Did you know that about two hundred thousand juveniles are charged as adults every year? Over the past decades there have been many debates on whether juveniles should be tried as adults. These new policies came about because of the raise in violent crimes among teenagers in the late 1980‘s and early 90‘s. In response to the rising violent crime among teenagers , legislators decided to adopted new “Get tough” policies for juveniles such as transfer laws that allow teens as young as 14 to be wavier into adult court. One reason these transfer laws were created was to increase public safety because legislators thought that these teenagers were dangerous to society and could not be rehabilitated through the juvenile justice system. The second reason transfer laws were created was to deter other teenagers from committing serious crimes and to deter the offender from committing crime in the future.
The third reason these transfer laws were created was to maintain justice by holding juveniles responsible for their serious crimes. This practice happens all over the United States and more so in states that have adopted more of these different types of waivers. In court there are three different main waivers that can allow juveniles to be charge as adults. The first is the legislator wavier which occurs when ajuveniles commits a crime that the state statute has defined as a specific offense that automatically indicates ajuvenile being charged as adult and it is mostly for serious crimes. This second is prosecutorial wavier where the prosecutor can choose to convince the judge why he or she believes a certain juvenile should be charged as adults. And even thought crime for teenagers have been on the decrease for a while these policies are still in an effect.
Transfer laws have been around for a number of years but now it has become a problem since it is easier to anIer juveniles over to adult court. For example things that had to be taking into consideration and looked over before transferring juveniles have been removed from the process. So when juveniles are charged as adults they no longer serve their time in juvenile’s detention centers but in adult intuitions. Most people who agree with transfer laws believe that youth who commit these serious adult crimes should do adult time as well. Also they believe that the juvenile justice system is too soft and in this way justice is really served. Others who disagree with these policies recognize that transfer laws are not effective as legislators hoped. They believe that it is unfair to juveniles and that they are ineffective in ways such as they do not deter crime or increase public safety.
The problem with these transfer laws is that juveniles that don‘t commit serious crimes and that can be rehabilitated are wavier to adult court. when in fact they are better off in family court In other words transfer laws forjuveniles are not working as intended and are not meeting their purpose. Another reason that transfer laws were put into effect was because they were thought to have a deterring effect on crime. Many people would assume that by transferring juveniles to adult court would create a deterring effect, which would make juveniles less likely to offend or reoffend. Studies have shown that these laws have little to no deterring effect in the short term. For example in Idaho, after the automatic transfer statue came into effect they found that arrest rates for violent crimes in juveniles increase by 13% (redding).
This shows that the automatic transfer didn’t have a general deterrent effect or Idaho would have seen decrease in violent crime. Also these transfer laws have no effect because teens done always think about consequences and are not always rational thinker, This is not because there are irresponsible teenagers but it is just the way they are wired in a sense. For example in a study done by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation established that “onerthird of children aged eleven through thirteen and onerfifth of those aged fourteen or fifteen understood legal matters the same way that mentally Ill adults who have been found incompetent to stand trial do.” This goes to show that these juveniles really don‘t understand how the system operates.
This thoughtless behavior causes teenagers to commit crimes Without thinking about the consequences of their actions. The fact that these laws have no deterred effect is something that has been known since they were first put into place. Also according to Fagan. a professor of Law and director of the Center for Crime, a study done by Simon Singer and David McDowalI in New York State after they passed the .10 laws in 1978 showed no deterring effect on crime even though its Wide publicity. These laws no matter how widespread continues to have no significant effect on crime. All things considered these transfer laws are have little to no effect and are not meeting their purpose as legislators believe. Secondly transfer laws were created to increase public safety by keeping the most dangerous criminals in adult facilities. Legislators believe that if they lock up juveniles that the public would be safer with them off the streets.
But instead the transfer laws do not increase public safety. For one thing when juveniles are put in facilities or prisons With adults they in a sense learn to be criminals. Since juveniles are still at a vulnerable age they are more of a target in adult prison which are more violent and have harsher punishments. This causes the juveniles to have to adopted and learn new behaviors to surVive. Subsequently juveniles come out of these facilities not rehabilitated and are worse off due to their new behaviors and victimization. As an illustration who would you want walking next to you on the street a newly released rehabilitated juvenile or a non-rehabilitated juvenile from prison? Furthermore David Myer, who has a Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice. has mentioned that in modern research transferred juveniles compared to relatable juvenile in detention center had higher recidivism rates.
This shows that these transferred youth are reoffending and at a high rate than non- transferred youth. Similarly Lisa Flesh, assistant district attorney at the Nassau County District Attorney‘s office, research has shown the same results of transferred juveniles reoffending with their newly learned criminal skills from adult facilities. in short by charging teenagers as adults and putting them in adult facilitates, is not increasing public safety but actually making it worse. Transfer laws are created because legislators thought it would be justice and that these juveniles should be treated as adults for their serious crimes. On the contrary treating juveniles as adult is notjustice and is not fair for the juveniles Laurence Steinberg, the director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and has written broadly on many pieces of adolescent development, explains it best when he suggest that “Youths will now be treated like adults for serious crimes.
But if children are to be treated as adults, they must also have all the protections the law extends to adults.” One important process in court when adults are tried is to make sure they are competent to stand trial. This means that juveniles should have good counsel to see if they understand the charges against them but to have trained counsel in different stages of the court process is only required in about 10 states. This is not fair for the juveniles to be treated as adults but not given the same rights that protect them in court. Another reason it is unjust is because these policies treat/ assume these juveniles like hard core and dangerous criminals while ignoring the fact violent youth age out of crime, At the age of 16 is when most teenagers show violence toward others but as they get older they develop more selfrcontrol.
For instance 66% to 75% of violent teenagers, age out of violent crime. Also when it all boils down it is unjust forjuveniles because they have more to lose then adults do. For example most of them being charged with a felony as an adult will lose some rights such as their right to vote. ldon‘t believe it is justice for them to lose these rights, off of a one-time offense, that they wrll most likely age out of. And PeterAsh, a forensic child psychiatrist, explains that “If adolescent crime is a time-limited event for most youth, then it makes little sense to intervene with youthful offenders as though they are hardened criminals.” This shows that it is just for youth to be in the juvenile justice system and not in adult court. Moreover people who agree.
With transfer laws argue that the laws are justice because It holds juveniles accountable for their action/ crime but new brain development research show that adolescents brain don’t fully develop until age 25. This means that adolescents act impulsively while only thinking about the short term payoffs. For this very reason is why there has been a separate of adolescents from adults and that is why they belong in juvenile justice system so they are still held accountable while keeping their brain development process in mind. When all these thing taking into consideration it would be unjust to charge juveniles as adults and treat them as adults.
