Reproduction of Juvenile Justice in Criminal Court: A Case Study of New York's Juvenile Offender Law (From The Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice: Transfer of Adolescents to the Criminal Court, P 353-375, 2000, Jeffrey Fagan and Franklin E. Zimring, eds. -- See NCJ-192949)

• NCJ Number: 192959
• Author(s): Simon I. Singer; Jeffrey Fagan; Akiva Liberman
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter discusses the systemic lessons of New York State's wholesale shifts of jurisdiction over juveniles to criminal courts, which has involved the transfer of an entire subject matter from family to criminal court, rather than the transfer of selected individual juveniles.

Abstract

In March 1978, Willie Bosket, a 15-year-old juvenile with a lengthy arrest record, robbed and killed a subway passenger. Eight days later he did the same thing to another subway passenger. Because he was only 15 years old, he could not be charged in New York's criminal court. He was technically a delinquent who could be confined at most for a period of 5 years. As a consequence, Bosket triggered a major crisis in New York's system of juvenile justice. New York's 1978 Juvenile Offender Law was enacted in response to Bosket's crimes to ensure that juveniles who committed violent crimes would be automatically transferred to the jurisdiction of criminal courts to ensure appropriate incapacitation in a secure facility. It appeared to New York legislators that Bosket and other violent juveniles were beyond the control of a complex, confused system of juvenile justice. This chapter shows that despite the stated intent of New York's Juvenile Offender law, it did not eliminate the need for a distinctive court system very much like the juvenile court in rationale and procedure. Rather, it reproduced juvenile justice within systems of criminal justice. The first section of this chapter traces the development of the 1978 Juvenile Offender Law in prior legislation, judicial opinions and jurisprudential rationales, and criticisms of the New York juvenile court processes. The second section of the chapter examines the operation of the Juvenile Offender Law following its implementation in 1978. The final section discusses the lessons to be learned from New York's attempt to control violent juvenile crime through nonjudicial offense-based exclusion legislation. One recommendation is to restrict eligibility for automatic waiver to a narrow list of violent offenses. 3 tables, 19 references, and 9 notes