NCJ Number
187420
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2001 Pages: 206-226
Date Published
April 2001
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article examines support for the practice of sanctioning youths as adults.
Abstract
Despite recent "get tough" trends in juvenile justice, relatively little is known about support for sanctioning youths in adult courts. A study using data from the 1995 National Opinion Survey of Crime and Justice examined several explanatory factors. Marital status and philosophy of punishment were consistently associated with support for adult sanctioning of youths when the offense involved selling illegal drugs, committing property crime, or committing violent crime. Marital status conditioned the effect of philosophy of punishment, an effect itself conditioned by political orientation when the offense involved selling illegal drugs. The article suggests the need for more study of the relationship between philosophy of punishment and other factors. It also cites the need for a better understanding of the relationship between specific marital statuses, transitions into marriage, having children, and political ideology and how these bear on philosophy of punishment, broadly construed, as well as on support for tougher sanctioning of juveniles. Further research is also suggested on the extent to which attitudinal factors are more associated with positive sanctioning than are sociodemographic or social structural factors or the way these factors are linked. Tables, figure, notes, references