Critique of the Article: 'The Future of the Juvenile Court: A Theoretical Framework That Fits'
The premise of the article "The future of the juvenile court: A theoretical framework that fits" by Mark H. Moore, is that juvenile courts have been subject, in recent years, to increasing criticism of the ways that they handle delinquency cases, and that a new theoretical framework is needed for the court, "that encompasses its jurisdiction over dependency and status offense cases, as well as delinquency cases" (p. 140). Toward that end, the author proposes a theoretical framework, or "alternative model for the court". Such an alternative-model court would hold caretakers of juveniles responsible for fulfilling their responsibilities as the caretakers of minors. The central idea proposed by the author is to shift the function of the juvenile court, and by association, others' perception of it, from that of a criminal court enforcing laws, to that of a civil court responsible instead for administering law, as it pertains to parents; caretakers, and children themselves. Such a shift, argues Moore, convincingly, would also serve the
socially useful function of holding caretakers more responsible for properly caring for children, thereby better helping such children avoid future lives of crime and/or social dependency, and thus better assuring that they will grow into responsible adulthood, and be willing and able to lead productive lives. One potential flaw in Moore's argument is that the concept of juvenile court as a civil "overseeing" kind of court, whose role is to take responsibility for "managing" the child-rearing responsibilities of derelict parents, is that this concept implicitly seems to shift some of the responsibility for juvenile delinquent acts from the juveniles themselves onto their parents or guardians, who may or may not actually be responsible for them. As a counter-argument to Moore's proposed concept, it may be a simplistic over generalization to assume an automatic cause-and-effect between juvenile delinquency; truancy, etc., and poor parenting. Other factors, e.g. peer pressure; one-parent families; and the decline in many of the tradition
Some common words found in the essay are:
Mark Moore, , juvenile court, theoretical framework, proposed concept, juvenile delinquency truancy, juvenile delinquency, delinquency truancy, juvenile courts, parents guardians,
Approximate Word count = 706
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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