NCJ Number
217449
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 21-39
Date Published
February 2007
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study assessed whether the characteristics of juvenile offenders and their victims influenced decisions by samples of the lay public about whether a juvenile offender should be transferred to the adult criminal justice system.
Abstract
The study findings support a model in which extralegal and mitigating factors influence decisions about whether to process a juvenile in an adult criminal court or a juvenile court. Younger defendants were more likely than older defendants to be recommended for juvenile court. Juveniles who were abused as children were also more likely to be recommended for juvenile court, even though they might have killed their victims. This suggests that when there are adverse factors clearly present in a juvenile's background that appear directly linked to their criminal behavior, the public is more willing to reduce the priority they give to just-desserts responses (punishment, incapacitation, and deterrence). Also, crimes committed against intimates were generally viewed less harshly than crimes against acquaintances or strangers. There were 775 participants drawn from 3 sources: a random sampling of community members in a Rocky Mountain area (n=441), volunteers recruited through the Internet (n=150), and student volunteers enrolled at a Rocky Mountain university (n=183). The participants read a scenario about a juvenile accused of murder and decided whether the youth should be tried as an adult or a juvenile. The age of the offender (11, 13, or 15 years old), the offender's sex, the offender's childhood abuse history, and the victim type (neighbor or father) varied in the presentation of the scenario. After indicating the preference for the type of court in which the juvenile should be tried under the varying circumstances, participants read statements of factors in case disposition and rated the importance of each in their decision. 5 tables, 2 figures, and 30 references