Juvenile justice process is rather different in different states of the USA though it concerns the same issue in all the areas of the country. In accordance with the laws of a particular state, there exist laws of the juvenile justice process. One of the states in the USA is Iowa, and it also has its juvenile justice system with a specific process.
The Iowa Code Chapter 216A, Subchapter 9 predetermines that the division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning is provided within the Department of Human Rights. The Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) is a part of the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) that provides such services as program development and data and policy analysis, implements activities to help policymakers, carries out researches and identifies issues that require improvements in order to enhance the effectiveness of Iowa’s justice system.
The effectiveness of CJJP performance is controlled by the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Advisory Council, which monitors whether CJJP carries out its duties and obligations in accordance with the established norms and standards. In Section 428 of the Iowa Administrative Code, one can find the administrative rules that are used by CJJP to govern its projects and grants.
The strategies of the juvenile justice process in Iowa include enhancement strategy, family involvement, technical and training assistance, and continuous quality improvement. The Iowa Department of Human Rights and the Office of State Court Administration received a Community and Strategic Planning grant in order to improve the strategies towards addressing the issues of minors at various points of the decision-making process in Iowa’s criminal behavior system. The goal of this grant is to provide changes and introduce a strategic plan in order to minimize the level of delinquency in Iowa’s court system. Taking into consideration the terms of this grant, SCA has created the Advisory Committee that has to monitor the project and guide the development of the strategic plan. The CASP strategic plan includes such documents as Woodbury County Detention Reform Report, CASP Curriculum, DST Validation, Black Hawk County Detention Reform Report and American Institutes for Research Report.
The juvenile justice system in Iowa has a lot of various terms. In order to understand the process of the system, it is necessary to be acquainted with some of them. First and foremost, it is important to know what a juvenile delinquency case is. It is a criminal case where an individual who bears responsibility for the crime is a minor. However, there is a great difference between a juvenile delinquency case and an adult criminal case. In contrast to adult criminal cases, in juvenile delinquency cases, minors are not criminals; therefore, they are not sentenced to punishment. Instead, minors are represented as adjudicated criminals, which means that a judge takes into consideration all the evidence that exists and finds out that the minor really committed the crime and the accusation is grounded. Nevertheless, even after that, the minor is not sentenced. The judge claims that there is a need to conduct a disposition trial. Among the alternatives that the court may order, one can find trial or residency in the residential cure, foster heed, or a public institution. The main aim of such alternatives is offering particular services that will help to avert potential delinquencies.
One should remember that some disobedience to the law is not held by a juvenile court. For instance, such disobedience as tobacco and traffic felonies, veto and snowmobile commandments, and disobedience to the laws of fishing and haunting are not handled by a juvenile court. The reason is that such violations are considered to be simple misdemeanors. Instead of a juvenile court, a magistrate court copes with such types of law violation cases.
One more important point is that a minor can be further sent to an adult court. However, in order to make such a decision, the juvenile court should conduct a waiver trial to come to a conclusion if there is a need to send the minor to the adult court. Such a decision may be made due to two main conditions. The first one is the involvement of vicious behavior that is against the law in a case. The second condition is the age of a minor; in order to send him or her to an adult court, the minor should be at least at the age of 14. Regarding minors who are sixteen years old and more and committed a violent offense, they are automatically tried not in a juvenile court but in an adult one.
The law of Iowa states that forcible lawbreaking generally stands for a violent offense. Among such forcible lawbreaking, one may find intentional homicide, murder, sexual abuse, and physical attacks that cause serious injuries. In case a minor goes directly to an adult court, he or she may be moved to a juvenile court after a trial. Besides, there are cases when a minor may be taken into detention by law enforcement because of the nature of the criminal act or in case the minor is a fugitive.
Regarding the right to a lawyer, one can state that a minor has it throughout the whole juvenile process. Moreover, the court provides a child with a lawyer in case a child or his/her parents cannot afford one.
One of the steps in juvenile delinquency cases is an intake, which means that an officer of a juvenile court collects all possible records, details, and information that have any relation to the case. This is a selection of the case by a minor court officer. This may be derived from a complaint to the court, a police statement, or due to a minor’s arrest. Obviously, an intake officer has some particular obligations. First and foremost, he or she must interview an individual who informed about the crime, an injured party of the crime, and the witnesses of the assumed felonious act. The next responsibility of an intake officer is checking various types of recordings, including public, court and police ones, holding various conferences with the minor and his or her parents or a parent. Custody or guardianship is also one of the obligations of an intake officer. An intake of