NCJ Number
100921
Journal
Crime and Justice Volume: 8 Dated: (1985) Pages: 65-92
Date Published
1985
Length
28 pages
Annotation
The effect of transfer from juvenile to criminal court on the severity of final charges and sentences was examined in court data for 214 serious juvenile offenders processed through California juvenile and criminal courts between 1975 and 1978.
Abstract
Five variables were included in the loglinear analysis: initial juvenile court charge, result of fitness hearing (fit or unfit), final charge, time of charge (before or after passage of the 1977 legislation specifying grounds for unfitness), and type of sentence available. Results indicate that more serious initial charges for both fit and unfit cases led to more serious final charges and to severer sentences. Although fitness hearing cases were charged with severer initial charges after 1977, they did not result in more unfit findings. Further, transfer to criminal courts often resulted in the same sentencing outcomes for the unfit cases as those received in juvenile court. The criminal court did not, as a rule, sentence offenders to the severest institutional alternative available to it. 1 footnote and 25 references.