Introduction

In the United States, the juvenile justice system addresses delinquent behavior by youth and operates separately from the adult criminal justice system. Each state maintains its own legal code for the jurisdiction and implementation of the juvenile justice system, but most states have similar structures and procedures for addressing delinquent behavior. The juvenile justice system in the United States has a history of rehabilitative rhetoric—established by the “Child Savers” in the late 1800s—that distinguishes the juvenile justice system from the adult criminal justice system (Platt, 1969). The rehabilitative language of the initial state juvenile justice systems offers a starting point for identifying divergences from the rehabilitative ideal at the inception of the juvenile justice system and as it continuously develops, often exhibiting the punitive characteristics of the adult criminal justice system.