History of Juvenile Justice System

History of the Juvenile Justice System

The code of Hammurabi is one of the earliest and best preserved set of laws from ancient Mesopotamia. The code dictates population as falling into three classes:

•Awilum- a patrician, the man family.

•Mushkenum- a beggar may have not been landless.

•Wardum- was simply a slave.

The cod e of Hammurabi was written in 1700BC. It was the law of the king Babylon and qualified as the law even the modern sense because it was presented (Horne, 2007).

Hammurabi was an ancient ruler of Babylon. His penal code promoted the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” way of dealing with criminals. Its purpose was to create law so that if someone was to do something it would be punishment. The Code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet, and clearly intended to be reared in the public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in the city of Persian Mountains, to which later a conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It included reference of runaways, children who disobeyed their parents and sons who cursed their fathers (Horne, 2007). Roman law and canon (church) law some 2000 years ago distinguish between juveniles and adults upon the idea of “age responsibility”. Under the 15th century Roman law, children under age 7 were classified infants and not held responsible. Youth approaching the age of puberty who knew the difference between right and wrong were held accountable. The legal age of puberty (age 14 for boys and 12 for girls) was the age at which youth were assumed to know the difference, and would be held criminally accountable for their actions.

The development of the juvenile justice system has progressively changed throughout history, due primarily because a juvenile is way different than an adult. It’s been around since the late 1800s. But it has been modified over the years. The history of the juvenile justice system in both the 19th and 20th...