Abstract
A fascinating trend is emerging in juvenile justice - teen courts. As peer-based forums appearing in pockets throughout the United States, these specialized courts for child offenders are designed to actively draw the child into his or her own criminal process, allowing 'the law to work as a therapeutic agent.'[1] We posit that the teen court process empowers children with respect from peers, family and community because of the therapeutic manner of administering justice on behalf of the child offender. This process becomes a therapeutic model when children's lives are changed by the beneficial involvement of their peers in their legal process. The experience of participating in their own justice and the justice of their peers seems to create a natural pathway to building a broader sense of personal responsibility, active citizenship, and a generally healthier future.
Highlights
“The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience
A juvenile justice system essentially rests on the tradition of the best interest of the child standard, and is applied to the extent that the child is not transferred to adult criminal courts but sought to be rehabilitated in a court designed to meet the needs of children.[3]
Allowing “the law to work as a therapeutic agent.”[7]. We posit that the teen court process empowers children with respect from peers, family and community because of the therapeutic manner of administering the law to the child offender
Summary
“The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, institutions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed.”[2]. The experience of participating in their own justice and the justice of their peers seems to create a natural pathway to building a broader sense of personal responsibility, active citizenship, and a generally healthier future [12] This article explores these notions in depth, with a focus on how therapeutic jurisprudence brings forth that much needed change in the administration of juvenile justice. Exploring and examining how teen courts are advanced in the model of therapeutic jurisprudence, this article examines the research and methodology of this new program of teen courts to determine whether and how a teen court forum can enhance and develop a child’s decision-making process in the context of a reliable rule of law based on a jury of peers These wonderfully rich opportunities for child offenders and other child participants are unique to the teen court process of juvenile justice and are essentially based on notions of therapeutic justice. The opportunity to intercept and redirect a child behaving criminally strikes at the heart of social science, creating a need for understanding the solutions to the problems facing juvenile justice today
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