Punishing Teen Criminals Like Criminals

Many believe that it's time to treat juvenile offenders like adults by subjecting them to adult justice. At present, we send only a few juveniles to adult courts. Most of those charged -- even repeat offenders -- land in more lenient juvenile courts. And only 60 percent even get to juvenile courts: the rest are either warned, their parents are notified or they are referred to social service programs.

Felony and misdemeanor citations vanish from a minor's criminal record when he turns 18 in most states. So many apparent first-time offenders in adult courts have already committed many serious crimes.

Those who advocate getting tough on juvenile crime say court records on violent juveniles should be opened so that the data may be used in investigations, trials and sentencing. Open records would also help prosecutors target the worst threats to society.

And trying them as adults would result in longer sentences in state prisons, rather than juvenile detention centers.

• A University of Pennsylvania study determined that only a few violent offenders commit 60 to 75 percent of all violent juvenile offenses.

• Research also suggests that when juvenile courts waive jurisdiction and allow defendants to be tried in adult courts -- usually for serious charges -- the certainty of punishment is increased.

• A 1984 study from Cleveland's Center for Community Planning established that 91 percent of youths tried as adults were convicted.

• A 1987 Justice Department study found that almost 43 percent of youths in state-run juvenile facilities had been arrested more than five times and over 20 percent more than ten times.

As for costs, New York spends more than twice as much ($85,000 a year) to keep a teen offender locked up as it does an adult prisoner.

Crime's cost to society, analysts note, is the same regardless of the criminal's age. why should repeat juvenile offenders receive lighter sentences than adults?

Source: Robert L. Sexton (Pepperdine University), "The Economics of Juvenile Crime," Investor's Business Daily, May 21, 1996.

Treat Juveniles Like Adults

States are holding more young offenders accountable -- by treating them like adult criminals. Nearly half of the states passed laws in 1994 giving adult courts jurisdiction over some crimes committed by juveniles. For example:

• North Carolina lowered the age at which juveniles can be tried as adults to 13, and Oklahoma can prosecute 13-year-olds accused of murder as adults.

• Tennessee removed the age limit for juveniles accused of certain serious and violent offenses.

• Florida even changed its stated priority from "best interests of the child" to "public safety" for juvenile offenders older than 13 who commit serious crimes.

There are several ways juvenile cases are transferred to adult criminal court:

• Most states have had provisions for "judicial waiver," allowing juvenile court judges to waive jurisdiction over a case and transfer it to adult criminal court.

• "Concurrent jurisdiction" gives prosecutors discretion to file certain cases directly into criminal court.

• At least 13 states enacted "statutory exclusion" laws in 1994 -- requiring that certain serious juvenile cases be filed in adult court.

However, trying juveniles as adults may not result in tough sentences.

• Half the juvenile cases sent to adult court are dismissed, according to a 1994 report from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

• In 1986, 89 percent of the waived cases analyzed ended in a conviction, but two-thirds of the defendants received jail sentences of two years or less, according to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission.

• In Florida, nearly 20 percent of the juvenile cases waived were never prosecuted, and although 96 percent of those prosecuted were convicted, more than half of them didn't receive jail or prison sentences.

Even before recent legislation, an estimated 5 percent of the more than two million juvenile arrests in 1990 were filed directly in criminal courts, and as many as 200,000 juvenile cases were processed in adult court.

Source: Donna Hunzeker, "Grown Up Time," State Legislatures, May 1995.

The California Supreme Court will decide as early as next month whether to apply "three strikes and you're out" laws to juveniles. A law it's reviewing mandates 25 years to life for a third felony.

Study after study confirms that repeat offenders commit much, if not most, of predatory violent crimes. And many juvenile offenders are becoming violent at earlier ages.

• Around 1900, the juvenile court system was established to provide special treatment for young people in trouble -- usually for running away from home, truancy and petty theft.

• By the 1950s and '60s, stealing hubcaps, brawls and drinking had replaced the relatively innocent crimes of that earlier era.

• By the 1960s, perhaps well-intended social program had unintended results -- including a dramatic rise in out-of-wedlock births and a new generation, morally illiterate and ripe for crime.

• By 1974, nearly half of all serious crime in America was committed by offenders under 18.

By 1984, juveniles were committing 1,130 acts of murder, and accounting for 592,372 arrests for serious felonies such as rape, robbery, aggravated assault and arson.

Today, while homicides committed by adults have declined 18 percent over the past four years, murders by juveniles are up 22 percent and an even more horrendous juvenile crime situation is predicted over the next decade.

Proponents of applying the "three strikes" law to juveniles and subjecting them to adult justice contend that a felony is a felony and should be used to increase sentencing.

Source: Joseph Sorrentino (Los Angeles criminal prosecutor), "A Felony's a Felony, Whether You're a Kid or Adult," USA Today, June 11, 1996.

Public Opinion On Juvenile Justice

"When a teenager commits a murder and is found guilty by a jury, do you think he should get the death penalty or should he be spared because of his youth?"

Yes, death penalty: 60%

No, spared: 30%

Don't know: 10%

Source: The Gallup Organization, Inc., Sourcebook 1994, p. 184

"In your view, should juveniles who commit violent crimes be treated the same as adults, or should they be given more lenient treatment in a juvenile court?"

Treated the same: 68%

More lenient: 13%

Depends: 16%

Don't Know: 3%

Source: Los Angeles Times poll of U.S. public, 1994

"In most places, there are criminal justice programs that treat juveniles differently than adults who commit the same crimes. These programs emphasize protecting and rehabilitating juveniles rather than punishing them. How successful would you say these programs have been at controlling juvenile crime?"

Not successful at all: 23%

Not very successful: 49%

Moderately successful: 24%

Very successful: 1%

"First, do you think that juveniles convicted of their first crime should be given the same punishment as adults convicted of their first crime, or should juveniles be treated less harshly?"

Treated the same: 50%

Treated less harshly: 40%

Depends on the circumstances: 9%

"Do you think that juveniles convicted of their second or third crimes should be given the same punishment as adults convicted of their second or third crimes--or should juveniles be treated less harshly?"

Treated the same: 83%

Treated less harshly: 12%

Depends on the circumstances: 4%

"In your own view, should the law require fines or prison sentences for the parents of juveniles convicted of major crimes, or not?"

Yes, prison/fines: 24%

Yes, fines only: 24%

No: 48%

No opinion: 4%

Source: The Gallup Organization, Inc., reprinted in U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 1994.