Nataliedeerr

I am a Drake University student enrolled in Global Youth Studies, majoring in Law, Politics, and Society.

Training for Students complete!

Developing ideas for edits

I am wanting to edit the juvenile court page. It is largely based on the U.S. idea that minors are treated differently when they commit a crime; however, I would like to take a global perspective to explore what it means to be a young person who commits a crime. The question of why society treats minors differently in the aspect of punishment and systematic process is worth considering when looking at how societies treat youths in general.

Project Proposal

The juvenile court page is in need of many revisions. I plan on editing this page to not only give it a more globalized perspective but make it easier to understand and a more comprehensive break up. Currently the page has a bot that indicates the page needs many revisions: verified sources, worldwide perspective, and revisions to meet Wikipedia's standards. With this in mind, I will structure the page to lay out the overview of what juvenile court is in the lead. Currently the lead includes only western-centric, U.S. based ideas. Looking at juvenile laws as a concept that is used globally in many countries will allow a better overview rather than the specific United States ideas that are currently explored in the Lead. The subsections are scope, Scotland, and the United States, which also contains a few different sections. The sections on scope and Scotland are extremely underdeveloped and the article being split in this way lacks coherency. I plan on instead structuring differently and as I get into my research more, I think that there will be natural sections that I can develop.

My overall goal in editing the page is that I want to look at youths who commit crimes. It is an interesting concept that societies treat young people differently for committing the same crime as an adult. Some answers I would like to address are: what age or defining factor makes a person eligible to be deferred to juvenile court, what does it mean to be a youth who commits a crime, and how do different societies handle juveniles in the court system, at what point or what determines whether you are charged as an adult or a minor. In an article on such a broad topic, it needs to address main points and questions that a viewer of the page may need answered in a framework that reduces the systematic bias that is currently present in the article. Additionally, the references that are cited are not the most notable sources, so looking into more sources will also help improve the article.

In my research, I have found a lot about how the United States model for juvenile courts has been implemented in other countries. Through this idea, I believe it will be easier to find a tie to what the first editor added about the United States juvenile court system. The section on the U.S. provides a good overview of what Americans do with juveniles who commit crimes, but I think a nice tie in to the global community will be exploring the idea that other countries have taken that model and adapted it. Additionally, the idea that depending on the culture and the state, there are different ideas of age of majority, so I think that will be an important link to another Wikipedia article. The case study that is currently on the page about Switzerland provides an interesting contrast to the United States system; however, I will need to do further research into how that functions and see if it benefits the article as a whole after I have edited some.

Overall, I am excited to do further research into my topic and be able to provide a cohesive encyclopedic article on juvenile courts in the Wikipedia community.

Sources for Project

Argument for abolishment of Juvenile Courts

Global perspective of juvenile justice

Problem solving and youth courts

American model of Juvenile Courts being used globally

Restorative justice for youths in the global community

Juvenile Justice in a globalized world