There has been a long debate over the issue of juvenile waiver in the New Jersey judicial system. While some people advocate for the juvenile waiver, others argue that it does not have any help in the judicial system. This discourse, therefore, looks at some of the pros and cons of juvenile waiver. As far as the advantages are concerned, juvenile waiver helps to deliver justice to victims (Del Russo, n.d.). Envisage a situation where a juvenile has killed someone; if there is no juvenile waiver, the child who has murdered is likely to face a lenient punishment despite having caused a loss of a life of someone. However, if the juvenile waiver is applied, the child will face a full force of the law. Another advantage of juvenile waiver is that it deters criminality tendencies among children. In most cases, children would break laws knowing that they will not get harsh punishments due to their juvenile status. However, when they are subjected to the juvenile waiver, many children offenders will get punishments just like adults. This occurrence will scare many of them from committing crimes. When a juvenile waiver is imposed, the charged child increases chances of justice since a jury tries him as opposed to a single judge, which is common among juvenile courts. Therefore, the chances of justice being served are high.
With regards to the pros, juvenile waiver puts the charged children at risk, especially when they are mixed with adult offenders in the correctional facilities. Besides, the juvenile waiver is an impression of lost hope to a child (Del Russo, n.d.). This is a young person whose future is still not yet shaped. Therefore, condemning him or her to a correctional facility where he or she interacts with hardcore adults dims their bright future. Criminologists argue that such a convinced juvenile offender is likely to acquire more criminal traits by the time they are through with their sentence. Juvenile waiver accords a child fewer choices of punishment. As a juvenile, he or she would be subjected to rehabilitation procedures. On the other hand, being tried as an adult can lead to death or life sentences, which give the child no chance to reform and be a useful member of society. In my opinion, the cons preponderate.
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In the four cases summarized, there are some that I would advise that juvenile waiver is invoked and others, which juvenile waiver should not be applied in New Jersey. For instance, in a case where children tortured a stray cat to death, there is no need to apply juvenile waiver. In any case, the actions of the children against the cat were majorly out of curiosity, which is common among children (Kleimann, 2014). They could not have apprehended the extent to which their action could reach on the life of the cat. However, in cases involving the murder of human beings, the juvenile waiver should be invoked since this crime is so grave, and the victims must achieve justice. The only way to satisfy victims whose close relatives and family members were killed is to subject these young offenders to the adult correctional system.
In the Cat case, there is no reason for a juvenile waiver since the cat is not a human being. Therefore, no one would feel the intense pain as that which people feel when their family members or close relatives get injured or killed through delinquent activities of children. Therefore, the cat case does not warrant invoking the juvenile case in New Jersey. There is no reason to charge these children since most of their actions were majorly informed by curiosity (Kleimann, 2014). These are young children who came across a stray cat, and under normal circumstances, children would engage the cat violently or cordially.
References
Del Russo, J. A. (n.d.). Juvenile Waiver Process in NJ [Power Point]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eClAkKw1wT4
Kleimann, J. (2014, December 4). Paterson children plead guilty to torturing, killing stray cat . Retrieved March 22, 2019, from https://www.nj.com/passaic-county/2014/12/paterson_children_plead_guilty_to_torturing_killing_stray_cat.html
