NCJ Number
184855
Date Published
2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This introduction to seven chapters on aspects of adolescents' capacities as trial defendants identifies issues in adjudicative competence and considers why juveniles' capacities are important.
Abstract
Issues in adjudicative competence are the capacities of youths to waive Miranda rights voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently during questioning by police officers, as well as the capacity of youths to participate in the trial process, whether in juvenile or criminal court. The chapters in this section point out that recent reforms that subject youths to more punitive sentences have required the application of the concept of competence to stand trial to juvenile proceedings in many States; and they have increased the frequency with which criminal courts have had to deal with incompetent youths who have been transferred to criminal court for trial. This has raised a host of new issues in association with youths' developmental immaturity, ranging from difficulties in applying legal definitions of competence in juvenile cases to questions about the proper ways to evaluate and describe youths' capacities as trial defendants. In discussing why juveniles' capacities are important in their trial proceedings, three broad topics are relevant: assuring procedural justice, promoting effective representation, and facilitating youths' legal socialization.