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CSPV
Fact Sheets
| Judicial Waivers: Youth in Adult Courts |
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- During the 1960s, the President’s Commission
on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice
declared the juvenile justice system ineffective
at rehabilitating youth. The juvenile court system
was also declared a threat to public safety, as
juvenile sanctions included shorter terms of incarceration.
- The increasing data that rehabilitative juvenile
programs were not effective coupled with the perception
of a rising rate of serious juvenile violence in
the 1980s and 1990s prompted a push for using the
waiver process to transfer youthful offenders to
adult criminal court. There has been a decided shift
from rehabilitative to punitive treatment of young
offenders during the last 20 years.
- Juvenile offenders who are considered for transfer
to adult criminal court must be of a certain age,
have committed a serious offense, and have a prior
serious offense record. All states contain legislation
allowing the transfer.
- The use of a weapon in the commission of an offense
has a significant effect on the decision to judicially
refer a juvenile to criminal court.
- A disproportionate percentage of minority youth
are transferred to adult court for serious, violent
offenses. They are also more likely to be convicted
and incarcerated.
- Despite the ability to recommend transfer of youth
at younger ages in many states, the majority of
transfers are for juvenile offenders aged 16 and
older.
- Up until most recently, the majority of juveniles
transferred to adult court were charged with property
crimes. Currently, most waivers are for youth charged
with personal or violent crimes.
- The probability of waiver increases with the severity
of the alleged offense.
- Forty-one states have made it easier to transfer
juveniles to the adult court system. Fifteen states
have statutes defining the categories by which a
prosecutor can directly file for processing in adult
court. Thirty-nine states allow the release of the
names of juvenile offenders, and 22 states allow
open juvenile court trials.
- The death penalty is an option for juveniles of
a certain age. The United States is one of four
countries which currently execute children.
- In a judicial waiver, the state files a motion
for transfer, and the juvenile court judge decides
whether to approve the transfer of the youth. In
1989, approximately 8,300 juvenile cases were judicially
waived to criminal court.
- In a direct file transfer, the prosecutor determines
whether or not to pursue action against a juvenile
offender in juvenile or criminal court. Most prosecutors
feel that the seriousness of the offense is one
of the most important factors in considering a recommendation
for transfer.
- Legislative waiver, or statutory exclusion, automatically
excludes from prosecution in juvenile court certain
offenses. In some states, the court has discretion
to transfer such a case back to juvenile court in
a process known as reverse waiver.
- It is estimated that in 1991, 176,000 juvenile
cases were processed originally in adult court because
state legislation set the age of responsibility
for crime at age 16 or 17.
- Courts with limited jurisdiction over youth according
to age are more likely to waive youth to criminal
court than those with more extended jurisdiction.
The rationale behind this is that youth who are
contained within the juvenile system for a longer
period of time would be more amenable to treatment.
- Youth waived to criminal court are more likely
to be convicted on both the target charge and on
reduced charges than youth processed in juvenile
court.
- The processing of a juvenile who has been transferred
to criminal court from time of transfer to the sentencing
phase takes more than twice as long as the adjudication
process in juvenile court.
- There are fewer treatment opportunities for juveniles
who are incarcerated in the adult facilities than
for those youths who are held in juvenile correctional
facilities.
- Juveniles processed under the adult court system
experience a higher probability of conviction and
incarceration than youths treated under the juvenile
system. Case processing is also longer for transferred
youth, and those who are incarcerated experience
longer periods of confinement.
- Youth waived to adult court for violent criminal
offenses are more likely to receive more severe
sanctions than youth retained in juvenile court.
Of these youth, the majority are incarcerated in
adult facilities. Sentence length for waived violent
offenders is two to four times longer than for retained
youth.
- The legislative waiver process has been found
to have no deterrent effect on the juvenile crime
rate.
- Juveniles waived to criminal court are more likely
to recidivate, with more serious offenses, and with
a shorter survival rate than youth who are prosecuted
through the juvenile court system.
- Youth who are incarcerated in adult prisons following
conviction in criminal courts face high rates of
victimization, particularly violence and sexual
assault, than youths who are sent to juvenile training
facilities.
- With the existence of viable rehabilitative programs
for violent youthful offenders, the waiver process
should be restricted to more specifically defined
categories of offenses and offenders.
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