NCJ Number
168466
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 43 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 548-563
Date Published
1997
Length
16 pages
Annotation
A long-term recidivism study was conducted in Florida on matched pairs of juveniles in which one subject in each pair had been transferred to the adult system in 1987 and the other had not.
Abstract
Rearrest information on the pairs from their release from sanctions through November 1994 was used to determine the probabilities of rearrest and the times to rearrest of transfers and nontransfers, adjusting for time at risk. All juvenile cases that were transferred to the criminal court in 1987 (n=3,142) were identified. Individual case histories were constructed from information obtained on prior referrals. For the long-term analyses, matches for 2,700 of the transferred cases were obtained from cases disposed of in the juvenile justice system. The matching of the nontransfer cases with transfer cases was done on each of the following variables: the most serious offense for which the transfer was made, the number of counts in the bill of information, the number of prior referrals to the juvenile system, the most serious prior offense, age, gender, and race. Findings show that transfer diminished the rearrest chances for property felons, an advantage that was offset by an enhanced probability of rearrest among transfers for other offense categories. Survival analysis shows that transfers were rearrested more quickly and more times on average than nontransfers. These findings suggest that the transfer of juveniles to adult jurisdiction may not be a panacea for reducing crime. 4 tables, 5 notes, and 22 references