Transfer Policy and Law Reform (From The Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice: Transfer of Adolescents to the Criminal Court, P 407-424, 2000, Jeffrey Fagan and Franklin E. Zimring, eds. -- See NCJ-192949)

• NCJ Number: 192961
• Author(s): Franklin E. Zimring; Jeffrey Fagan
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter provides an overview of issues associated with the current debate on policies related to the transfer of juveniles from the jurisdiction of juvenile court to criminal court.

Abstract

The authors first trace the history of unprincipled debate about transfer policy, followed by a discussion of the inevitability of difficult choices regarding the welfare of juveniles who are the subjects of contemporary transfer decision making. The complex outcomes produced by mixed systems of transfer decision making are also addressed, along with the danger of redundant reforms in transfer policy. A discussion of the inherent problem of overly broad categories of exclusion from juvenile court in favor of adult court is included, together with an argument for the necessity of regulatory perspective on transfer systems. One section of the chapter notes the limits of data on human development as a source for determining transfer policy. The chapter concludes with an argument for the necessity of appropriate legal standards in criminal courts for fairness in transfer policy. This section of the chapter advises that criminal courts must consider age and maturity as a factor in dispositions if such dispositions are to be fair and just. Thus, in many respects, the criminal courts must engage in the same dynamics of deliberation regarding young offenders as do the juvenile courts. 7 references