Juvenile Justice News
Transfer Laws Promote Higher Recidivism and Show No Deterrence, Says OJJDP
“Juvenile Transfer Laws: An Effective Deterrent to Delinquency?” published in August 2008 by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), is an overview of large-scale comprehensive studies that looked at the effectiveness of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts.
The report concludes that transfer laws fail to deter youth from criminal behavior and instead of reducing recidivism rates may actually create circumstances that lead to juveniles re-offending.
“The practice of transferring juveniles for trial and sentencing in adult criminal court has produced the unintended effect of increasing recidivism, particularly in violent offenders, and thereby of promoting life-course criminality Although the limited extant research falls far short of providing definitive conclusions, the bulk of the empirical evidence suggests that transfer laws, as currently implemented, probably have little general deterrent effect on would-be juvenile offenders.”
To read the research summary click here.
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