NCJ Number
136784
Journal
Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Dated: (1992) Pages: 39-50
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Court histories of 501 juvenile offenders prosecuted in adult court in New York City were followed as part of an effort to develop a point-scale recommendation system for a large pretrial services agency.
Abstract
The youths had all been arrested during the latter half of 1982 and completed comprehensive interviews that gathered information on residence, school, and employment histories. Data from this interview were related to the main outcome measure, failure to appear for a scheduled court adjournment. Results revealed that the vast majority of the juveniles prosecuted in adult court will return reliably for each court appearance and will not recidivate during the prosecution period. In addition, more than 90 percent of those who stayed in the adult court were convicted, and more than half of this group received prison terms. Results also revealed that the point scale and two variations used criteria that predicted failure to appear more accurately than when other traditional criteria used for adults were applied to this population. Thus, a separate recommendation system for juvenile offenders is both feasible and highly preferable to using the standard adult scale for this population. Notes, 20 references, and attached tables (Author abstract modified)