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Legislative waivers excluding youths from juvenile court have expanded. Meyers studied data on 557 youths judicially waived in Pennsylvania in 1994. Those sent to adult court were more likely to be released from custody prior to disposition of their cases. Of those released, waived juveniles exhibited greater recidivism during the pre-dispositional time period than did those facing juvenile court. Despite the more severe sanctions of adult court, transferred offenders again displayed greater recidivism during the post-dispositional follow-up period. Finally, qualitative interviews with justice officials corroborated statistical results. The findings suggest a more selective approach to excluding youths from juvenile court.
E-Book Content
Criminal Justice Recent Scholarship
Edited by Marilyn McShane and Frank P. Williams III
A Series from LFB Scholarly
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Excluding Violent Youths from Juvenile Court
The Effectiveness of Legislative Waiver
David L. Myers
LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC New York 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Myers, David L., 1968Excluding violent youths from juvenile court : the effectiveness of legislative waiver / David L. Myers. p. cm. -- (Criminal justice) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-931202-02-8 1. Juvenile justice, Administration of--United States. 2. Prosecution--United States--Decision making. 3. Juvenile recidivists--United States. 4. Violent offenders--United States. I. Title. II. Criminal justice (LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC) KF9812 .M97 2001 345.73'08--dc21 2001000674
ISBN 1-931202-02-8 Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper. Manufactured in the United States of America.
Dedication
To my wife, Nicole, who has supported me in more ways than I can count, and our daughter, Abigail, my new source of inspiration.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables
ix
Acknowledgments Introduction
xi
1
Deficiencies in Transfer Research The Current Research 10
9
Chapter 1: Cracking Down on Youth Violence Origins of Juvenile Justice 12 Criticisms and Reforms 15 The Surge in Youth Violence 18 Methods of Transfer 21 Transfer Use and Rationale 26 Juvenile Transfer in Pennsylvania 29
11
Chapter 2: The Deterrent Effects of Formal Sanctions 33 Origins of Deterrence Theory 34 Deterrence Research 36 The Specific Deterrent Effect of Formal Sanctions 40 Summary 55 Chapter 3: Punishment and Deterrence Through Treating Juvenile Offenders as Adults 57 Punishment Certainty 58 Punishment Severity 62 Punishment Celerity 66 Deterrent Effects 68 Punishment and Deterrence: Is Transfer Effective? 72 The Present Study 74
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viii
Table of Contents
Chapter 4: Research Agenda Hypotheses 77 Data and Methods 83
77
Chapter 5: Quantitative Findings Bivariate Results 109 Multivariate Results 119 Summary 161
109
Chapter 6: Qualitative Findings 167 Overall Effectiveness of Legislative Waiver 167 Legislative Waiver Versus Judicial Waiver: Strengths and Weaknesses 171 Reverse Waiver to Juvenile Court 174 Evidence of Deterrence 176 Alternatives to Treating Violent Youths as Adults 179 Summary 180 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions 183 Evidence of a "Custody Gap" 183 No Evidence of a "Leniency Gap" 184 Little Evidence of Deterrence 186 Policy Implications 190 Recommendations for Future Research 198 References Index
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List of Tables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Descriptive Statistics for All Variables 90 Descriptive Statistics by Trans