NCJ Number
192951
Date Published
2000
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes the traditionally dominant mode of judicial waiver decisions in juvenile court.
Abstract
The chapter first briefly examines judicial waivers in the context of competing sorting mechanisms. Judicial waiver is important in the process of sorting which criminal charges will be processed in the juvenile system and which in the criminal justice system. A boundary age operates with respect to all criminal offenses to define which cases are to be handled in which system. In addition, legislatures have, increasingly in recent years, created different boundary-type ages for different offenses. As of 1997, 15 legislatures have authorized prosecutors to make the waiver decisions for certain offenses and respondents in certain age categories. By 1997, 23 legislatures provided that some cases that begin as criminal cases can be waived to the juvenile court by a criminal court judge. Nine legislatures have created alternatives to the waiver process in the form of blended systems in which the juvenile court disposition includes elements of juvenile and criminal dispositions. Also, many juvenile systems have a maximum control age that is higher than the boundary age; 21 is the typical maximum control age. The second part of this chapter examines judicial waiver itself to assess its functioning, particularly in the context of recent substantial changes in legal provisions that control its use. Then the author addresses various empirical issues, such as who gets waivered and for what conduct. Finally, the chapter attempts to answer the following question: How, if at all, have the functions served by judicial waiver been affected by the creation or expansion of competing transfer mechanisms? 21 references