NCJ Number
155687
Journal
Minnesota Law Review Volume: 79 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1995) Pages: 965-1128
Date Published
1995
Length
164 pages
Annotation
This article provides a detailed case study of juvenile and criminal courts' converging responses to serious juvenile offenders in Minnesota, focusing on the process of legislative change.
Abstract
The first section of the article provides a general background for the 1994 juvenile justice law reforms by analyzing changes in youth demographics and crime, and by outlining public and political concerns that prompted the reforms. The second section discusses the process of law reform through which the Minnesota Juvenile Justice Task Force succeeded in implementing its recommendations. The final section focuses on the legislative changes wrought by the 1994 Juvenile Crime Act, which used the modified just deserts presumptive framework of the State sentencing guidelines to structure the most important juvenile court sentencing decisions. The new juvenile code uses age and offense criteria to rationalize and integrate juvenile and criminal court sentencing procedures, creates a graduated continuum of controls from ordinary juvenile delinquency to extended jurisdiction juvenile (EJJ) prosecutions to adult criminal courts, and provides escalating responses to serious juvenile crime. 722 notes