NCJ Number
147513
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1994) Pages: 262- 281
Date Published
1994
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Arguing that recent juvenile justice commentators have seriously misrepresented the process of transferring juvenile defendants to criminal court, this paper details the transfer process and identifies the perspectives of various juvenile court workers regarding certification to criminal court to enable policymakers to understand and address this subject.
Abstract
The analysis was based on interviews of 100 juvenile court workers. The interviews focused on who should be certified to criminal court, in which manner, and for what reasons, as well as whether the literature has been correct in describing juvenile court waiver. Participants came from three courts in a northeastern State. Although the participants acknowledged the problems inherent in judicial transfer, they pointed out that the other methods of juvenile court waiver involve even greater difficulties. They warned that limited and pure prosecutorial transfer merely shifted inconsistency and subjectivity from the judge to the prosecutor, while legislative waiver went to the other extreme by not differentiating at all among offenders and the handling they require. Those who attack certification as being unequal seem to be challenging individualization, the essence of juvenile justice. Tables, notes, and 85 references (Author abstract modified)