As the juvenile courts converge procedurally and substantively with the adult criminal courts, does any reason remain to maintain a separate juvenile justice system?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Jurisdictionally and jurisprudentially, decriminalization of status offenders, waiver of serious offenders for adult prosecution, and increased punishment of delinquents, constitutes a criminological triage in the juvenile justice system. Some have argued that this has resulted in discrimination based on race, gender, and socioeconomic class. Discuss the structural components of this triage strategy, and its' impact on social and legal changes in the juvenile justice system. As the juvenile courts converge procedurally and substantively with the adult criminal courts, does any reason remain to maintain a separate juvenile justice system?

Currently, scholarly communities are presenting studies that appear aimed at undermining the current juvenile justice system. The impact of eliminating the juvenile justice system would be, of course, to pragmatically expunge the distinction between young offenders and adult criminals. Leading the charge for the abolition of the juvenile courts system as we know it in the academic community is University of Minnesota Law professor Barry Feld. From his philosophical perspective, as discussed in Bad Kids, Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court, Feld's (1999), postulates that ["....the flaw with the criminal justice system lies in the very idea that the juvenile court can successfully combine criminal social control