Court Opinion

ID: 9744233
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:57:39.963351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:47.789713
License: Public Domain

*347Dissenting Opinion
Arterburn, J.
I dissent for the reason that I differ with the basic philosophy and trend of the opinions of this Court and the United States Supreme Court in juvenile proceedings. The purpose of juvenile legislation is to get away from prosecuting a child as a criminal in a criminal proceeding. The proceedings were to give the judge and the court more of a parental relationship with the child for the purpose of reformation and discipline. We have stated that the proceedings were not criminal but civil in nature.
Now, however, we find the courts step by step converting these proceedings into nothing more than a criminal trial. Under the guise of saying that a child has all the constitutional rights of an adult, the courts have held that they have a right to a jury trial, to an attorney, and now they must be informed that they need not answer any questions when interrogated under the Miranda rule. Such proceedings, of course, have no relationship to parental supervision which is too important to an immature child. It does, however, encourage in that child arrogance and disrespect for authority when he knows that he will be defended in any escapades by taxpayers’ money and a lawyer. The soundness of any principle is to test how well it works under all circumstances. If the basic reason for the present trend is that the child is entitled to all the constitutional rights of an adult, then certainly, when his parents determine to punish him he is entitled to have the Miranda rule stated to him and entitled to have an attorney at taxpayers’ expense. The absurdity of the announced principle is evident at once, since the court in a juvenile proceeding (which is not supposed to be criminal) stands in the same position as a parent.
This trend of the courts will defeat itself, since it will eventually eliminate juvenile proceedings, and trial courts, since they have to conform to all the principles of a criminal *348trial, will immediately transfer every juvenile case to the criminal side of the court and try the child as a criminal, thus giving him all the “safeguards” of the Constitution.
NOTE. — Reported in 253 N. E. 2d 233.