Future of Criminal Violence: Juveniles Tried as Adults

• NCJ Number: 182466
• Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: 2000 Pages: 38-46
• Author(s): Patricia Kirkish Ph.D.; Shoba Sreenivasan Ph.D.; Robert Welsh M.A.; Wilfred Van Gorp Ph.D.; Spencer Eth M.D.; Steven Shoptaw Ph.D.; Walter Ling M.D.
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 9 pages
• Grant Number(s): 5 P501 DA-09260
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents an overview of juveniles tried as adults (JTAs).

Abstract

JTAs represent a select and small subsample of juvenile offenders. This study seeks to provide a profile of habitually violent JTAs transferred to the adult penal system and to compare them with their adult counterparts. It compares 29 incarcerated violent male juveniles tried as adults with a sample of 27 incarcerated violent male offenders across demographic, neuropsychological, criminal history, psychopathy, and substance abuse variables. The JTAs had a high rate of gang membership, substance abuse, and use of guns. In the juvenile sample, 65 percent used guns in violence not leading to arrest, and 93 percent used guns in a violent crime leading to arrest. Juvenile offenders were similar to their adult counterparts in patterns of criminality, although adult offenders had higher psychopathy scores. Both groups revealed generally intact neuropsychological functioning, with the exception of a higher rate of perseverative responses in the adult sample. Tables, figure, references