Upon recent news of a student arrest on campus, Oak Park students have inquired about the procedures behind juvenile arrests.

Juveniles, though they can be tried as adults, are often handled differently. While an officer may not arrest an adult without proper evidence of a crime committed, they may arrest juveniles on reasonable suspicion that laws have been broken. This begs the question of whether arresting an individual without witnessing illegal activity – regardless of age – is just.

“I personally believe that since teenagers are on the verge of becoming adults, they should be treated as such. Because of this, it does not seem reasonable that a juvenile can be detained on little more than a suspicion while an adult needs valid evidence to be convicted, especially because adults proportionally commit more crimes than juveniles do,” senior Ryan Wiederspahn said.

The juvenile court system operates based on the parens patriae doctrine, which requires states to act in the best interest of children.

“We’re trying to rehabilitate and not really punish kids,” Rose Weiss DeMattia, deputy district attorney for the LA County district attorney’s office, said.

“Most juvenile crimes result in citations and releases to parents. Only really severe crimes, such as murder, rape and robbery result in detainment and incarceration,” Sheriff David C. Diestel said.

Officers have many options when confronting a juvenile for committing a crime. The officer can let the individual off with a warning, refer him or her to a probation officer, or arrest the juvenile, after which he or she is sent to a juvenile detention center, separate from adult criminals.

For minor charges such as truancy, possession of tobacco and loitering, juveniles attend a probation hearing with a parent and commissioner. For more serious charges such as driving under the influence or felony vandalism, juveniles are sent to a juvenile delinquency court, a special type of court with its own procedures and terminology.

“Recently, there has been a huge problem with gangs, which account for a large portion of juvenile arrests,” DeMattia said.

According to the American Bar Association, more than 700,000 youths in the United States belong to street gangs.

These gangs are responsible for serious violent crimes as well as drug-related incidents.

“Alcohol and marijuana are problems that have been around since I was a kid and will continue to be problems after I am gone,” Diestel said.

Diestel also noted that cell phones have become one of the largest concerns for law enforcement.

He explained that kids are consistently caught sexting, threatening each other, bullying or sending pictures of vaguely threatening objects, such as air soft guns, gun replicas and grenades.