JUVENILE PATHWAYS INTO THE
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Patrick Griffin
October 2011
OJJDP 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