Practice Goals/Theory
When juveniles commit offenses, juvenile justice practitioners (including police officers, district attorneys, court intake officers, and court judges) must decide whether juveniles are formally processed through the justice system, diverted from the system to a program (such as counseling), or are released from the system altogether. Formal system processing for juveniles refers to the practice of processing youths through the traditional juvenile justice system without consideration of alternative sanctions or diversion. Due to the age of the people in question and the sensitivities surrounding their environment and upbringing, the juvenile justice system often relies on rehabilitative sanctions and alternatives to detention when dealing with youth, especially nonviolent people who have been convicted of an offense for the first time. The logic of such sanctions is to provide youth with a second chance and to keep them from further penetrating the juvenile justice system by using any number of diversion programs (such as cognitive behavioral therapy or substance abuse treatment) that aim to prevent further offending behavior. On the other hand, formal system processing aims to manage young people formally through the juvenile justice system, leading them to adjudication and possible detention for their offenses. Of the approximately 1,504,100 delinquency court cases heard in 2009, 55 percent were petitioned and formally handled in the juvenile justice system while 45 percent (680,900 cases) were handled informally through voluntary probation, a different type of sanction (such as a diversion program), or dismissal (Puzzanchera et al. 2012).
The purpose of the juvenile justice system is to ensure public safety while intervening with juveniles. As such, the role of formal system processing can be understood as one which aims to prevent low-level offending from developing into more serious offending by dealing with youths harshly to deter them from a criminal future. From a public safety perspective, formal processing removes the individual from the community to protect the public. Proponents of such measures express the opinion that this teaches young people about responsibility and the consequences of their actions, and prevents them from offending repeatedly by punishing them to the extent of the law. Detractors argue that by further entangling young people and children in the juvenile justice system, they become more likely to be involved in a life of crime because of their increased exposure to other criminal peers, the justice system, and the effects of “labeling” (Petronsino et al. 2010; Schur 1973).
Target Population
The nature of formal system processing (and juvenile diversion programs) requires that this practice only apply to people under the age of 18. This is due to the much more constrained sentencing possibilities for adults. There is also much less discretion in cases of serious offences. Therefore, the choice between using formal system processing or a diversion program mainly applies to juveniles accused of less serious crimes.
