JUVENILE PATHWAYS INTO THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Patrick Griffin

October 2011OJJDP National Conference

Youth under 18 reach the criminal justice system by way of 3 basic types of laws:

• Jurisdictional age laws in some states set the entry level for criminal processing below age 18

• Transfer laws in all states allow or require some juvenile-age offenders to be prosecuted “as adults” in criminal court

• Blended sentencing laws in some states expose some juvenile offenders to the risk of criminal penalties

In 12 states, youth become criminally responsible before reaching 18

Criminal Jurisdiction Boundary

16th birthday (2)17th birthday (10)18th birthday (39)

Transfer laws provide for criminal prosecution of youth who would otherwise

be juveniles

• Judicial waiver laws• Prosecutorial discretion/concurrent

jurisdiction laws• Statutory exclusion laws• “Once an adult/always an adult” laws

46 states have judicial waiver provisions

15 states have prosecutorial discretion provisions

29 states have statutory exclusion provisions

34 states have “Once an adult, always an adult” laws

Blended Sentencing

• Juvenile blended sentencing laws give juvenile courts the power to impose criminal penalties–Usually suspended/conditional–But increases youth exposure to risk of

criminal correctional handling

14 states have juvenile blended sentencing laws

How many under-18 youth are processed in the criminal system?

Pieces of the puzzle:• Criminally processed youth in states with

lower entry ages• Judicially waived youth• Youth charged directly in criminal court

The criminal processing impact of jurisdictional age laws can be roughly estimated

• In 2007, 2.2 million under-18 “adults” resided in 13 states with lower jurisdictional age laws

• Assuming they were referred to criminal court at the same rate their peers in other states were referred to juvenile court…– 247,000/year

The National Juvenile Court Data Archive generates waiver estimates

• Total number: 8,500 in 2007– Less than 1% of delinquency cases

• Offense profile– About half of cases involve person offenses

• Demographics– 16 or older (85%)

• Trends– Waivers down 35% since 1994

But no data support national estimates regarding non-waiver transfers

– No national datasets on transfers by way of statutory exclusion or concurrent jurisdiction

– Judicial waiver of diminishing importance relative to other mechanisms

– Much harder to keep track of non-waiver transfers

Some Things We Don’t Know:

–How many are transferred –Transfer offenses–Age, sex, race, ethnicity, etc.–What happens after transfer

• Convictions• Sentences• Imprisonment

Transfer Data Project

• Identify states with incomplete or missing information

• Based on individual state transfer laws/mechanisms, locate key decision-makers and likely data keepers

• Document available data sources• Product: state-by-state report on currently

available transfer data, with recommended steps for filling in and improving the national data picture

13 states publicly report their total annual transfers

10 states publicly report some but not all transfers

14 states report only to the Juvenile Court Data Archive

14 states do not report transfers at all

Of 29 statutory exclusion states…

Only 2 states report the total number excluded

4 others report a combined total (all criminally prosecuted youth)

Of 15 prosecutorial discretion states…

Only 1 reports the total number of youth prosecuted at DA’s option

3 others report a combined total (all criminally prosecuted youth)

Only a few states report significant details about transfer cases

• Total volume: 13 states• Pathways: 5 states• Demographics 8 states• Offenses: 3 states• Processing outcomes: 1 state

How many transfers can we account for in 2007?

• 32 (out of 46) judicial waiver states reported 6092 waivers to the Data Archive– National estimate: 8,500

• 6 (out of 36) states with non-judicial transfer reported 5096 other transfers

• 1 state provided NCJJ with 2007 information on about 20 transfers