Juvenile Miranda Waivers: A Reasonable Alternative to the Totality of the Circumstances Approach

[...]Part VI will suggest a new approach that will better protect juveniles' Miranda rights: Blackstone's Commentaries state that in order to commit a crime, a person must both (1) intend to commit a crime and (2) do an unlawful act.5 According to Blackstone, children under the age of seven were too young to have the intent necessary to commit a crime, while children older than fourteen were treated the same as adults in criminal convictions.6 Blackstone further explained that for children between the ages of seven and fourteen, criminal liability depended on whether the court determined that the child understood the difference between right and wrong.7 Children who possessed such an understanding were deemed to be capable of having the intent necessary to commit a crime and could be sentenced as an adult, even if that sentence included execution.8 The American legal system followed Blackstone's ideas on age and intent until the late nineteenth century, when the legal treatment of children began to change as part of an expanding child-saving movement. In 1891, the Chicago Women's Club recommended to the Illinois legislature that a separate juvenile court system be created to deal with problem children.9 However, it was not until 1899 that the Club, with the sponsorship of the Chicago Bar Association, presented a juvenile court bill to the illinois legislature.10 The Club's efforts were successful, and the illinois juvenile code passed in 1899, mandating the following provisions for the legal processing of problem children: * The state could intervene...