Trying Juveniles in Adult Court

Trying Juveniles in Adult Court

Have you ever heard on the news about a juvenile committing a violent crime, and you felt they received an unjust punishment? Transferring juveniles to adult court for violent crimes has been happening for many years. This process is meant to allow the courts to give out punishments that are fit for the crime committed, not the age of the offender. The laws vary from state to state, at one point, most states agreed that to try a juvenile in adult court they must have a criminal record or have committed an unforgiving crime such as murder. Handing down an adult sentence to a violent juvenile offender, can mean a harsher punishment, a lower rate of reoffending and determent from criminal activity by other juveniles, however some believe it leads to lack of proper rehabilitation for the offender.

First, the most popular reason people seem to want to see juveniles tried as adults is to ensure they get a harsher punishment than the juvenile courts would enforce. "Juvenile waiver became popular as a result of society believing that the juvenile court was not equipped to handle serious youthful offenders" (Jordan, 2006, p. 31). The main point I hear people make, is that the criminals need longer incarceration time than the juvenile courts enforce. "In New York, virtually all children sentenced as juvenile offenders in adult court, with the exception of those convicted of murder, will return to society by the age of 21" (Corriero, 2006, p. 46). A common point made by society in general is, they should receive an adult sentence for an adult crime. Consider any cases you have heard that include a violent crime committed by a juvenile, examples would be armed robbery, battery or armed burglary. Ask yourself, should the child who committed this crime be tried in juvenile court and possibly get probation and counseling as a first offender? Should they be tried as an adult where they are more likely to serve time behind bars, and have time to think about what they did and why they should not do it again? Some may think this is a hard question to analyze, I believe firmly that anyone who can cause bodily harm to another human being or threaten someone at gun point should be treated as an adult in the court system. "At the turn of the 20th century, our juvenile justice process reflected a concept of childhood based on the notion that children are innocent, vulnerable, dependent, and incapable of making mature reasoned decisions" (Corriero, 2006, p. 4). In this situation I have to disagree, whether it is taught by parents or schools every child knows that violence is not accepted by the law. I am sure we all remember what it was like to be an adolescent, and I am sure we can agree that the generalization that all children are incapable of making mature decisions is incorrect. The point that many anti-waiver activists are trying to make known is, that the very reason people want the juvenile offender to be tried as an adult is not the realistic outcome in the end. Do juveniles tried as adults really end up serving longer sentences than if they had been sentenced in juvenile court?

Jordan reports the outcome of a study on pre-dispositional custody of transferred offenders:

There has been only one known empirical study that examined the pre-dispositional custody of transferred offenders. In a comparison study of 138 violent offenders transferred to criminal court and 419 violent offenders retained by Pennsylvania juvenile courts in 1994, it was found that transferred offenders were significantly more likely to be released from pre-dispositional custody than were non-transferred youth (Myers, 2001b; Myers & Kiehl, 2001) (p. 49).

"Because juveniles in an adult court are entitled to bail, they actually may be more likely to be released from pre-dispositional custody, as compared to similar retained offenders" (Jordan, 2006, p. 31). What these statistics fail to include is the details of what the length of their sentence would be in juvenile court. The comparison here seems to be that the juvenile tried as an adult, serves less time than an adult that committed the same crime does. It seems to me many of the studies that I found fail to compare juveniles tried in adult court with juveniles that committed the same crime and were convicted and sentenced in juvenile court. In order to make a fair determination on whether juveniles receive harsher sentences in adult court than if they were tried in juvenile court, a study needs to be done on those particular cases.

Secondly, the public seems to believe that by trying juveniles as adults they will be deterred from committing crimes, especially of the same nature, upon their release. It is also believed, that if other juveniles see the consequences their peers have to endure, that they will be too afraid to commit crimes of the same nature. The thought process of this seems to be rational; however the statistics seem to show otherwise.

According to Corriero:

In 1999 the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services studied juveniles sentenced to the custody of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services