144 (> Court and the Legal System—-Juvenile Forensicspunishment as adult offenders. The pawns patriac doctrine, which is derived from
English common law, allows the state to intervene and act in the "best interests of
the child" whenever it is deemed necessary (Reppucci & Crosby, 1993).
What is "in the best interest" of the juvenile? When a 15-year-old girl wants an
abortion should the court grant her request? As discussed by Reppucci and Crosby
(1993), "in most situations there are several alternatives that may be equally positive
or harmful for a child" (p. 4). So, it is important for the court to understand as much
as possible about the juvenile in order to increase the odds of a positive outcome.
In the case of Kent v. United States (1966), the court stated that "the parcns patriae
philosophy of the Juvenile Court is not an invitation to procedural arbitrariness"
(383 U.S. 556, 1966).
There is a general trend in society to lower the age of criminal responsibility and
to punish rather than rehabilitate offenders. "This move away from rehabilitation
has had a marked impact on every level of the criminal justice system, from the
police to the courts to corrections" (Fritsch & Hemmens, 1995, p. 17). Legislatures
responded to the public's desire to "get tough" on crime by passing laws that have
toughened the adult criminal justice system. These laws included making prison
sentences longer, eliminating "good time" credits used toward an earlier parole,
and replacing indeterminate with determinate sentencing. The trend of holding the
offender accountable carried over from the adult criminal system into the juvenile
justice system with the rise in adolescent crime. The juvenile courts then shifted
away from rehabilitation and moved toward punishment. This shift caused a large
increase in the use of waivers by judges (Fritsch & Hemmens, 1995). Judges use
waivers to place juveniles into the adult justice system so that youth offenders
can receive a more severe punishment. This procedure or waiver is also referred
to as "certification," "transfer," "reference," "remand," or "declination" (Kinder,
Veneziano, Fichter, & Azurna, 1995).
In the 1980s many state legislatures passed laws that enacted waivers. These
certifications transferred juvenile offenders of serious and violent crimes from the
juvenile justice system into the criminal justice system. The legislatures believed
that the juveniles would then receive a greater punishment for their offenses. In
one research study this intention of greater punishment was found only to be true in
a small number of cases (Kinder et al., 1995). In fact, the juvenile cases transferred
to adult courts were far more likely to be pending or unresolved (see below for
the results of a comparison study done by Kinder et al., 1995). Waivers are usually
attached to the more serious and violent crimes like murder, rape, and aggravated
assault because these offenses need more severe sanctions than the juvenile justice
system can impose (Fritsch & Hemmens, 1995).
.1 Comparison of the Dispositions of juvenile (')ffendcn Certified <;< Adults ti'itli Jin>eni!c
Offenders Mot Certified
In 1993 a study was conducted that tracked a group of" juvenile offenders certified
to adult court with a noncertified adjudicated sample of juvenile offenders to compare
the two groups. Its primary purpose was to determine whether those certified as adults