le most illegal acts committed as juveniles are handled within the juvenile court system, violent acts committed by youths usually place them within the adult criminal judicial system, subjecting the offenders to prison sentences and possibly even execution.
Under Anglo-American law, a crime is an illegal act committed by a person who has criminal intent. A long-standing presumption held that, although a person of almost any age can commit a criminal act, children under 14 years old were unlikely to have criminal intent. Many juvenile courts have now discarded this so-called infancy defense and have found that delinquent acts can be committed by children of any age. Since ancient times enlightened legal systems have distinguished between juvenile delinquents and adult criminals. The immature generally were not considered morally responsible for their behavior and enlightened cultures throughout recorded history have attempted to reform rather than simply punish youth. In the case of high-profile, highly violent acts by minors, such considerations seem to have less and less of an effect as people, horrified by what they see on the evening news seek revenge rather than healing (Brennan, 1999, p. 60).
The public appears much more aware of juvenile crime today than in the past; this is due in part to more thorough reporting techniques and greater emphasis on publicizing delinquent acts in the media. It is also due to the increasingly violent nature of a small percentage of crimes. (There are analogues to this in the arena of adult crimes as well.) Official U.S. crime reports in the 1980s showed that about one-fifth of all persons arrested for crimes are under 18 years of age. In the 1970s, juvenile arrests increased in almost every serious crime category, and female juvenile crime more than doubled. During the most recent five-year period studied, juvenile arrests decreased slightly each year. Unofficial reports, however, suggest that...