NCJ Number
224587
Journal
The Future of Children Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2008 Pages: 81-118
Date Published
2008
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This article examines research evidence regarding whether legislative mandates that have increased the rates of youth being tried in adult criminal court have reduced juvenile crime.
Abstract
Research shows that rates of juvenile offending are not lower in States where it is relatively more common to try adolescents as adults. Also, individual juveniles who have been tried as adults are no less likely to reoffend than those who have been processed in the juvenile justice system. Thus, the author concludes that processing juveniles as adult defendants is not an effective means of controlling juvenile crime. The article argues that the expanded use of adult criminal courts to try juvenile defendants undermines the rationale for juvenile court, i.e., that the developmental deficiencies of juveniles makes them less culpable for their offending than adults, such that their dispositions should take into account these deficiencies. Further, transferring adolescent defendants to criminal court exposes them to harsh punishment and interaction with adult criminals that further embeds them in lives of crime. Thus, the accumulating evidence on the results of juveniles’ transfer to adult court, the recent decrease in serious juvenile crime, and expanded research on adolescent development argues for legislators, policymakers, and practitioners to again require that all defendants 18 years old and under be processed in the juvenile justice system. 6 tables, 4 figures, and 110 notes