The “True” Juvenile Offender: Age Effects and Juvenile Court Sanctioning

Abstract

Age is the only factor used to demarcate the boundary between juvenile and adult justice. However, little research has examined how age guides the juvenile court in determining which youth within the juvenile justice system merit particular dispositions, especially those that reflect the court's emphasis on rehabilitation. Drawing on scholarship on the court's origins, attribution theory, and cognitive heuristics, we hypothesize that the court focuses on youth in the middle of the range of the court's age of jurisdiction-characterized in this article as "true" juveniles-who may be viewed as meriting more specialized intervention. We use data from Florida for court referrals in 2008 (N = 71,388) to examine the decision to proceed formally or informally and, in turn, to examine formally processed youth dispositions (dismissal, diversion, probation, commitment, and transfer) and informally processed youth dispositions (dismissal, diversion, and probation). The analyses provide partial support for the hypothesis. The very young were more likely to be informally processed; however, among the informally processed youth, the youngest, not "true" juveniles, were most likely to be diverted or placed on probation. By contrast, among formally processed youth, "true" juveniles were most likely to receive traditional juvenile court responses, such as diversion or probation.The origins of the juvenile court derive from a conceptualization of juveniles as different than adults. To the court founders, for example, youth were viewed as less culpable than adults and more responsive to rehabilitation (Bernard and Kurlychek, 2010;Feld, 1999). They were considered to be more deserving of society's benign intervention. The guiding philosophy of the juvenile court, captured in the philosophy of parens patriae, emphasized the notion that the juvenile court should act much as a caring parent would, intervening where appropriate with a firm hand (Mears, 2012). Punishment featured prominently in this vision, but accountability and rehabilitation were, if anything, more central (

Family Structures in Pennsylvania and its Effect on Delinquent Acts: A Data Analysis

“…While some research (Dohrn, 2004;Verrecchia, 2009) has shown that females tend to get a harsher sentence than males in juvenile court, other researchers (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992;Hawkins, Catalano & Brewer, 1995) have found being a female to be a protective factor when it comes to problem behavior. Finally, research has demonstrated that younger juveniles tend to be diverted from the system or handled informally than older juveniles (Mears, Cochran, Stults, Greenman, Bhati & Greenwald, 2014). Table 3 contains the descriptive statistics for the control variables.…”

Préjugé dans la détermination des peines accordées aux jeunes doublement insérés dans le système public de protection et de justice

“…Par exemple, se trouver parmi les plus âgés augmentait le risque de recevoir une peine d'emprisonnement. Ce résultat correspond à de récentes études soulignant que les délinquants les plus jeunes (moins de 14 ans) risquent moins de passer par les procédures formelles que leurs pairs plus âgés, et ce, même lorsque l'on tient compte des variables comme le sexe, l'origine ethnique et les antécédents criminels (Mears et al, 2014). Bien que cette conclusion ne soit pas discutée par Steffensmeier et al, qui se sont concentrés sur les délinquants adultes, elle semble cohérente du point de vue de la théorie des préoccupations sociales.…”

Bullying Intervention in Adolescence: The Intersection of Legislation, Policies, and Behavioral Change

“…For many adolescents, age is the only factor keeping them from being tried in adult courts (Mears et al 2014 (Loeber and Farrington 2012;Scott and Steinberg 2008). Even within the juvenile courts, older adolescents are more likely to receive harsher punishments (e.g., time in a residential facility) (Brown and Sorensen 2014;Mears et al 2014).…”

“…For many adolescents, age is the only factor keeping them from being tried in adult courts (Mears et al 2014 (Loeber and Farrington 2012;Scott and Steinberg 2008). Even within the juvenile courts, older adolescents are more likely to receive harsher punishments (e.g., time in a residential facility) (Brown and Sorensen 2014;Mears et al 2014). This is despite a well-known, normative peak in delinquent behavior and risk-taking in middle-to-late adolescence, followed by a decrease as individuals enter adulthood (Moffitt 1993;Steinberg 2009).…”