The Treatment of Juvenile Offenders in Murder Cases

Abstract

[The following article opens up an important question: Should juvenile murderers be subject to the jurisdiction of the Criminal Courts? There is one school of thought that would give exclusive jurisdiction over all juvenile offenders, including juvenile murderers to the Juvenile Courts. Another group would have a concurrent jurisdiction to the extent that the Juvenile Court would have absolute discretion in either, retaining a juvenile offender for a hearing before it, or transfer the case to the Criminal Court for trial. If a juvenile is sixteen years of age and has been a repeater and violated his probation several times the Juvenile Court might deem it expedient to have such a juvenile tried for his latest violation in a Criminal Court. A third view, illustrated by Illinois, gives the State's Attorney authority to elect whether to try a juvenile offender in either the Criminal Court or the Juvenile Court. The latter is called the Family Court in Cook County, Illinois, since 1949. In that state some juvenile murderers have been tried in the Juvenile Court (Family Court) while others have been tried in the Criminal Court. Though the trial is in the Juvenile Court the juvenile offender can demand a jury trial composed of a six-member jury. In some cases a juvenile is found not guilty in the Criminal Court and then tried in Juvenile Court, found guilty and incarcerated. The Illinois court has jurisdiction to try adults contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and also the juvenile offender-a rather significant development. The Illinois Court has jurisdiction to try adults contributing to the years of age are considered juveniles. Juveniles from the age of ten years are likewise recognized as being within the Criminal Code and thus criminally liable for its violation.-John W. Curran, Ed.] Although children's courts had been established in Australia in the early nineties it was not until 1899, when the State of Illinois enacted enabling legislation, that such courts were incorporated into American jurisprudence. Prior to the establishment of such courts, it had been the practice in this country to hale juvenile lawbreakers before the criminal courts and to brand them with the stigma of a criminal charge. Those