Juvenile's Competance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Juveniles Competance - Essay ExampleOverall, the sample size consisted of 927 adolescents in juvenile detention facilities and community of interests settings who were compared to 466 young adults in jails and in the community. There were four sites selected also using the criteria mentioned above.Two evaluation methods, which father their own focus, were apply in the study. To assess criminal defendants abilities to participate in their defense, the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT12CA) was used. The instruments items include Understanding, Reasoning and Appreciation where their answers are scored according to a set of criteria established by the authors of the instrument. Although the instrument has been successfully applied in determining the competency of adults to participate in their trial and is widely used by forensic mental health professionals, this was the first time it was used on youths. Since this is the case, we may very surface spe culate that the tool may produce flawed results.The second method was the MacArthur Judgment Evaluation (MacJEN) used to examine the existence and degree of judgment immaturity especially the potential relation between immaturity and choices that defendants make in the course of adjudication.