Crim 5

• Code of Hammurabi - Oldest known code for thousand years ago dating from 2270 B.C used by society to regulate behavior and at the same time punish those who disobeyed the rules. It established a social order based on individual rights. It is the origin of the legal principle of "Lex Talionis" or "Lex Taliones", that is, an "Eve for an Eye".

• In 1641, General Court of Massachusetts passed the Stubborn Child Law, which stated that children who disobeyed their parents could be put to death.
• 
  

  Roman Law and Canon (Church) Law -Approximately two thousand years ago. made distinction between juveniles and adults based on the notion Age of Responsibility.
• Ancient Jewish Law - The Talmud specified condition under which immaturity was to be considered in imposing punishment. There was no corporal punishment prior to puberty, which was considered to be the age of twelve for females and thirteen for males. In addition, no capital punishment is to be imposed on those offenders under twenty years of age.
• Codification of Roman Law - In 5th century B.C., this law resulted in the Twelve Tables, which made it clear that children were criminally responsible for violation of law and were to be dealt with by same criminal justice system as adults. Under this law, children came to be classified as "Infans, or "Proximus Infandae. In general. infans (7 years old below) were not held criminally responsible, but those approaching puberty (above 7 to 14 for boys and above 7-12 for girls) liability was based on their capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong.

• 
  

  Anglo Saxon Common Law - Children under the age of 7 were presumed incapable of forming criminal intent and therefore were not subject to criminal sanctions. Children between 7 - 14 were not subject to criminal sanctions unless it could be demonstrated that they had formed criminal intent, understood the consequences of their actions, and could distinguish right from wrong. Children over 14 were treated much the same as adults.

• Middle of 19th century- Child-saving movement - Concerned citizens eventually formed a social activist group called Child Savers who believed that children were bom good and became bad. Juvenile children were blamed on bad environments. The best way to save children was to get them out of bad homes and placed in good ones. This led to the creation of the doctrine Parens Patriae.

• Parens Patriae


  A doctrine that does not consider delinquent acts as criminal violation, thus making delinquents non-criminal persons and cannot be found guilty of a crime and punished like an adult criminal. This doctrine viewed minors who violate the law as victims of improper care, custody and treatment at home. Thus, in parents patriae, the State becomes the father.
• Poor Law Act of 1601 - This provided for involuntary separation of children from their impoverished parents, and these children were then placed in bondage to local residents as apprentices.

• Revised penal code - During this time, circumstances of a delinquent are not taken into account. There is no diversion treatment for the child who was involved in the commission of anti-social acts. There is also the presence of stigma of criminality among the society. Further, there is no provision of aftercare for the involved children. Lastly, as young as 9 years old, a child can already be incarcerated or imprisoned inside the jail.
• 
  

  Presidential decree no.603 (child and youth welfare) - person who is over nine (9) but under twenty-one (21) years of age at the time of the commission of the offense who committed a crime is called youthful offender
• Child-In-Conflict with the Law (CICL)


  A child who is above the age of 15 but below 18 is also exempted unless proven to have acted with discernment
• Pope Clement XI - In 1704 in Rome, he established the Hospital of St. Michael's, the first institution for the treatment of juvenile offenders. The stated purpose of the hospital was to correct and instruct unruly youth so they might become useful citizens.
• Robert Young - In 1788, he established the first private, separate institution for youthful offenders in England. The goal of the institution was to educate and instruct ja some asetil trade or occupation the children of convicts or such other infant poor as engaged in a vagrant and criminal course of life.

• Albert K. Cohen - The first man who attempted to find out the process of beginning of the delinquent - subculture.
• Kingwood Reformatory - This was established for the confinement of the hordes of unruly children who infested the streets of new industrial towns of England.
• New York Committee on Pauperism - In 1818, the committee gave the term Juvenile Delinquency, and its first public recognition by referring it as a major cause of pauperism.
• 
  

  1899 - The first Juvenile or family court was established in Cook County Illinois.

• 1899-1967 has been referred to as the era of socialized juvenile justice
• Almshouses- Locked, one-room buildings that housed many types of people with many different problems.

• House of Refuge - the late 18 and early 19th century, courts punished and confined youth in jails and penitentiaries. Since few other options existed, youth of all ages and genders were often indiscriminately confined with hardened adult criminals and the mentally ill in large overcrowded and decrepit penal institutions. Many of these youth were confined for noncriminal behavior simply because there were no other options.
• Parens patriae philosophy - The state should act as a benevolent legal parent when the family was no longer willing or able to serve the best interests of the child; this included parental inability to control or discipline their child.

• Reform, Training, or Industrial Schools- For the first half of the 19th century, Houses of Refuge were the primary institutions confining the increasing number of poor and delinquent youths. Unfortunately, Houses of Refuge quickly confronted the same issues that plagued adult jail and prisons - overcrowding, deteriorating conditions, and staff abuse.

• San Francisco Industrial School - one of the best examples of a 19th century reform school, which was established in 1859. Throughout its turbulent 30-year history, the Industrial School was the subject of frequent scandals stemming from physical abuse to managerial incompetence. When the facility was finally ordered closed in the 1891, the city's judiciary denounced it as a failed system.
• Child-Saving Movement- This movement was focused on the urban poor, trying to keep children sheltered, fed, and when possible and old enough, employed. Early organizations included the Children's Aid Society (1853) and the New York Juvenile Asylum (1851).

• Reform Schools- In contrast to the large and controlling houses of refuge, reform schools were designed as small, rural, cottage-like homes run by parental figures who worked to educate and care for children and adolescents.

• 
  

  1886 - The first reform school, Lyman School for Boys, was established in Massachusetts.

• By 1896, 51 reform schools were established nationwide.
• Establishment of Juvenile Courts - The nation's first juvenile court was established in Cook County, Illinois during 1889; an institution that was intended to act in loco parents (in place of the parents).
• Juvenile courts handled most matters as civil cases, viewing the child as in need of rehabilitation and supervision and treating delinquency as a social problem instead of as a crime.
• Incarceration facilities - Institutionalization became the primary determination and outcome for those involved with the juvenile courts. Most young people who were brought before the juvenile courts were adjudicated delinquent and placed within a locked facility.
• Loco parentis - the community removing the children and placing them with other families
• Types of delinquent youth

  • Social
  • Neurotic
  • Asocial
  • Accidental
• Social delinquent


  • Aggressive youth who resents authority or anyone who tries to control their behavior
• Neurotic delinquent


  • Has internalized conflicts and is preoccupied with their own feelings
• Asocial delinquent


  • Delinquency has a cold, brutal, vicious quality for which the youth feels no remorse
• Accidental delinquent


  • Less identifiable in character, essentially socialised and law-abiding but happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and became involved in a delinquent act not typical of their general behaviour
• Types of delinquents


  • Occasional delinquents
  • Gang delinquents
  • Maladjusted delinquents
• Subculture


  A group of people who share a number of values and attitudes in common
• Occasional delinquents


  • Participate in groups, have common or similar characteristics, and are pro-social (do what others are also doing)