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The Status Offense
Why do we have a separate justice
system for juveniles? One reason is.
of course, the basic philosophicalte–
net that juveniles are not as respon–
sible for their actions as are
adults.
Aside from that ancient belief, the
origin of our present approach to
juvenile justice can be traced back
to a reform movement of the late
1800s and early 1900s. The reform–
ers considered the urban environ–
ment with its manifold negative
inftuences on youth to be the
spawning ground of crime. Their so–
lution was to make it illegal for kids
to do all the nasty things everyone
knew criminals had done when they
were kids.
When prohibited by law. these
naughty deeds - loitering, cursing.
truancy - were known as "status
offenses." because they were only
illegal when committed by those of
a certain status- minors.
Furthermore, reasoning that it
would be best to keep kids out of
adul~
courts, the reformers fathered
an entirely new institution. the juve–
nile court.
As a result, today's juvenile jus–
tice system must deal with two
broad categories of offenders. One
category
is
those kids who commit
actual criminal offenses, ranging in
seriousness from shoplifting to mur–
der. The second category is the
status offenders, today primarily
runaways, truants, and curfew viola–
tors.
Too Nalve
When we consider first just the very
serious, dangerous juvenile offend–
ers, such as those guilty of murder,
rape, or robbery, it seems society
has been a litt le too naive in dealing
with them. A juvenile who commits
murder will likely spend only about
a year and a half in sorne in–
stitution.
Society has fel t that heavy sen–
tences would have li ttle deterrent
value since the assumption is that
juveniles cannot adequately apply
the famous "moral calculus" de–
scribed by the eighteenth-century
philoso pher J eremy Bentham.
(Bentham's moral calculus argued
that crime will be deterred if the
would-be criminal views the poten-
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