NCJ Number
130968
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: (July 1991) Pages: 393-407
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
When juvenile courts waive their jurisdiction by remanding juvenile offenders to adult courts, it is usually because of the seriousness of the crime or the juvenile's past criminal history. While the principal rationale for waiver of jurisdiction is to assure more severe penalties, much of the research actually indicates that, with the exception of violent offenders, most transferred juvenile receive sentences of probation.
Abstract
Demographic, social, and legal data on 49 cases of juveniles transferred in New Mexico in recent years were examined in this context. The findings suggest that these juveniles were different from those reported in other studies in several significant ways. Nearly 70 percent were charged with personal offenses and 64 percent received sentences involving incarceration. Most of the cases of juveniles transferred to adult court had no prior full commitments to the State reform schools, indicating that waiver of jurisdiction occurred before all the resources of the juvenile justice system had been exhausted. These differences may be due to the serious nature of the offenses; the age of the offenders in New Mexico, many of whom were 17 or 18; the unified court system in the State; and length of sentences given in juvenile courts. 3 tables, 6 notes, and 25 references (Author abstract modified)