In Re Gault Case Study

The issue in this case revolves around the civil rights under the Constitution of the United States for a juvenile that is going through proceedings as a delinquent when there is a potential for incarceration. Gerald Gault was a 15-year-old that was accused of making an obscene telephone call to his neighbor, a Mrs. Cook, on June 8, 1964. Subsequently, Mrs. Cook filed a complaint with the police regarding the incident. Eventually that same day, Gerald Gault and Ronald Lewis, a friend, were arrested for the incident and transported to the Children’s Detention Home.

Gerald Gault was a 15 year-old accused of making an lewd telephone call to a neighbor, Mrs. Cook, on June 8, 1964. After Mrs. Cook filed a complaint, Gault and Ronald Lewis, were arrested and taken to the Children’s Detention Home. Gault was on probation at that time, after being in the company of another boy who had stolen a wallet. At the time of the arrest of the phone call incident, Gault’s parents were at work. The arresting officer at no time made any attempted to notify or contact the parents of Gault’s parents to inform them of his arrest.

In 1998, when this mother of reported that his rapist had taken a shower with her son which was 11 at that time. Consequently, the University police had no evidence that a crime were commit at that time, how the campus police did admonish taking shower any other children. Nevertheless, a casework got involved and want to meet with Thomas Harmon the police Chief that close the case. (Crandall, W. Parnell, J. & Spillan, J. (2013. pg.

This case appears to shed light on a situation where many juveniles before Kent could have not been given the right protection of due process under the 5th and 14th amendment in the constitution. In re Gault (1967) Citation: Kent v. United States, 383 U. S. 541, 562 (1966) Procedural History: Gault was taken into custody on a compliant that he had made lewd telephone calls to his neighbor. He was taken into custody while his parents was at work and they was not notified and came home looking for him. Issue: Were the procedures used to commit Gault constitutionally legitimate under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? Should juveniles have the same due process rights as adults?

In Re: Gault The legal significance of the case of Gerald Gault was the process of due processing, and the violations/ discriminations made in the juvenile court system. The plaintiff was Gerald’s neighbor, Mrs. Cook. The defendant was fifteen year old Gerald Gault. On June 8, 1964, Gault and a friend Ronald Lewis made a lewd call to Gault’s neighbor Mrs.Cook. She called and made the complaint of the call and the calls sexual contents.

While children’s personhood is sufficient to qualify them as constitutional rights holders, “children’s rights have, from the outset, looked different from adults’ rights, and the Court has made some effort to account for these differences.” In general, the Court recognizes three justifications for the conclusion that the constitutional rights of children cannot be equated with those of adults: (1) the peculiar vulnerability of children; (2) their inability to make critical decisions in an informed, mature manner; and (3) the importance of the

Roper v. Simmons is considered a landmark case and is one of a handful that shows a new direction in granting some relief from what has been established as harsh “adult” punishments for juveniles (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). In fact, many studies are showing that the differences between adults and juveniles are quite significant (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). The courts are realizing that these differences must be taking into account when dealing with juveniles in the criminal justice system (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). However, that being said, change does not occur overnight, and for the unforeseeable future, juveniles will still continue to be waived into adult courts (Elrod & Ryder, 2014).

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States Supreme Court issued a number of decisions that expanded the rights of children in juvenile court proceedings. The Court began extending due process rights to juveniles in Kent v. United States. The Court no longer accepted the premise that children should not have constitutional rights because of the special nature of the juvenile court. According to the Kent Court, "the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he or she gets neither the protections given to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children" "(Kent v. United States 383 U.S. 541 (1966)", 2015, para 35).

Juvenile justice faces an uncertain future. Despite this fact, it continues to operate under the “parens patriae” philosophy upon which it was built. The system now incorporate elements of due process and adapts to the changing demands placed on it.

Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

The case made an impact on the treatment of juveniles today because juveniles now have four basic constitutional rights when they are to be

The juvenile justice system has made numerous of ethical issues when managing juvenile offenders. The issue with the juvenile justice system is the laws and rules that govern it. It has led to years of controversial debate over the ethical dilemmas of the juvenile corrections system, and how they work with youth offenders. The number of minors entering the juvenile justice system is increasing every month. The reasons why the juvenile justice system faces ethical dilemmas is important and needs to be addressed: (1) a vast proportion of juveniles are being tried and prosecuted as adults; (2) the psychological maturation of the juvenile to fully comprehend the justice system; and (3) the factors that contribute to minorities being adjudicated in the juvenile justice system are more likely than White offenders.

Juvenile Justice Should juveniles get treated as adults that’s one of the biggest controversy in our nation now days, with many juveniles committing crimes that are inconceivable according to their age. Judges have the last word on how to treat this young people. Many people argue that “the teens that are under eighteen are only kids, they won’t count them as young adults, not until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager this people are to call them adults” (Lundstrom 87). This is why people can’t come to a decision as how these young people should be treated like.

Some juvenile rights activists would define a waiver to adult court as unjust or another way of implementing a harsher sentence upon juveniles. In a way, those activists are correct in the fact that it is used to give out harsher sentences. However, what the activists will not say is that there are certain criteria that must be met for a juvenile to be waived to an adult court. Throughout this research paper, the rights of juveniles being waived to adult court will be examined, as well as the penalties they can and cannot face, and a few advantages and disadvantages of the waiver to adult court.

Can you imagine waking up behind closed walls and bars? Waking up to see your inmate who is a 45-year-old bank robber and you are a 14-year-old minor who made a big mistake. This is why minors who have committed crimes should not be treated the same as adults. Some reasons are because the consequences given to minors in adult court would impact a minor’s life in a negative way. If a minor is tried through a juvenile court, they have a greater chance of rehabilitation.