Competency To Stand Trial and Criminal Responsibility in the Juvenile Court (From Juvenile Homicide, P 143-162, 1989, Elisa P Benedek and Dewey G Cornell, eds. -- See NCJ-123947)

• NCJ Number: 123953
• Author(s): W L Fitch
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 27 pages
• Sale Source: American Psychiatric Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Given the current emphasis on retribution as a primary purpose of the juvenile court in America and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in In re Gault regarding procedural protections for juvenile defendants, issues in competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility are emerging in the juvenile court.

Abstract

Given juveniles' right to participate in their own defense, the doctrine of competency to stand trial or to participate rationally in one's defense must apply to juveniles. For a juvenile hearing to be fair, juveniles must understand the proceedings and be capable of using them to their advantage. Also, given the potentially punitive outcomes of delinquency dispositions in the juvenile court, defendants must be able to use defenses pertinent to the issue of criminal responsibility or mens rea. To suggest that the insanity defense is superfluous because the juvenile who suffers from a mental disorder will receive treatment whether or not he/she is found insane ignores other potentially undesirable effects of a delinquency adjudication. The place of the infancy defense (absence of criminal responsibility because of immaturity) in the juvenile court is debatable, given the extent that capacity is subsumed under the concept of mens rea, i.e., the presence of criminal intent in the behavior at issue. 30 references.