Criminal Justice - Juvenile Court Essay

On several occasions, the judge did seem to make an inquiry into motivation or reasoning, but the juveniles failed to give a coherent answer; it was clearly not a setting in which they felt comfortable opening up about their lives and issues. Instead of pursuing the matter to get a satisfactory answer, the judge just moved on to the ruling phase if the juvenile declined to give a full answer to questions or just responded "I don't know" or "I guess so" when it should have been obvious that there was much more to the story.

In another case, the judge asked a juvenile if he (the juvenile) knew why he was so angry at his mother. Everything about his body language, his facial expressions, and the way he stared at his mother suggested that he knew exactly why he purposely made his mother's life so difficult. Even as the juvenile responded "No Sir" he was glaring at his mother and obviously fighting back emotions. The judge accepted the answer and just turned his attention back to the attorney and started going over the dates of certain motions and appearances.

In the last case, the juvenile was represented by a private attorney and the whole rhythm of the proceedings seemed different. The attorney had only one set of paperwork with him instead of a bulging folder with the corners of documents and papers sticking out of the top and his suit looked like it was fresh. Everything about him suggested that he was more involved and concerned about what happened to his client even though, in actuality, he was also just doing his job. I was left with the distinct impression that that attorney's client was much more likely to have whatever problems resulted in his court appearance resolved successfully than the other juveniles.