NCJ Number
74793
Date Published
1980
Length
54 pages
Annotation
Data on the 45 juveniles bound over to adult court in Massachusetts in 1979 are provided, and information on several variables of the dispositional stages of the bindover process are examined.
Abstract
Delinquent history and the economic, family, and school histories of the juveniles are surveyed. Because of the study's limits, and causal relationship between any of the variables examined and the delinquent behavior of the juveniles is not to be inferred. A total of 62 percent of total offenses allegedly committed by the bindover population were felonious crimes against persons, and 89 percent of the juveniles had a record of at least one delinquency prior to bindover. A total of 87 percent of the cases also had prior commitments to the Department of Youth Services or had been charged with an offense involving 'the infliction of serious bodily harm.' Only one case in the study did not appear to satisfy the legal requirements for bindover. The average time to disposition for the 37 adjudicated cases was 7 months, and as of July 30, 1980, a third of the cases were still pending disposition in adult court. After adjudication, 45 percent of the cases were sentenced to incarceration in an adult prison, and 16 percent of the cases were judicially treated as juveniles. One-third of the bindovers were supervised by probation officers. The defendant's age and race were found to be related to the type of disposition. Older juveniles were more likely to receive adult sentences. Blacks were overrepresented in the bindover population, and were more likely to be incarcerated than the white defendants. The bindovers tended to be school dropouts, unemployed, poor, and from families broken by divorce or separation of parents. Results indicated that the period of time required for adjudication is much to long. The study instrument is appended and tabular data, suggestions for research, and a bibliography listing nine references are provided.