NCJ Number
94489
Date Published
1983
Length
184 pages
Annotation
Three witnesses testified on laws prohibiting access to juvenile records, arguing that juvenile records should be available for young adult offenders so they are not treated as first offenders when they enter the adult system.
Abstract
The administrator of the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention believed the increase of serious juvenile crime over the past two decades had increased public awareness of the juvenile records issue. He noted that present laws often result in multiple juvenile offenders aged 17-19 entering the audlt court as first offenders with the court relying on police and court social records which may be inaccurate. Access problems are complicated further by variations among States regarding the ages at which juvenile jurisdiction ends. The witness suggested amending provisions of the Federal Youth Corrections Act and commented on mixing juveniles with adult offenders. A district attorney from North Carolina talked about youthful crime as a predictor of later criminality and how North Carolina's efforts to apprehend career criminals have suffered because of lack of access to juvenile records. Finally, the chief of research of the Maryland Criminal Justice Coordinating Council reviewed Maryland's experiences with repeat offenders and efforts to make juvenile delinquency records available for the processing of juvenile and young adult offenders. Witnesses' prepared statements and a Bureau of Justice Statistics book, 'Privacy in Juvenile Justice Records,' are included.