BCJ Juvenile Justice System 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'waiver' or 'transfer' in the juvenile justice system?
- Releasing a juvenile without charges
- Moving a juvenile case to adult criminal court (Correct answer)
- Placing a juvenile in foster care
- Expunging a juvenile record
Correct answer: Moving a juvenile case to adult criminal court
Waiver or transfer refers to the process of moving a juvenile case from juvenile court to adult criminal court for prosecution.
Question 2: What is the juvenile equivalent of a criminal conviction called?
- Conviction
- Adjudication of delinquency (Correct answer)
- Indictment
- Finding of guilt
Correct answer: Adjudication of delinquency
In juvenile court, a finding that the juvenile committed the alleged offense is called an adjudication of delinquency rather than a conviction.
Question 3: Which factor is the strongest predictor of juvenile delinquency?
- Access to firearms
- Peer association with delinquent youth (Correct answer)
- Low intelligence
- Geographic region
Correct answer: Peer association with delinquent youth
Research consistently identifies association with delinquent peers as one of the strongest predictors of juvenile delinquency and gang involvement.
Question 4: What does the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) require?
- Mandatory adult prosecution for violent juveniles
- Deinstitutionalization of status offenders and sight/sound separation (Correct answer)
- Mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles
- Abolition of the juvenile death penalty
Correct answer: Deinstitutionalization of status offenders and sight/sound separation
The JJDPA requires that status offenders not be detained in secure facilities and that juveniles be separated from adult inmates by sight and sound.
Question 5: What is 'blended sentencing' in the juvenile justice context?
- Combining probation and community service
- A sentence that can include both juvenile and adult sanctions (Correct answer)
- A sentence served partly at home
- A deferred prosecution agreement
Correct answer: A sentence that can include both juvenile and adult sanctions
Blended sentencing allows judges to impose a combination of juvenile and adult sanctions, often used for serious juvenile offenders.
Question 6: Which risk/needs assessment principle holds that higher-risk offenders should receive more intensive services?
- Need principle
- Responsivity principle
- Risk principle (Correct answer)
- Criminogenic principle
Correct answer: Risk principle
The risk principle states that the intensity of supervision and intervention should be matched to the offender's level of risk to reoffend.
BCJ Juvenile Justice System 2
What is 'waiver' or 'transfer' in the juvenile justice system?