Time Period Theories About a Juvenile Name Jim

Juvenile Offenders. Delinquency

In this paper, I will explain the two time periods of punishment for Jim in regards to the case study. Now, the two time periods of choices are the colonial period of America and the early twenty first century. This case study is in reference to a male name Jim, who has a habit of looking for trouble and the concept is what if he had committed the crime of smashing and entering into a home with infuriating conditions of assault someone during both periods of time.

This paper will cover the history of the Justice system of the Juvenile courts and punishment, as well as, some theories that would relate to Jim being involved in both the colonial period and the twenty first century and the treatment options of those two time periods. Also, how is the psychological and sociological theory explicated in reference to Jim's behavior? Lastly, how would Jim treatment be under the psychological and sociological theory?

Both periods of time would have a jail and a trial and punishment, but the only difference is that the colonial time period would not hold a person in jail a prison like now days. People in the colonial period did not have much freedom compare to now. If Jim were to break a crime around the colonial period, whether of theft or of murder or assault, he would be sent to jail immensely and would await trial sitting in a cold and probably fifty jail cell. The trial would be held in a court before a group of strangers.

That is if Jim were caught committing a crime, or if someone would turn him in for one. The punishments around the colonial times around 1764 were harsher than sitting in a detention center or a Jail or prison. Wooden structures called the stocks and the pillory would be placed on criminals for display for everyone to see. The stock would hold the criminal's feet and the pillory would hold the persons hands and head. What is worse is once a criminal is put on the pillory, and the authorities would nail the person's ears to the frame. A criminal would also receive whipping and water ducking, were this was a common punishments.

Children who committed a crime or who were bi-racial were force into apprenticeship until the age of thirty one. If authorities deemed a crime not severe, than a criminal would pay a fine instead of receiving a whipping, and if the criminal could not pay than they would have to stay in jail until they were able to pay the fine in full. There were no such things as a juvenile being placed into a detention center, or sent to a prison as an adult. Children where punish like the adults and there were no special privileges for the children neither.

In the Colonial times people had no freedom to speak whatever they wanted, for example: cursing or arguing with a spouse or even slandering a person would cause a person to go to court and pay a fine. The colonist could not do whatever they so please like today's' world, and the colonist even had religious based rules to follow, and if they broke one they were subjected to one of those punishments that I had just described above. There were suggestions of a prison or a penitentiary in the late 1700's in the state Pennsylvania, where someone would be locked in a room and isolated from others who were found guilty of committing a felony offense. Social norms were regulated and people had to go to church at least once a month and if they did not attend church, then they would have to give good reasonable excuse, and if they did not have a good and reasonable excuse than they would pay a fine or be whipped ten times according to the colonial community of Williamsburg Virginia. In Colonial America there were also mutilations and hangings and burnings, and brandings (Bartollas, 2002p.46).

In today's world, in the twenty first century, we have Independence and freedom, The Declaration of independence, but still have to follow rules. We cannot make a threat to do bodily harm to someone because that could be classified as a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the type of threat made, in the court of law.

A theory would lack mobility and would contribute to the rise of shaming in the colonial period. This was because communities were so close to one another back in the colonial period, and small people depended on one another for survival. People wanted a tough net relationship with each other in the community because of tough times, accompanying persons with a tainted character. Some people were lifelong residences. By the twenty first century things became the opposite of the colonial error ,when it came to a person in the colonial times being publicly shamed, but some courts today still favor some public shame in some states, like a person holding up a sign saying that they are a bad driver.

In the twenty first century, if Jim would have committed the same crime than, Jim would probably be sent off to an adult court, depending on his age, and sent to a trial. This would probably be a felony too and Jim would probably have to serve some time in prison, then probation, or he would stay in a detention center until he is an adult, and sent to an adult prison or then probation, or just put on probation only.

The wide discretion of Juvenile Judges authorizes a Juvenile to be warned and then release and the Juveniles are even placed on probation, or placed in a day treatment or in a residential program, or even placed in the care of the department of corrections, or to the youth authority, or the youth commission (Bartollas, 2002p.333). In the twenty first century people who broke the law would be arrested through the police, than would have to go through the judicial process, and then a adjudicatory hearing- A trial, there is a judicial disposition, and the law violators are either sent to a rehabilitation place in a correctional agency or an aftercare-parole, or would have to make a commitment, in which they would serve an imprisonment term. Juveniles are sent to detention and this is the same as holding them in a Jail. A dispositional hearing is the same as a sentencing hearing. Juvenile court officer are probation officer.

Diversions for both time periods- In my opinion could be applicable during both periods, but in reality, back in the 1700's, diversion were highly unlikely because of the beliefs of punishment. In the twenty first century, diversions are for first time offenders and the offense would have to be nonviolent. It is design to remove non- serious offenders from the justice system. It could have done some good back in the seventeen hundreds if the authorities had thought of it back then.

There are preventative options of a person committing a crime like a Juvenile, compared to back the colonial period, I think there were little methods back in time. In my opinion, the preventative options did not