While proponents of hard time for youth say that declining youth crime rates show that their policy works, the idea that increasingly harsh punishments deter youth from committing crime is weakened by several facts. Cities and states implementing transfer policies have often experienced increases in juvenile crime that were not experienced by cities and states that did not implement transfer policies. In many cases, these policies broaden the number of crimes for which transfer is an option that nonserious and first-time offenders can be and often are prosecuted as adults and issued harsh punishments. Additionally, with so much strain on the adult criminal justice system already, many serious offenders end up serving minimal amounts of time anyway, less than that served by youth prosecuted in juvenile court. Thus, transfer laws, by increasing the demands put on the adult criminal justice system, do not even remove criminals from society.
Many options are available to the juvenile justice system.
But these should be the last options, says Mendel. Early intervention in the lives of youth and the use of new methods of rehabilitation and prevention for youth at high risk for delinquency can address some of the continuing problems of our juvenile justice system and help youths to overcome some of the problems that may cause them to get involved with the juvenile justice system. Continue to the next article. Return to the Parent News for March-April 2001 contents page. Return to the NPIN home page.