Three Methods Used To Transfer A Juvenile To Adult Court

In the United States, though different states have different transfer laws regarding ways a juvenile could be transferred to criminal court, most states used one of these transfer laws; once adult/always adult laws, reverse waiver laws and blended sentencing laws. Under once adult/always adult laws, a juvenile who have been tried as adults will be prosecuted in criminal court for any subsequent offenses. Reverse waiver laws, on the other hand, makes it possible for juvenile who is being prosecuted as an adult in criminal court to appeal their case to be transferred to juvenile court. A compromise between those who wanted rehabilitation and those who wanted punishment for the juvenile offender, blended sentencing laws appear to be the law that could determine the appropriate Court of Jurisdiction for juveniles.

Approximately two million adolescents a year are arrested and out of that two million, 60,000 of them are incarcerated according to the American Journal of Public Health. The 60,000 incarcerated adolescents each year are being tried as adults in court because of the serious crimes they have committed. The crimes they have committed are anything from armed robbery to murder. Some juveniles might be first time offenders and others might be repeat offenders. Crimes have always been a major issue in the United States and can cause controversy in the criminal justice system. Charging a minor as an adult in criminal court varies from state to state based on each state’s jurisdiction. Some states consider anyone up to the age of 18 still a juvenile and would not be charged as an adult in criminal court, but other states may charge a juvenile as an adult at the age of 16 or 17. Jordan (2014) states, “Although states already had methods for transferring youth to the adult system, as a result of the growing fear of juvenile violence, most states implemented new laws to increase the number of youth entering the adult criminal system’ (Bernard & Kurlychek, 2010; Torbet et al., 1996)” (p. 315). While it sounds beneficial to incarcerate more adolescents in the adult criminal justice system to avoid juveniles from committing crimes in the future, that is not always the case. Incarcerating these juveniles can be life changing in a negative

Kenzie Houk had everything going for her. She was twenty-six, engaged to the love of her life, and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. In the late winter of 2009, her four-year-old daughter waddled in her bedroom, hoping to surprise her mommy with a good morning smile. Instead, she found her mother with a bullet through her head. Eleven-year-old Jordan Brown, the soon-to-be stepson of Kenzie Houk, was arrested and charged with homicide, pulling the trigger before he went to school. There were two counts of homicide, one for Kenzie Houk and the other for her baby. Brown was tried in juvenile court and sentenced to a residential treatment facility until the age of twenty-one. To Kenzie Houk’s family, Brown’s sentence would never live up to that her four-year-old and seven-year old daughters would have to serve. “The day Kenzie was murdered, the whole family was served with a life sentence,” said Debbie Houk, the victim’s mother. “[Her daughters] are serving life right now. They are never going to see their mom” (Chen). Serious juvenile crimes, similar to this, cannot be properly justified in the juvenile justice system. Juveniles should be tried in the adult criminal court system for serious crimes because of the lack of severity in the juvenile court system, increased youth crime and recidivism rates, and the mental maturity of juvenile offenders.

There are times where a juvenile may be eligible for transfer to adult criminal court. There are certain criteria that must be met for this to happen, and there is a strong belief that juveniles who commit serious offenses would be more appropriately dealt with by criminal (or adult) courts (Elrod & Ryder, 2011). Juveniles are capable of committing the same serious offenses that adults do. Therefore, with the requirements of a transfer being met, there are times that juveniles should be placed in the adult criminal court system and tried through here, rather than the juvenile court system. The juvenile court system may not have the same consequences or sentencing guidelines as the adult criminal court; therefore, the proper punishment may

The dilemma of whether or not to transfer juveniles to adult court has been a major topic, for many years, in the United States. Since 1899, judges have had the option to transfer juveniles to adult court. The major factor for transferring juveniles to adult court since then has been the seriousness of the offense. That being said, juveniles only make up a small portion of violent crimes in the United States. Only 16 percent of juvenile offenders in 2008 were arrested for violent crimes (Champion,2008). The problem is the determination of whether the crime is serious enough to be waived and transferred to adult court. Almost every state has statutory judicial waiver provisions, which grant juvenile judges the authority to transfer

Should a teenager that murdered his entire family go to prison? How about a kid who rapes his sister and her best friend? Criminal defendants under the age of 18 are sent to juvenile court. In this court, you will not be tried in front of a jury. Instead, the judge will look at the evidence presented and decide on whether or not you have commited the crime.

It is not uncommon for some juveniles to be housed in adult detention centers, however, do you believe juveniles should be housed with adults in prisons and jails? No, I absolutely do not believe that juveniles should be housed with adults in prison and jails. Consequently, I feel that this type of injunction can cause many risk factors including academic diminution, and cause mental risk factors as well. Nevertheless, housing juveniles with adults can cause not only mental risk factors but physical and sexual assault risk factors also. According to the read section in unit four” the crowding, violence, and exploitative relationships found in adult prisons make this disposition extremely questionable, furthermore, although some states have

If we do not try juveniles in adult court for serious crimes, what is the alternative? We need to have a building just for juveniles tried as adults. If juveniles who commit serious crimes do not get tried in adult court they won't completely understand the consequences of their actions. Juveniles should be punished like adults are for serious crimes.

According to Fagan (2008) judicial waiver is primary process in the juvenile court in which the judge has the authority to waive juvenile court jurisdiction and transfer the offender’s case to adult (criminal) court. According to Griffin, et al., (2011) the waiver laws allow the juvenile to be prosecuted in criminal court. In these cases a formal hearing is conducted while the case is still in the juvenile court. During this hearing based off of the evidence and the charges a judge can approve the waiver for transfer to adult court. Fagan (2008) stated that judicial waiver is a common transfer law that is used by forty-seven states in American. In my opinion this system works similarly to how the juvenile system was designed. The judicial waiver process begins in the juvenile justice system which operates in an informal manner to decide if the juvenile offenders will be waived into the adult criminal justice system. According Fagan (2008) following Kent v. United States all waiver statutes that were designated must be met prior to the judge consideration of a waiver to adult court. Conditions that must be met prior to wavier consideration of the judge are generally a minimum age requirement, a specific type offense, and a prior record of delinquency.

There are a lot of people out there who commit crimes, people of different race and age. I agree that at whatever age that the crime is committed that the punishment should be the same for every criminal. Everyone has different opinions on whether juveniles or teens should be sent to adult prison and my opinion is that they should be sent to adult prison. I have my reasons for saying this. When adults commit a crime they know what they are doing, they know what they are getting themselves into, and they know what possible punishment they could get.

Some jurisdictions require the child to be over a certain age and charged with a felony, while others permit waiver if the child is over a certain age regardless of offense. Still yet, others have no conditions. Juveniles can be tried in all stated in one of three ways: 1. Concurrent Jurisdiction: the prosecutor has the discretion of filing charge offenses in either juvenile or criminal court. 2. Excluded offenses: the legislature excludes from juvenile court jurisdiction certain offenses that are either very minor, such as traffic or fishing violations, or very serious, such as murder or rape. 3. Judicial waiver: the juvenile court waives its jurisdiction and transfers the case to criminal court. Barry Feld, Juvenile Law Scholar, suggests that waivers to adult court be mandatory for serious crimes. Those espousing the crime control model believe that the overriding purpose is protection of the public, deterrence or violent juvenile behavior, and the incarceration of serious youthful offenders in the adult criminal justice system. The rehabilitative justice model view this as an attack on the juvenile justice system, but crime control advocates consider such steps a necessary response to a rising juvenile violence rate. Life in Adult Prison The Southwest Multi County Corrections Center, a two-story adult jail is the largest maximum-security program for juveniles under federal authority. The BOP pays

Kids should be subjected to the measures of punishment that our judicial system is giving to them. Kids who show lots of enmity should be tried as adults. It is the only way to protect the innocent children. These kids know right from wrong, but they choose to do the wrong things and violence is wrong. As the laws have gotten stricter on discipline the kids have gotten wilder. When we let society tell us how to discipline our children then violent children is the result.

Judicial waiver, direct files, and statutory exclusion are the three mechanisms used to transfer juvenile offenders to adult criminal court. Although direct files and statutory exclusion are used from time to time, it is judicial waiver that is used in most juvenile transfer cases. Judicial waiver is the most common mechanism used and it gives juvenile court judges the authority to table certain juvenile cases to the adult criminal court. In the last few decades, 48 states, including District of Columbia, have gained the authority to waive juveniles to criminal court. 37 states have the authority to use statutory exclusion which orders juvenile prosecutions in adult courts. The last mechanism is direct files and 10 states approve of it as a mean to transfer juveniles to criminal courts by warranting the prosecution the power to charge the juvenile as an adult. These three mechanisms differ due to the level of discretion that each provides to the courts and actors of the courts. One gives the discretion to the judge while other two leave it either up to the judge or the court itself to determine whether or not the juvenile should be transferred. All 50 states, including District of Columbia, allows at least one out of the three mechanisms to transfer juveniles to criminal courts. The intended goal for trying a juvenile in adult criminal court is to intensify the punishment and deter the juvenile from relapsing into their criminal behavior. According to Steiner, in his article

As more minors are committing violent crimes, the question of whether they should be tried as adults has arisen. Children as young as 13 or 14 are committing violent crimes such as murder, rape, and armed robbery. Some of these children are being tried as adults while others are being tried as juveniles and receiving milder punishments. A juvenile offender may receive a few years in a juvenile detention facility and possibly probation following his release at age eighteen. An adult committing the same violent crime will receive a much harsher penalty, often years in jail, possibly a life sentence, with little or no chance of parole. The only difference between the two offenders is the age at which they committed the crime. Juveniles over

One of the most extreme responses to serious juvenile offenses involves the transfer of juveniles to adult court. Transfer laws and statutes vary significantly from state to state, particularly in terms of flexibility and extent of coverage. There are three methods in which juvenile cases can be transferred to adult court: judicial waiver, concurrent jurisdiction, and statutory exclusion.