What is meant by the term status offense? Summarize the history of status offenses. What are your views on status offenses? Do you believe status offenses should be abolished or do you view these offenses as a gateway to delinquency? Support your position

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• A child also becomes subject to state authority for committing status offenses— actions that would not be considered illegal if perpetrated by an adult; such conduct is illegal only because the child is underage.
o For example, more than 40 states now have some form of law prohibiting minors from purchasing, using, or possessing tobacco products.
• These statutes impose a variety of sanctions, including a monetary fine, suspension from school, and denial of a driver's license.
• According to data compiled by the FBI, about 250,000 juveniles are arrested each year for status-type offenses such as disorderly conduct, breaking curfew, and violating liquor laws.
• A historical basis exists for status offense statutes—it was common practice early in the nation's history to place disobedient or runaway youths in orphan asylums, residential homes, or houses of refuge.
• State control over a child's noncriminal behavior is believed to support and extend the parens patriae philosophy because it is assumed to be in the best interests of the child.
• Typically, status offenders are petitioned to the juvenile court when it is determined that their parents are unable or unwilling to care for or control them and that the offender's behavior is self-destructive or harmful to society.
• Young teenage girls are much more likely to engage in precocious sex while under the influence of alcohol if they are involved with older teens.
• Parents may petition their underage daughter to juvenile court if they feel her sexual behavior is getting out of control and they are powerless to stop its occurrence.
• At first, juvenile codes referred to status offenders as wayward minors, sometimes failing to distinguish them in any significant way from juvenile delinquents.
• Both classes of children could be detained in the same detention centers and placed in the same youth correctional facilities.
• A trend begun in the 1960s has resulted in the creation of separate status offense categories—children, minors, persons, youths, or juveniles in need of supervision (CHINS, MINS, PINS, YINS, or JINS)—which vary from state to state.
• The purpose of creating separate status offender categories was to shield noncriminal youths from the stigma attached to the label "juvenile delinquent" and to signify that they were troubled youths who had special needs and problems.
• Legally, delinquents and status offenders are considered independent concepts, but the distinction between them has become blurred.
• Some noncriminal conduct may be included in the definition of delinquency, and some less serious criminal offenses occasionally may be included within the status offender definition.
• Some states grant the juvenile court judge discretion to substitute a status offense for a delinquency charge. Replacing a juvenile delinquency charge with a status offense charge can be used as a bargaining chip to encourage youths to admit to the charges against them in return for the promise of being treated as a (less stigmatized) status offender receiving less punitive treatment.
• Student answers will vary.