NCJ Number
161379
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1996) Pages: 99-113
Date Published
1996
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Because the dispositional stage is the most critical decisionmaking level delinquent youth encounter in juvenile court and previous research has produced inconsistent results about what affects sentencing decisions of juvenile court officials, interviews were conducted with judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and probation officers to evaluate their perspectives on juvenile court dispositions.
Abstract
Data were collected through open-ended interviews with 100 officials in three juvenile courts located in urban, suburban, and rural areas. The research did not examine actual factors that influenced disposition decisions; rather, the focus was on decisionmaking perspectives of juvenile court officials regarding these factors. Findings demonstrated that the following factors perceived to affect dispositions varied among juvenile courts: family, current offense, school record, previous dispositions, juvenile's character, and treatment needs. The author concludes that research may never be able to precisely determine the impact of factors believed to affect delinquent dispositions in juvenile courts. 7 references, 7 notes, and 5 tables