Waiver - When Should Serious Juvenile Offenders Be Transferred to Adult Court? (From Metropolitan Areas and Serious Juvenile Crime, 1982, Tape M-8, See NCJ-91384)

• NCJ Number: 91391
• Author(s): J F Larson; E Miller
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 0 pages
• Sale Source: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Running time: 55 mins.

Annotation

These presentations by juvenile justice officials in New York and Florida examine the backgrounds and purposes of waiver of serious juvenile offenders to adult court in those States, with attention to the consequences of the waiver policies and suggestions for policy change.

Abstract

The current waiver policy in New York, which provides that youth charged with specified felonies be automatically processed in adult criminal courts, was prompted by the Division of Youth's well-known tendency to release serious juvenile offenders into the community after only short periods of treatment (the law specified that the Division of Youth rather than juvenile judges had the ultimate authority to determine the nature and length of treatment for juveniles). The designated felony law was enacted to provide for longer sentences of incapacitation for youth than had been provided under the juvenile justice system. The problem with the current waiver law is that no provision is made for a hearing in juvenile court to determine if the particular circumstances of a case warrant waiver. It would provide for the more precise application of standards for waiver rather than to have a general waiver policy by the nature of the offense. Florida law provides for the direct filing of juvenile cases with adult courts when the juvenile is 16 years-old or older, regardless of prior juvenile record. Younger serious juvenile offenders may be waived only after a juvenile court hearing. The juvenile court will order a waiver on younger juveniles only if it is evident that a number of previous contacts with the juvenile justice system have not changed the youth's behavior. There is evidence that the adult courts are not sufficiently prepared to sentence juvenile offenders. Judges often do not receive or choose not to consider the prior juvenile record as a factor in sentencing, which often leads to inappropriate probation sentences. Further, the adult courts and corrections should develop a battery of options tailored to juvenile offenders that could be used in lieu of the adult sanctions typically applied to a particular offense; the adult sanction could be used if the juvenile fails to respond to the juvenile treatment program.