NCJ Number
206872
Journal
Family Court Review Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 583-596
Date Published
July 2004
Length
14 pages
Annotation
After a review of the history of the juvenile court and the juvenile waiver policy, this paper explains the various types of juvenile waiver, followed by the argument that waiver is not the solution to serious juvenile crime; an alternative proposal is offered.
Abstract
Juvenile waiver involves the transfer of a juvenile charged with a serious crime, usually a violent crime, to the criminal court for processing like an adult offender. The three types of waiver mechanisms are legislative waiver, prosecutorial waiver, and judicial waiver. Legislative waiver involves the enactment of a State law that specifies which offenses, if committed by a juvenile, will automatically be processed in criminal court. Under prosecutorial and judicial waiver systems, the prosecutor and juvenile judge, respectively, have the discretion to transfer a juvenile to criminal court for processing. This paper argues that any waiver of a juvenile to criminal court for any type of crime is never an appropriate response, because juveniles are too young, immature, and incompetent to appreciate the nature of their behavior and its consequences. Further, adult sentencing, particularly incarceration in an adult facility, will only lead to recidivism by the juvenile and probably conditioning to a life of crime. All three types of waiver mechanisms should be abolished, but if this cannot be achieved, only judicial waiver should be allowed, accompanied by strict guidelines that permit the waiver only of those juveniles whom a juvenile judge deems to be unlikely to respond to rehabilitative measures. 142 notes