The Juvenile, the Court, or the Community: Whose Best Interests Are Currently Being Promoted in Juvenile Court?

Originally, juvenile courts were designed to promote only the best interests of the child. Developments within the last three decades, however, have suggested that there are other interests represented in juvenile court proceedings. In this study, one hundred juvenile court workers (judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, probation officers) from three juvenile courts (urban, suburban, rural) were interviewed to determine the extent to which the child’s interests are promoted in the contemporary juvenile court. The data suggest that a number of other interests currently rival the youth’s for primacy in decisions reached in juvenile court.